Advertised as lightweight and full- featured like a majority of other
Linux apps, uGet can handle multi- threaded streams, includes filters
and can integrate with an undefined selection of web browsers. It’s been
around for over ten years now, starting out as UrlGet, and can also run
on Windows. uGet is actually very full-featured, with a lot of the kind of functions that advanced torrent clients useInterface
uGet reminds us of any number of torrent client interfaces, with
categories for Active, Finished, Paused and so on for the different
downloads. Although there is a lot of information to take in, it’s all
presented very cleanly and clearly. The main downloading controls are
easy to access, with more advanced ones alongside them. Integration
While it can see into the clipboard for URLs, uGet doesn’t natively
integrate into browsers like Chromium and Firefox. Still, there are
add-ons for both these browsers that allow them to connect to uGet:
Firefox via FlashGot and Chromium with a dedicated plug-in. Not ideal,
but good enough. Features
uGet’s maturity affords it a range of features, including advanced
scheduling to switch downloading on and off, batch download via the
clipboard and the ability to change which file types it looks for in the
clipboard. There are plug-in options, but not a huge amount. Availability
While it’s also available in most major distro repos, the uGet
website includes regularly updated binaries for a variety of popular
distributions as well as easily accessible source code. It runs on GTK
3+ so it has a smaller footprint in some desktop environments than
others, although we’d say it’s worth the extra dependancies in KDE or
other Qt desktops. Overall
8/10
We very much like uGet – its wide variety of features and popularity
have allowed it to develop quite a lot to be an all-encompassing
solution to download management, with some decent integration with Linux
browsers.
KDE’s own download manager seems to have been originally designed to
work with Konqueror, the KDE web browser. It comes with the kind of
features we’re looking for in this test: control of multiple downloads
and the ability to run a checksum alongside the downloaded product. You need to manually activate the ability to keep an eye on the clipboard for linksInterface
As expected of a KDE app, KGet fits the aesthetic style of the
desktop environment with similar icons and curves throughout. It’s quite
a simple design as well, with only the most necessary functions
available on the main toolbars and a minimal view of the current
downloads. Integration
KGet natively integrates with KDE’s Konqueror browser, although it’s
not the most popular. Support for it in Firefox is done via FlashGot as
usual, but there’s no real way to do it in Chromium. You can turn on a
feature that asks if you want to download copied URLs, however it
doesn’t parse the clipboard very well and sometimes wants to download
text. Features
The selection of features available are not that high. No scheduling,
no batch operations and generally an almost bare-minimum amount of
downloading features. The clipboard-scanning feature is a nice idea but
it’s a bit buggy. It’s a little weird as the Settings menu looks like
it’s designed to have more settings and options. Availability
While it doesn’t come by default with a KDE install, it is available
for any distro that supports KDE. It does need a few KDE libraries to
run though, and it’s a bit tricky to find the source code. There isn’t a
selection of binaries that you can use with a few distros either. Overall
6/10
KGet doesnt really offer users a huge amount more than the download
manager in the majority of popular browsers, although at least you can
use it while the browsers are otherwise turned off.
DownThemAll, being somewhat platform-independent, comes to Linux by
way of Firefox as an add- on. This limits it somewhat to use with only
Firefox, however as one of the most popular browsers in the world its
tighter integration may be just what some are looking for in a download
manager. There are actually a whole lot of options available for DownThemAll! that make it very flexibleInterface
Part of the integration in Firefox allows DownThemAll! to slot into
the standard aesthetic of the browser, with right-clicking bringing up
options alongside the normal downloading ones. The extra dialog menus
are generally themed after Firefox as well, while the main download
window is clean and based on its own design
Integration
It doesn’t integrate system-wide but its ability to camouflage itself
with Firefox makes it seem like an extra part of the original browser.
It can also run alongside the normal downloader if you want, and can
find specific link types on a webpage with little manual filtering, and
no need for copy and pasting. Features
With the ability to control how many downloads can happen at once,
limit bandwidth when not idle and advanced auto or manual filtering,
DownThemAll! is full of excellent features that aid mass downloading.
The One Click function also allows it to very quickly start downloads to
a pre- determined folder faster than normal download functions. Availability
Firefox is available on just about every distro and other operating
system around, which makes DownThemAll! just as prolific. Unfortunately
this is a double-edged sword, as Firefox may not be your browser of
choice. It also adds a little weight to the browser, which isn’t the
lightest to begin with. Overall
7/10
DownThemAll! is excellent and if you use Firefox you may not need to
use anything else. Not everyone uses Firefox as their preferred browser
though, and it needs to be left on for the manager to start running.
Easily available in Ubuntu and some Debian-based distros, Steadyflow
may be limited in terms of where you can get it but it’s got a
reputation in some circles as one of the better managers available for
any distro. It can read the clipboard for URLs, use GNOME’s preset
proxies and has many other features. The settings in Steady flow are extremely limiting and somewhat difficult to accessInterface
Steadyflow is quite simple in appearance with a pleasant, clean
interface that doesn’t clutter the download window. The dialog for
adding downloads is simple enough, with basic options for how to treat
it and where the file should live. It’s nothing we can really complain
about, although it does remind us of the lack of features in the app. Integration
Reading copied URLs is as standard and there’s a plug-in for Chromium
to integrate with that. Again, you can use FlashGot to link it up to
Firefox if that’s your preferred browser. You can’t really edit what it
parses from the clipboard though and there’s no batch ability like in
uGet and DownThemAll! Features
Extremely lacking in features and the Options menu is very limited as
well. The Pause and Resume function also doesn’t seem to work – a basic
part of any browser’s file download features. Still, notifications and
default action on finished files can be edited, along with an option to
run a script once downloads are finished. Availability
Only available on Ubuntu and there’s no easy way to get the source
code for the app either. This means while it’s easily obtainable on all
Ubuntu- based distros, it’s limited to these types of distros. As it’s
not even the best download manager available on Linux, that shouldn’t be
too big of a concern. Overall
5/10
Frankly, not that good. With very basic options and limited to only
working on Ubuntu, Steadyflow doesn’t do enough to differentiate itself
from the standard downloading options you’ll get on your web browser. And the winner is…
uGet
In this test we’ve proven that there is a place for download managers
on modern computers, even if the better ones have cribbed from the
torrent clients that seem to have usurped them. While torrenting may be a
more effective way for some, with ISPs getting wiser to torrent traffic
some people may get better results with a good download manager. Not
only are transfer caps imposed by most major ISPs, some are even
beginning to slow- down or even block torrent traffic in peak hours –
even legal traffic such as distro ISOs and other free software are
throttled.
Steadyflow seems to be a very popular solution for this, but our
usage and tests showed an underdeveloped and weak product. The much
older uGet was the star of the show, with an amazing selection of
features that can aid in downloading single items or filtering through
an entire webpage for relevant items to grab. The same goes for
DownThemAll!, the excellent Firefox add-on that, while stuck with
Firefox, has just about the same level of features, albeit with better
integration.
If you’re choosing between the two it really comes down to what your
preferred browser is and whether you need to have downloads and uploads
going around the clock. DownThemAll! requires Firefox running, whereas
uGet runs on its own, saving a lot of resources and electricity in the
process – obviously this makes uGet a much better prospect for 24-hour
data transferring and it really isn’t a major hassle to set up big batch
downloads, or even just get the download information from your browser.
Give download managers another chance. You will not be disappointed with the results.
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