Well, it's good to see that everything is as I left it a month or so ago. Some people want Limewire to deliver jam tomorrow and the brave troops defend the line that the application is doing the best it can in adverse conditions.

I have been looking at the alternatives to Limewire for Mac users and can report that all of them are inferior if what you want is a free search engine that delivers a wide range of product in a reasonably efficient manner. It would not be a contructive use of limited space here to deliver a detailed critique of the opposition clients. Suffice it to say that they may all start with the appearance of delivering the goods but, statistically, they do not measure up.

However, the use of this system is not actually the most efficient system for exchanging material. The world of hubs provides a more effective source for all forms of media. I've been using Neo-Modus DC and it's a painless way of accumulating material in a serendipitous way. The supposed drawbacks are that there is no free search facility available (unless you can get dcgui.qt to work) and the pop-up system is highly disruptive. You need OSX for all the best Mac based hub software.

Should you explore this world? Well, you're going to need a trading quantity of material before you start. All the better hubs require a minimum holding of useful files as a key to entry. And, before you think of cloning files to cheat the system, all the better hubs are all policed and fakers are kicked off. The better the hub, the larger the holding required and the more rigorous the checking. However, once you have gained admission to some sensible hubs, you can begin looking around for what you want. And, once located, you can d/l for as long as the other users stay on-line or return to the hub.

So if you are a broadband user and stay on-line for long periods of time, you can accumulate whatever you want and a lot you didn't know you wanted until you found it. The exercise is mildly addictive for those with a pack-rat disposition like me. However, if you only want specific files and you have limited access to the net, Mac users should stay with Limewire. It is a labour-intensive way of acquiring what you want but, believe the really old man when he tells you that the other free-searching ways ain't worth spit.