I'm not sure how many people will remember this, but macOS 8 came with a program called Hotline, who's main activity was "publishing and distribution of a multi-purpose client/server communication software."
Most people I knew used it to pirate software and MP3s.
The way most of us used it was we'd find a server that had something we wanted (software, a crack, or music), and the login would be password protected. There would be a public readme file with instructions on how to find the password, which was typically behind a banner ad you had to click to generate revenue for the file host.
I was working as a web developer at the time, and the start-up where I worked literally had a dedicated server just for downloading music on Hotline, but Napster came along and we mostly forgot about Hotline.
I definitely remember Hotline! Got me into trouble in college...a friend and I opened up Hotline servers on our machines and threw a piece of software on there (probably a cracked version of Macromedia Flash or something like that...) and a README that said "please leave something if you take something". A few weeks later, we both got calls from the sys admin at our school asking us to come in for a little chat...we hadn't really been paying too much attention, and apparently people had put all kinds of software/games etc. on there and that we had been serving up from our machines (I believe the admin said "millions of dollars"...but he may have been trying to scare us straight...). We didn't end up getting into too much trouble for it (I believe we were banned from using the internet for a few weeks) and ultimately I got hired to work in the IT department, so it worked out for me at least...
Heh, in HS I convinced the Drafting Department (1988) that if we were ever going to draw anything in the "real world" (I was in 8th grade, but took HS level drafting) that we would only ever do it on a computer.
I pitched the school board and we were funded to set up a CAD dept - which of course I needed a server to share cad files etc...
I setup the system, and then my buddy and I setup a BBS on the server and were running a warez site frm the HS CAD Lab.
This was followed up with KDX, an idiosyncratic, extremely curious program that even offered a native Linux binary (that still works!). The program was (closed-source) freeware, and without a viable business model behind it, the developers eventually moved on. But I think that dynamic supported a refreshing alternative experience that flew beneath the radar, took the path less traveled, and achieved closure: my memory of KDX is of a quietly efficient program that felt largely finished. My goodness literally nothing feels like that anymore.
It's still offered for download by some of the few remaining Hotline/KDX-compatible file servers that are still floating around out there, like https://preterhuman.net/gethotlinekdx.php (scroll down to the KDX heading).
I definitely recommend downloading it for the sole reason that, connected to a server, bunch of windows open (what do you expect, it came from Mac OS, of course it's a GUI program), transfers flying along... it'll be using 8MB of RAM. Yes, on Linux.
Finished. Compact. Efficient.
I wish I could pull out some references for similar programs like it, but I have none :( the closest I can come ideologically is LIST.COM for MS-DOS (!). Ha.
But on the subject of file transfer itself, if anyone's curious, a very obscure alternative to Bittorrent and news servers besides Hotline/KDX is DC++. There are quite a few DC++ servers still out there, mostly in Russia (or at least there were when I last checked). I don't remember what client I used when I played with it a while ago, but I remember one of its features was that it would show the total amount of data available across all of the servers currently connected (the protocol works very similarly to Bittorrent but users send full directory trees to the "trackers"). Well, after connecting to every server I could find >:D my client started having serious swap issues so I had to give up, but for a little while there I think the statusbar was showing something like 4 PB+ available. Fun times.
I was at a place in the very early 2000s, and ran into our 'music server.' Everyone seemingly brought in and ripped all their CDs to this folder, and it was basically Spotify or something. Several terabytes - we were a re-seller of computers, so had the room for it.
This may have been during the iPod times, I recall having all the music I'd ever need. Knowing who was there, I have no doubt that's where a lot of Spotify came from.
Hotline was full of warez and such, but it was also home to a number of vibrant, welcoming communities. I was a little bit late to the BBS heyday, but Hotline served that purpose for me and for many others. There was one called REALbasic Cafė centered around a commercial cross-platform programming language that I spent a lot of time it. I even attended conferences with other members, flying across the country alone as a high school kid. I have nothing but fond memories of Hotline.
I don't know why I never looked into it more but this comment caught me off guard. I always wondered what hotline was because a friend of mine in high school's dad was a bartender part time in the carribbean and during the summer in chicago and he would source things his son needed or wanted through 'hotline' and I could never find it as a windows user.
I used it on windows and it had a chat feature. It's how I learned about the band Yellow Magic Orchestra from some random person that I'll never meet again.
A few developers of the original Napster for Mac client usually hung out on FORTYoz’s (RIP) Badmoon Hotline server (e.g. catalyst). My teenage self always had fun watching them work through some problem they were facing.
On a side note, the https://hx.fortyoz.org link still works (although it points to a mostly outdated clone of ror’s original hxd).
Hotline impressed me most because they wrote cross platform mac and windows servers and clients.
If I recall correctly - back when MacOS didn't have true pre-emptive multiprocessing, holding down a menu or a button would stall other processes/tasks. Hotline wrote custom controls so you could hold a button and things would still run.
Most people I knew used it to pirate software and MP3s.
The way most of us used it was we'd find a server that had something we wanted (software, a crack, or music), and the login would be password protected. There would be a public readme file with instructions on how to find the password, which was typically behind a banner ad you had to click to generate revenue for the file host.
I was working as a web developer at the time, and the start-up where I worked literally had a dedicated server just for downloading music on Hotline, but Napster came along and we mostly forgot about Hotline.