Vuze Blog

Light at the end of the tunnel

Well, we’ve been hard at work on it since, well, since the last release, and right about now that feels like approximately forever. But we’re finally just a couple of days away from releasing the new version of the Vuze client, and we think it’s going to be huge. Finally everyone will get to see in its entirety what the beta users have been seeing unfold piece-by-piece over the last three months.

But even before it comes out, you can get a sneak peek of where we’re going. Just open up Vuze and do a search — you’ll see the “light”. Now we know everyone loved the sleek black look introduced with the new Vuze UI. Okay, many people liked the black styling. Well, at least one person really liked the black look. But we got a lot of feedback and suggestions — some friendlier than others — and we’ve done our best to take it to heart, and one of the first things we did was to go back to a lighter look and feel, more inspired by the classic interface.

We cleaned up our navigation model and spent a lot of time figuring out how to bring the streamlined ease-of-use and newbie-friendly aspects of the new Vuze interface together with the power and functionality that was available in — actually kind of segregated into — the Advanced tab interface. And I think we’ve just about nailed it. We’ve made the “My Torrents” and plugins much more accessible while making it even easier to Find, Download, and Play, whether you’ve been torrenting for years or are opening the client for the first time. Oh, and we’ve updated the toolbar. No more icons that look like they were created in MacPaint. (Not that we have anything against MacPaint…)

But it’s not just look and polish that’s new; we’ve got new functionality for every level of user. Our universal search has gotten way more powerful, with support for those of you who use private trackers. And our new Subscription feature lets less-experienced users get “more content like this” while giving advanced users, familiar with search and RSS, the ability to keep current on their favorite videos as soon as they come out (like “Pink”, the darkly comedic web series appearing weekly on Vuze).

We were tempted to downplay the new features and say “aw shucks, this is just the stuff we been working on for Vuze 3.2″ but in the end decided “Heck no, this is going to be big!” I’m in Paris now for the European launch of the New Vuze and when I’m getting up in the morning the last of the devs in California have been hitting the sack (or falling asleep at their desks — I’m not entirely sure). We’ve all been working long hard days, but assuming the servers stay up and the supply of caffeine holds (Bless you, Nespresso!), sometime Monday you should be able to say hello to Vuze 4.0. It’s gonna be big!

Dan (aka Pono650)

6 Comments to Light at the end of the tunnel

1. Martin on October 12th, 2008

   The new interface sounds cool, but when will you support Macs? I should say….. when will you support platform independence?

2. Martin on October 12th, 2008

   PS. I am referring to DRM protected content. Why is it still restricted to windoze only?

3. Alon Rohter on October 12th, 2008

   We try to license all our content DRM-free (and available worldwide), but unfortunately a few providers still insist we DRM their content, which means Windows only

4. Ronald on October 12th, 2008

   Is there a option to turn off seeding to everyone exept your friends? because friends dont really get priority right now…

5. Ronald on October 12th, 2008

   And can you put the plugins page on the vuze site? because no one knows about them now.

6. The CronoLink on October 12th, 2008

   Where can I ask about serious issues with vuze?