I agree that it would be nice to have a gnutella client which consists of a daemon and (a) front-end(s).

But I don't see that it matters architecturally. As long as the client is multithreaded enough that the GUI doesn't slow the network response down, then it is perfectly valid to have a single program.

However, for CONVENIENCE I would LOVE a daemon which would launch with linux, detect when my ppp0 interface is up (dialup) and start sharing files and retrieving downloads I have specified either explicitly (file hash is known) or implicitly (search criteria given eg grep for filename, minimum bitrate, length of song).

It should have controllers built into the frontend that would let me easily turn sharing off etc, for when I really need all my limited bandwidth for something other than filesharing.

This architecture would help some people who have a firewall, in that the frontend could connect from a different server (ie one protected by firewall) than the daemon, which could be running in a DMZ, on the firewall or separate machine.

HTTP HTML sounds like the best controller interface for this to me.