There are a variety of BitTorrent applications available for Linux. But finding a good application that offers many features should save you some time.
KTorrent by KDE is one such BitTorrent app built for Linux.
While there are several torrent clients for Linux, I recently found KTorrent interesting for my use-case.
KTorrent: Open Source BitTorrent Client for Linux
KTorrent is a full-fledged torrent client primarily tailored for KDE desktop. It should work simply fine no matter what desktop environment you use.
Of course, with KDE desktop, you may get a seamless user experience.
Let us look at the all the features offered.
Features of KTorrent
For regular torrent users, having an extensive set of features makes things easy. And KTorrent is no exception. Here, I’ll highlight the key highlights of KTorrent:
- Adding torrent downloads in a queue
- Ability to control the speed limits per download (or overall)
- Video and audio file preview option
- Supports importing of downloaded files (partial/full)
- Ability to prioritize torrent downloads when downloading multiple files
- Selection of specific files to download for multi-file torrents
- IP filter with the option of kicking/banning peers
- UDP tracker support
- µTorrent peer support
- Support for protocol encryption
- Ability to create trackerless torrent
- Scripting support
- System tray integration
- Connection through a proxy
- Added plugin support
- Supports IPv6
KTorrent sounds something useful as a torrent client that you can use daily with control to manage all your torrent downloads at one place.
In addition to the features mentioned above, it offers great control over the behavior of the client as well. For instance, tweaking the color that indicates downloads/pause/trackers.
You also get the ability to set the notification if you want to disable the sound of completing a torrent download or getting notified of the activity.
While features like protocol encryption support may not be able to replace some of the best VPN services, it is an important addition for desktop clients.
Installing KTorrent in Linux
KTorrent should be available through your package managers like Synaptic or the default repositories. You can also find it listed in your software center for easy installation.
In addition to this, it also offers a Flatpak official package on Flathub for any Linux distribution. If you need help with that, we have a Flatpak guide for reference.
You can also try the snap package available if you prefer that.
To explore more about it and the source code, head to its official KDE app page.
Closing Thoughts
KTorrent is a phenomenal torrent client for Linux. I tried it on my Linux Mint system on top of Cinnamon desktop, and it worked great.
I like how simple, yet configurable it is. Even though I don’t use a torrent client every day, I did not see anything weird with KTorrent in my brief testing.
What do you think about KTorrent as a torrent client for Linux? What do you prefer to use it instead?
