When I first started using GNU/Linux some years ago, there were very few download managers and most of them were less capable when compared to those present for windows based operating systems like FDM, IDA, DAP, etc. So I was forced to use them on WINE for all http downloads. But now the Linux world has seen some drastic changes, you name it they have it or will start developing one (There are a few exceptions to these though). Of course Firefox is a great alternative for download managers but not always reliable. So here are few good download managers,
- Wget: GNU wget is a free software tool to download files using HTTP/HTTPS/FTP protocols and has no GUI but a commandline tool. This is very powerful and supports some very good features. Some features include,
- Can use wild-card url’s and recursively mirror directories.
- Supports cookies & proxies
- Can convert absolute links in downloaded documents to relative, so that downloaded documents may link to each other locally
- Gwget: Gwget is a very simple download manager from gnome projects. Though there are no advanced features like some others but does its job to perfection. It can be installed from most distributions repositories. Some catchy features include,
- Recursivity: Gwget detects when you put a html, php, asp or a web page dir in the url to download, and ask you to only download certain files (multimedia, only the index, and so on).
- Drag & Drop: You can d&d a url to the main gwget window or the notification area icon to add a new download.
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