Someone objected to my earlier editorializing about P2P software. It’s true, I’m no great fan of many P2P file sharing programs. Many load your machine up with adware, and there are people who use them to share files illegally. But putting that aside, I agree that there are completely legitimate uses for them, and programs like BitTorrent (as one reader pointed out), are actually a huge benefit to the ‘net community.

Also, as I said earlier, there is the practical reality that people use these programs, and they download them by the millions.

Ben Edelman’s recent tests , under contract from Limewire, indicate that Limewire is the most “honest” of the bunch. Note that Ben didn’t include Grokster, which is a fairly popular P2P tool (and a well-known way to get adware).

In fact, Limewire looks completely honest and acceptable. Surprise.

Ironically, it was just a few days ago that I found Limewire on a neighbor’s machine and told them it wasn’t a good idea to have it on their system.

There is lots of additional information in his review worth going through.

Alex Eckelberry