Does DC++ work on Mac?

[courtn]

OK, now I've been reading a bit here, and I gather that I can search, share, and access other users for info, etc. A friend told me to install this to share music. I see there is some discussion of copyright infringement, that is not my goal.

I'm not quite clear why people use this network (if that's the appropriate term) yet. I see lots of chatting. There are plenty of places to do that, what makes this a good choice? I don't really want to chat. A friend suggested I download DC++ to share music. People are talking about hashing, etc. Don't know what all that is about. I don't have a lot of music on my computer. Do I need a lot to start sharing?

I'm rambling, because I'm hoping someone will find my meandering pathetic enough to enlighten me in some way on what this DC++ is. And why I shouldn't throw it away right now? Don't take offense...I just don't know why I would need a bunch of forums to chat in...I take lots of pictures...maybe I could share those. I don't really know. Seems a bit more sophisticated than "My Space" so I'm guessing people share things like software etc, but software that does what? I have a little iMac that serves me well, DSL from my local phone company (HA!) and that's about the extent of my sophistication.

Anyway. If you read this, please take pity on my poor computer-ignorant soul and reply to my requests for simple info here. It does seem like a cool thing, and I'd like to know more, really, I would. but I need your help. Please write me a little note. Tell me what this thing does, and how I get it to work on my little iMac...

Thanks.

[Todi]

DC++ is a filesharing program, that works through the peer-to-peer principle, i.e users connect to each other and download various files from each other. You can share any kind of files you wish with other people, but you should of course always follow the rules of your country regarding copyright and such.

There are many p2p programs out there that only have filesharing, while DC (Direct Connect, the p2p network DC++ works on) is more about community and communication than pure filesharing, even if filesharing of course is a big part of it. That is why there is all this chatting going on; You can for instance find a hub (a server that keeps track of users connected to it, so they can chat with each other etc) that specialises in photography, and discuss that subject with other people and exchange photos with each other. Most hubs require you to share a number of files before you can enter the hub, to ensure that everyone shares and that the files available grow.

DC++ is not currently well supported on the Macintosh, but there have been some projects aimed at bringing it over to OS X and later OS versions (search the forum for MacDC++ for instance). There are however other clients available for Mac: The Neo-Modus DC client for Mac, or the DC-GUI (Valknut now i believe) client.