I’ve always suffered from the lack of a good download manager for linux until I stumbled upon JDownloader. I swear it is something better than you could expect.

Just copy a link from Rapidshare, Mediafire, Hotfile, or any such file hosting service available and it’ll do the download for you. Yes, you don’t need to have premium accounts for any of these services. No more count downs. If the site requests filling out Captchas JDownloader will just show you the captcha and all you have to do it type it in and press Enter. Furthermore, once a compressed file is downloaded it is automatically uncompressed.

As the name suggests it is written in Java. Does some updating thing once installed so you’ll have to wait for a few minutes. Another con is the not so eye catching interface. But pros overrule over them.

JDownloader has recently obtained its own PPA so nothing to worry about installing.

Refer this post to get instructions on adding the PPA and installing.