The results of the Download Managers Poll show that most people don't use them. Also since multiple answers were allowed in the poll, the percentage of none (37%) is higher than recorded to a significant degree, since none voters would check one box only and people that use them could easily have several that they use and have checked multiple boxes. And actually 42% use none.
Not real surprising since the Managers are more specialized programs that would appeal to heavier downloaders.
They do have advantages like download resumes if interrupted, some note the file size and reserve space to eliminate fragmentation (really useful if multiple downloads are occurring simultaneously), allow multiple connections to a host(if the host permits), and other features.

A second point obvious from the poll is that FREE ones win hands down. From the size of the poll, there were many choices and very few people have paid for one. Says a lot about the quality of the free ones to do the job and that most of those (who use them) are satisfied with the features found in the free ones.

The most popular grouping is browser specific, with Download Them ALL (Mozilla/Firefox only) leading (16%) and Opera with its built in manager showing popularity (4%). Also interesting to note is the Firefox extension of FlashGot (which is not a true downloader but an interface allowing someone to use a non-Firefox manager) received 5% of the vote. So roughly 1/4 of the Firefox users chose this way to keep using their favorite manager.

FlashGet and Free Download Manager were the winners of the non browser specific with 10% and 7% of the votes respectively

The poll is here

Interesting to see NetTransport's results. Many of us used it for years and loved it. A while ago the programmer changed it to nagware with an update (the older versions disappeared) and its use/popularity has taken an extreme nosedive. 166 Participants and 3 voted NetTransport, but we have no way of knowing if they are just using one of the older nagware-free versions. Unless the author reverses the nagware, I think we are witnessing the death of very decent program.

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by Rxdoxx edited by lilhurricane
last modified: 2009-05-04 12:28:25