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The software I decided to trial was Limewire. Why? Because of free music of course (maybe I shouldn't say that). I don't like to illegally download free music as I do feel bad that I'm not paying my part to the artist who have worked hard to get where they want, but hey, I'm poor haha. What is Limewire I here you ask?

Limewire is a free peer-to-peer file sharing software, otherwise known as P2P (cnet.com 2010). You can share just about anything from this software such as videos, documents, music, photos etc. Limewire can be used on any operating system that supports the Java Software platform (cnet.com 2010). I've only used Limewire a couple of times at a friends place but I've never had it on my own computer...till now! I thought "why not", so went to http://www.limewire.com/ and downloaded the latest software version.

I've only used this for a couple of hours now and it’s pretty easy to use. It takes about 10 minutes or less to understand how to use this program, it’s that easy. My first search was looking for Kanye West's new song "Power". As soon as I typed this in and pressed "ENTER", a million hits started popping up. Luckily I already knew how to use this because otherwise, I would have had know idea which one to download. Usually you download the one that has the most people downloading from it and usually up the top. As soon as I clicked the top song, it started to download on the bottom. You can pause the download, stop the download and even hear the preview before you fully downloaded the music just in case there is anything in the song that you don't feel is right such as missing gaps in the song or dodgy sound. Lucky my internet is fast as it only took about 3 minutes to download or less to the full song.

From there, it is saved in your Limewire file that is save on your hard drive. It’s a search for it at first because you don't know what you’re looking for but it was in the most obvious place on my computer, or anyone’s computer for that matter. The file folder is usually saved under your "DOCUMENTS" folder. I clicked on the Limewire folder, found my song, doubled clicked on it and hey, PRESTO, the song opened up my iTunes and started playing perfectly. There are a few criticisms about Limewire though.

The main criticism about Limewire is that if you download too many songs as once it can slow down your computer, which did happen to mine many times when I was trying to download many songs at once. Also some music that you do download is horrible in quality. Some are missing gaps or feel like they've been re-recorded numerous times and you have to turn your speakers up full blast in order to hear the songs, at most times trebly. Another main criticism about Limewire is that you have to be careful with what you download as you can download a nasty virus such as a Trojan or a malware virus and in some cases, you can have your personal information stolen (wikihow 2010). Will I continue using Limewire?

Answer: No! Why? Probably because I don't like to download music through P2P file sharing software's because the risk of downloading a virus or having my personal information stolen. I know that most people use Limewire as it's easy to use, a wide variety of downloadable programs and its free. I'm a big fan of having a cd and the bookwork that comes with it. It’s pretty easy to uninstall the program.

Just open up Windows, open up control panel and select "Add or Remove Programs". From there find Limewire and select uninstall and it takes about 2 seconds to take the software off your computer. The only thing you have to do it delete the "Limewire" folder from you Documents folder and then just empty your trash can. Although if want to keep the music you've already just downloaded, move the music from the "Limewire" folder and place it anywhere you want in your documents folder or any other folder for that matter, and then you can delete the "Limewire folder". It’s pretty easy!!

What do I rate Limewire out of 10: 6/10

Pros: Free, Easy to use, great selection of things you can download, fast and easy to uninstall.

Cons: Too many selections, can slow your computer down if you download too many songs at once, viruses and people can steal your information and some music that you do download are terrible on quality.


References -

cnet.com (2010) Limewire 5.5.14
Retrieved at: http://download.cnet.com/limewire/
(Online), 7th September 2010

wikihow (2010) How To Avoid Downloading A Virus From Limewire
Retrieved at: http://www.wikihow.com/Avoid-Downloading-a-Virus-from-Limewire
(Online), 7th September 2010

YouTube (2007) Limewire Tutorial
Retrieved at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Prq40JcRz-k
(Online) 7th September 2010