Gnutella is a free, open source project to create a true
peer-to-peer file sharing network. Such a network would be a fully distributed alternative to semi-centralized systems like
Napster. Initial popularity of the network was spurred on by Napster's threatened legal demise. This growing surge in popularity showed serious flaws in the inital protocols scalabilty. In early 2001 some variations on the intial protocol by closed source groups allowed scalabilty to improve somewhat. This returned the network into a useable file sharing medium and once again this has caused a surge in its popularity.
Sometimes the word 'Gnutella' refers not to a particular project or particular piece of software, but to the open protocol used by various clients. Since new clients are under development all over, and since a new protocol is apparently on the way too, it is hard to say what the word 'Gnutella' will mostly stand for in the future.
The most popular Gnutella clients (at the moment) are:
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