LimeWire is a peer-to-peer file sharing program based on the Gnutella network. Unlike most other Gnutella clients, LimeWire is notable for its ease of use and intelligent client configuration. The user may choose to search in a particular community specified by file type or geographic locations.

LimeWire also attempts to correct the freeloader problem by letting the user choose to prefer nodes that share files and information.

Subjectively, I have found it to be the best alternative to Napster for MP3s and also the best alternative to Scour for media in general.

LimeWire is available at http://www.limewire.com.

Update: Recently discovered that the brilliant programmers who made this could not spell "download" correctly... "Kill downlaod" is how they refer to it.

Update to Update: The new version fixes the typo.

It should also be noted that LimeWire is written entirely in Java thus making it completely cross-platform
and that it has an ability to group identical results and a 'download any' feature that makes it try to download the chosen files one after one until it succeeds (or doesn't).

LimeWire is the best Gnutella client I have tried so far (but that's only my opinion). As Marvinius wrote, it's entirely written in Java and should therefore run on any platform where a JRE and a network connection are available. No, make that a JRE, a network connection and half a gig of RAM to keep Java happy.
Interesting features:
  • Multiple simultaneous searches
  • A cool spinning lime slice when a search is being processed
  • Ability to throttle upload bandwidth
  • Ability to filter out crappy hits, like "x" and "x.mp3"
  • Hasn't crashed on me yet

Update as of 2002-06-18: As everyone should know by now, the Gnutella network genuinely sucks. I don't use it anymore.

I feel it is my civic duty to inform all readers that Limewire, as cross-platform as it may be, is replete with spyware (unless you buy the Pro edition). As is your precious Bearshare, for that matter. Gnucleus, for what it's worth, is a Gnutella client which is spyware-free.

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