¶ What is a torrent?
When you choose to download Endless OS or other large files from our website, you may have an option to use a torrent file instead of a direct download.
Endless OS is produced by Endless OS Foundation, a non-profit organization. To help manage the costs associated with providing Endless OS and other large files as free downloads, we use a technology called BitTorrent to provide torrent files.
A torrent file is a small file with instructions for an app called a "BitTorrent client" to tell it how to download the larger files. BitTorrent clients enable you to pause and resume your download at will—especially useful if your download or Internet connection is interrupted. BitTorrent also helps ensure that the downloaded file is fully correct and free of corruption.
BitTorrent uses "peer-to-peer" technology, meaning your BitTorrent client will securely download parts of the files from Endless OS Foundation servers as well as other servers and users who are "seeding" it. BitTorrent automatically ensures these parts have not been changed, and you can even choose to seed the files yourself if you have bandwidth to spare.
If you are unable to use or prefer to avoid using torrents, we do also offer direct downloads.
¶ Recommended BitTorrent clients
To use torrent files, you need an app called a BitTorrent client (sometimes referred to as a "torrent client"). There are a lot of options, but our recommendations are:
- On Windows: picotorrent or qBittorrent
- On Endless OS: Fragments or Transmission, available in App Center
- On macOS and other Linux distributions: Transmission
¶ How to use the torrent file
After downloading a .torrent file from our website, you need to open it in a BitTorrent client. The BitTorrent client app will then download the actual files, providing you with a progress bar and estimate of how long the download will take.
¶ Example procedure
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Install a BitTorrent client app, such as one of the options mentioned above
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On the Endless OS download site, choose the Endless OS edition and select Download via BitTorrent to download a
.torrentfile
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Open the downloaded
.torrentfile with your BitTorrent client app; either by clicking on the downloaded file, or by opening the BitTorrent client and selecting the downloaded.torrentfile
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Wait for the download to complete via the BitTorrent network
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Once the download is finished you can start using the file
¶ Technical details
We appreciate your use of BitTorrent to help us manage our bandwidth costs! Please do not worry about the possibility of there not being seeds to offer the full file; Endless OS torrent files include the "web seed" HTTP/HTTPS download addresses of a variety of 3rd party hosts that kindly mirror our files, so there is no risk of your download being unable to complete.
If you would like to leave your torrent client running as a seed in order to help other users obtain Endless OS, that would also be much appreciated.