Many people still associate the concept of 'torrent' with websites for unauthorized downloads of films and other copyrighted content. However, almost from the first moment of the BitTorrent protocol's existence, it has been used by software development projects to disseminate "heavier" software.
For example, there are numerous Linux distributions (among the most notable, Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, Arch or OpenSUSE) that use torrents as a distribution method in each release of a new version. This is because Torrent downloads allow for efficient and scalable distribution of large files. (as is the case with ISO images of this and other operating systems).
And all this thanks to Its decentralized architecture prevents servers from being overloaded official website and/or FTP at times of greatest demand for the files (usually right after each release).
Screenshot of the 'Downloads' section of the Ubuntu website.
It is not clear which exactly were the first Linux distributions to adopt the BitTorrent protocol, but we do know that, after its creation by Bram Cohen in 2002, it was adopted early by several Linux projects. At that time, that allowed them save thousands of dollars in bandwidth costs, which was a lifesaver for community projects smaller (and, therefore, with fewer resources).
This system became so prevalent that, as early as 2005, the Linuxtracker website began aggregating these torrent-using Linux distributions, and since then the site has grown steadily, becoming one of the go-to sources for Linux distributions. Linux. .
Multimedia material, such as public domain films or films shot by independent artists, is also often available through BitTorrent.
BitTorrent: what is it and how do torrents work?
From distributions to models
Ok, but in addition to Linux distributions and some other especially 'heavy' open source applications (which increasingly need fewer torrents thanks to new cloud hosting services)โฆ What other role does BitTorrent play when it comes to software distribution?
Well, a few months ago it began to be used massively for downloading. one of the most voluminous and popular types of software at the momentโฆthe great generative AI models, both image and text.
Thus, the countless derived and optimized versions based on models open source as Stable Diffusion (in image creation) and in multiple LLMs (such as LLaMa and its many derivatives, or the increasingly popular Mixtral) have BitTorrent as an irreplaceable resource, given its size of several tens of GB that can reach the most powerful versions of them.
A little over a month ago, the French AI startup open source Mistral AI launched a new LLM without a press release or spectacular announcement: had limited itself to publishing in X a magnetic link (typical of the BitTorrent protocol), a strategy that clearly contrasted with an almost parallel launch, that of GoogleIt's Gemini.
Because, while the search engine company, despite all the noise of the launch, had only hinted at the capabilities of its new model, Mistral AI had put on the table a download of no less than 87 GBcorresponding to your Mixtral 8x7B model.
As a result of this launch, there are already numerous Mixtral derivatives on the market. Internet which allow, for example, uncensored text generation.
The main alternatives open source to Mixtral are those derived from GoalThe LLaMa leak (models with the very appropriate names of Vicuรฑa, Alpaca or Guanaco)โฆ and this leak also occurred initially (March of last year) thanks to a torrent link.
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