Azureus Software has released Vuze 5.0, a major update of its open-source, cross-platform Bittorrent client. Version 5.0’s improvements and changes have been focussed on its “core functionality”, making the locating, adding and downloading of torrents much easier with this release.

This has been achieved by tweaking the user interface, Sidebar and Library views to make these features more visible, and are joined by other changes, including better tools for accessing Vuze remotely and a new tagging system for managing torrents.

Vuze 5.0’s most visible change is found with the new Toolbar Split feature. Toolbar buttons have been moved from the top of the screen to individual view screens, so only relevant options are displayed. In their place go a new search bar and Open Torrents button for adding and finding torrents.

There are plenty of changes in version 5.0 that aim to make Vuze easier to use.

The Sidebar has also been tweaked, with the Files section now described as My Torrents and moved to the top of the Sidebar view. A new view – Content Discovery – has also been added, into which all sections used for locating content, including RSS subscriptions and the Vuze HD Network, can be found.

The new Tags feature sits alongside Vuze’s existing Categories feature, and allow users to assign multiple tags to individual torrents. Azureus admits that Tags will eventually replace Categories altogether, but in this release the two sit side-by-side. Tags can be found in the My Torrents section of the Sidebar.

Vuze 5.0 also adds Torrent Details to the bottom of the library view, saving users the bother of right-clicking a torrent and choosing Show Details to view them. The available tabs including Sources, Peers, Swarm, Pieces and Speed. The Speed view provides a graph allowing users to monitor the performance of a torrent’s upload and download speed over time. A new set of country flags have also been added to make peer locations easy to identify.

The Vuze Remote UI, a separate web-based app for remotely managing torrents via mobile device as well as remote computer, has also been updated for the first time in over two years. Changes include Torrent Info, new Peers and Tracker views, Files View with Priority Setting, and Meta Search on newer iPhones.

Vuze 5.0.0.0 is available now as a free, open-source download for Windows, Mac and Linux.