Xolox Beta Experience

[Vinnie]

I had the pleasure of trying the latest Xolox Beta for the first time.

I should point out that in the past, I was *never* able to get Xolox to run successfully - it always locked up my machine (then again, I used to have an AMD...)

However, the new version installed flawlessly!

The XoloX installation was very fast and very clean. No added products, and a minimum of screens.

I especially liked the Setup Wizard, including the parental controls. Mature file sharing has indeed arrived.

The Tip of the Day feature was kind of cool but I quickly closed it. I don't think anyone actually reads those but knowing they are there gives a warm fuzzy feeling.

Taking a hint from BearShare (not a bad thing), XoloX includes an embedded browser control in its Search page. This control becomes another "Tab" in the multi-search interface the moment you start the first search.

Unlike BearShare (which shows Ads in its browser instance) Xolox puts some very helpful information on how to search in the HTML.

Unfortunately, the Xolox developers pointed the browser to a public web site (their own). I don't know if this was intentional, but there are pros and cons to this approach:

Pros:
- Easy to update the content
- Can track usage statistics

Cons:
- Might anger the paranoid few
- Can track usage statistics

If Team XoloX doesn't intend to use that space for advertising, and if they can live with only being able to update the HTML on a new release, I recommend that they store all the HTML and embedded images into an .RC resource (yes this is possible).

You can find out how to do this here:
http://www.codeguru.com
and
http://www.codeproject.com

Its a very cool technique, and one that we will be using more and more of in BearShare (although I am split - I would LOVE to remove the bloated IE control from the app completely but its not quite possible yet).

The advetisements are not that obtrusive, and they are an acceptable compromise for getting free software.

What I didn't like about the program:

- The colors. Quite frankly, they suck. Don't impose your maroon fetishes on me, I like a PLAIN windows dekstop. Respect the user's desktop scheme and everyone will enjoy it. YES this means that ugly maroon color in the setup wizard must be changed to the standard window color. And the text color in the list..its got to go!

- No way to view Hosts. I like that they hide the hosts from view, this helps novice users. But I DONT like that I can't show the Hosts if I want to! And there is no control over host connections...

- Doesn't respect show window contents while dragging. EXTREMELY annoying, there is no reason not to have all controls perform live actions. This includes scrolling, moving the splitter, and basically everything where a fugly frame appears instead of the window (or list) contents.

Other things I like:

- Support for SOCKS proxies

- Easy to use for novice users, no complicated settings

- The search is available no matter what view you're on.

- Hot tracking in the lists (underlining the text under the cursor)

- AutoComplete. VERY NICE feature. It would be even better if it was just like Internet Explorer (with a resizable drop down). And it would be *perfect* if it didn't write its settings to the registry (I hate the registry). Fortunately, you can customize the behavior of Auto-Complete with a little bit of COM magic, this is fully explained here:
http://www.codeproject.com/useritems...mplete_wtl.asp

Kudos to the Xolox team, it looks like they really spent some time analyzing what to improve and how to deliver a better user experience. Much much better than the previous version, and they reduced their aggressive re-query intervals.

Good work!

[Vinnie]

One more thing, Team Xolox really should participate in the GDF, especially since they are the first servent to support partial file sharing:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_gdf

We welcome you.

In fact, I think there is a raging discussion regarding Tiger-Tree hashes and partial file sharing going on right now.

[Bullet]

For way too long people(me included)have jumped on the 'let's hate Vinnie Falco' bandwagon.
Whenever the guy makes a derogatory remark about another Gnutella clone he is pounced upon from people who take his original comments/sarcasm/wit... way out of context.
Yet no one gives him credit for his positive feedback of a client that is in direct competion with his own company....why?

Vinnie Falco is a legend in the Gnet world(albeit sometimes for the wrong reasons) but some people seem to forget what a brilliant coder this guy really is...they also forget what he has already bought to Gnutella,and what he will soon bring to Gnutella(Download Mesh,amongst others...)

Swallow your pride and show some gratitude people!

[KayaMan]

"Swallow your pride and show some gratitude people" - bullet

Hey no one was complaining were they? Vinnie's post were the only ones there : P.

I think Vinnie did point out some good things (although obvious) that the XoloX coders have already considered and debating. His constructive criticism is welcome as is anyone’s.

Re: “Team Xolox really should participate in the GDF”
I do see Team XoloX taking part in the GDF or something similar once they have the time(or whatever reason), based on the below comment from the Zeropaid Interview.

It is our position that unity between the developers is in the best interests for Gnutella and that competitors must work together if the P2P Community is to continue to grow – Team XoloX / Zeropaid Interview.

The color ‘fetish’, well that is just the color XoloX decided on and that’s why Vinnie has his own client with colors he loves .

[Bullet]

Originally posted by KayaMan
Hey no one was complaining were they? Vinnie's post were the only ones there....

Fair comment,but if Vinnie Falco had came here and spouted what a crap client Xolox still was,how you you can't trust the new people behind Xolox after the cowardice exit of the original team http://www.zeropaid.com/news/article...line_xolox.php ...if he asked about whether Xolox are still doing a KaZaA(Altnet) and working to their own agenda(viral distribution grid-computing)which had sod all to do with file sharing...then you would have had over 20 people here bad-mouthing Vinnie Falco/Freepeers/Bearshare...

...instead the guy has come along,with some sort of olive branch,and is being ignored.Why?

[KayaMan]

Originally posted by Bullet

.... you you can't trust the new people behind Xolox after the cowardice exit of the original team .....

......if he asked about whether Xolox are still doing a KaZaA(Altnet) and working to their own agenda(viral distribution grid-computing)which had sod all to do with file sharing...then you would have had over 20 people here bad-mouthing Vinnie Falco/Freepeers/Bearshare...

...instead the guy has come along,with some sort of olive branch,and is being ignored.Why?

1) Cowardice?
The reason stated in that interview was:
"XoloX is discontinued, partially to the lack of funds and partially to the increased threat for law-suits. "

The original team worked hard to make a great client for the community with their free time, did that mean they had to risk their careers with a law-suit that could bankrupt their hobby? They have come back, I don't see how you can call them cowards.

2) "Xolox are still doing a KaZaA(Altnet) and working to their own agenda"
The word still requires XoloX do have done that in the first place. Please get your facts straight and do not confuse XoloX for KaZaa.


You bring up that we should commend Vinnie for reaching out - that is appreciated. And you also note Vinnie has gotten a bad wrap in forums - none of our business. I think Vinnie can speak for himself , don't know why you choose to speak for him?

I don't know what you are trying to get at - but XoloX will always remain Spyware free, free to users, and NEVER trick users to installing something they don't wish to or know about.

respect is not gained from one post only.

[Vinnie]

Originally posted by KayaMan
[BThe color ‘fetish’, well that is just the color XoloX decided on and that’s why Vinnie has his own client with colors he loves . [/B]

BearShare respects the desktop color scheme and Windows XP themes.

A LOT of work, but people appreciate programs that are well behaved, especially after they spend hours downloading desktop wallpapers, cursors, schemes, and themes.

Not that I use them - Windows Classic does the job.

[Vinnie]

Originally posted by Unregistered
respect is not gained from one post only.

Here's another.

[Gamer]

Regardless of what you say, somebody wont understand it and will hate you. The longer the post, the higher the chance of someone misunderstanding it and disliking you for it.. Just a thought.

XoloX is an excellent beta, and Vinnie basically pointed out all the good key features. The colors arent horrible, although I use a win2k default scheme myself..