The Bearshare peer-to-peer software applications promises the same as other programs produced out of the GNU/Gnutella stable. It offers the promise of free musical downloads. It is a bit harder to get a ?free download? of the basic Bearshare program than others, such as Limewire and Frostwire. It promises a surprise you won't like or appreciate; more details follow in a later paragraph. Limewire was eventually obtained from a freeware website on the internet and Frostwire was acquired from the Limewire quite easily.

But I am going to talk about Bearshare in this article. This is my experience: When I went to Bearshare they offered a membership in addition to the basic Bearshare software. I downloaded the software and attempted to install it. The following experience represents a danger still present upon the internet and especially with peer-to-peer applications.

Upon installing the Bearshare basic software package my antivirus application went crazy! It identified two unwanted passengers, an adware robot plus another which was a Startup Registry. These were indeed unpleasant and unexpected. I was very trusting of the website, which turned out to be a terrible mistake of mine. It had all the correct ?looks? of a GNU open source website which I allowed to influence me.

This caught me totally unaware when my system's protection stepped in to prevent a possible dangerous event. I now feel that Bearshare and possibly other peer-to-peer sharing software applications may have ?Trojans? and other nasties embedded. Using my ?leftist? brain I found that I was suspicious of the intentions of say the Record Industry Association of America.

What if they were unsatisfied with the impact of their lawsuit against individuals and Napster; maybe setting up pseudo free websites with contaminated software applications, the purpose of which is to scare people off from sharing files, software, audio, and video. I know what I'm writing is totally improvable; it sounds as preposterous as claiming that sharing files on the internet can harmfully reduce musical CD sales.

I wonder who would believe that? Anyway, there won't be any free music downloads using Bearshare to my computer. The surprises it gave me outweigh any promise of no monthly charges.