[DJwa163]

JDownloader has been here for almost a decade!
Yet, it seems like the blink of an eye!

It had began with a vision, and has changed the way we use the internet ever since.
I was one of the fortunate users to have witnessed the evolution of JD right from its inception, and watched it grow ever more stronger.

In those days, programs like cryptload, mipony, Universal Share Downloader, FreeRapid Downloader and many others came up with similar ambitions, but none matched the glory of JDownloader. This is essentially due to a deeply committed and tremendously innovative team of developers powering the project. Not to miss out the heavily demanding user-base who came up with brilliant new ideas to add new dimensions to the program every day.

JD could set itself a class-apart from its peers, by the sheer extent of plugin addition/updates and behind-the scene work. The developers have worked tirelessly all the while.

But, now we may have to be face-off with a new reality. See, the developer have grown older and priorities in life have to change, as responsibilities in personal lives grow ever more. On the other hand, the overwhelming popularity of JD has drawn increasing number of users, many coming up with a host of new ideas, features and requests all the while. The demand for new features have risen exponentially over time. But, there is a limit to which the developers can cater. They aren't super-human, they have their day-jobs, they have their families and kids. So, dear users, please don't make an overkill of the developers.

I have to admit that there has been a slow down (as reflected by the number of unresolved tickets), but this was anticipated. I would argue that, no freeware performed so well as did JD. The developers have been really congenial and professional.


So, isn't there a long-term solution? Will JD have to share the same fate as that of mipony and USDownloader: a slow down and demise?

Nope! It doesn't have to be that way.

I would like to propose an intelligent JD. There should be an integrated browser OR "learning mode" in JD which would learn the steps by which a file is downloaded from a given host, as an user downloads a file manually from a that host. This can be done in the way we used to construct the router reconnect scripts using LiveHeader and cryptload's script refiner. Once the steps/patterns are saved, JD will automatically construct the plugin and the subsequent downloads will take place automatically with no or minimal (captchas) user-interventions.

I hope, this would mostly eliminate the overwhelming number of requests for new hoster plugins. Requests will come, only if such automatically constructed plugins fail to do the job, or there is a need for advanced programming.

This feature should be able to update plugins depending on changes in the hoster's webpage formats. This should take care of most of the simple plugin updates too.



In my view, this is an effective and viable way by which we can free up the immense workload on the developers, and engage their precious times for good quality work only and focus on a sustainable development.


Users/developers please give your feedback.

Thanks a lot for reading across this boringly lengthy topic.