whats the difference between Limewire normal and PRO?

Not much. They both look identical. Even their effectiveness is about the same. But some people will notice the difference for finding the rarer files & also might get faster downlds. Many people think of pro as a donation to the programmers to keep the program in development. Basic can downld from a maximum 8 hosts per downld. Pro is 10. Pro connects to 5 ultrapeers whereas Basic 3. Pro tends to give you turbo-charged connection more-so than basic. People with fast connections will probably notice the difference. But effectiveness also comes down to your abilities to find what you're looking for & finding many sources (hosts) to downld from. People using dial up connection don't need pro since they won't see any difference.

Okay.

I haven't bothered to try, but couldn't you just DL Limewire Pro from Limewire itself for free?

Oh the irony....

I use LW Pro & do notice the difference. I just don't like to push Pro's attributes too much. The odd person responds that they don't notice any difference. But I do, as do a number of other members on the forum. Pro's performance suits me well & is better.

It is disappointing that people should share pro. Just as in the same way it's been reported on places like ebay. Gads the program only costs $18.88 US. How many Big Macs can you buy with that.

Keep in mind that many gnutella programs use LW's development & design. If not for LW, then those others wouldn't be there. LW is open source & doesn't charge money for its design to these other developers. Pro is what supports LW.

But is it really worth that $20 extra just for Faster Download speeds that might not be noticable and the extra 2 hosts??

If LW Basic was not free but cost $5-10 do you think your question would be the same? If you're happy with LW Basic then stick with it. I'm happy with LW pro & did notice a difference. But I can't answer for everyone due to everybody's different set-ups & other issues that might close the gap between Basic & Pro. It performs well for me but it might not make a difference for everybody. I used basic for 3 years before using Pro. I also jumped back to basic on odd occasions on windows & an earlier Mac OS for experimental reasons.

I echo Lord of the Rings' sentiments - basically $18 is not a lot of money and, on top of a noticeable connection improvement and the word Turbo-Charged in reassuringly large letters below your hyperspeed, mint blue connection bar, you also get a warm glow knowing that, despite your natural disinclination to pay for stuff, you have actually helped with the development of a very useful product.
I haven't found files roaring into my shared folder since upgrading, but they do at least canter rather than waddle these days.
I also had a few probs with the latest version for OsX but they got schmooved out when I went to an older version. If it ain't broke...

even if you dont notice the difference limewire pro is good because its what keeps limewire basic going. making limewire takes money. if you buy it you are helping them keep limewire up and running