Shareaza

Although the bigger names in the P2P world still maintain the lion's share of users, several smaller entities have popped up. These programs appeal to those fed up with the fluff and third-party software often found in the more popular applications.

Shareaza is focused and lean, with a gorgeous interface and connections to the Gnutella2, Gnutella, eDonkey, and BitTorrent networks. It's also handsome and easy to use; we had no trouble quickly figuring out how to search, check our network status, and customize the interface through a healthy choice of skins. Search results were extremely fast, although we wish each new search automatically spawned a new tab. Shareaza also has a decent built-in media player for common audio and video formats. Other features include a chat client and the ability to schedule transfers.

The file-management system, with a slew of folders divided and subdivided into all sorts of categories, may overwhelm novices, though seasoned file-sharers probably won't have that much trouble. Overall, though, Shareaza's design, performance, and trim size provide make it a nice choice for peer-to-peer users.