Aria2 probably is objectively better, but there are a few reasons wget
has (and will likely retain) the crown as default downloading application in Ubuntu:
wget
is tested and omnipresent. It's actually older than some of the moderators.
- Because it's almost 20, everything and its brother depends directly upon
wget
. It's not as easy as just replacing one with the other. You would need a legacy script to interface between apps wanting wget
and that request being sent through Aria2.
wget
is also smaller, approximately 20% of the size of Aria2. This matters for default applications because of the CD size.
- While Aria2 may do everything,
wget
is plenty for most jobs.
- There's also the question of multithreaded downloads being antisocial. They can hammer a server for new connections which isn't always desirable. Modern internet connections cope fine with single-threaded downloads.
If you're just doing stuff for yourself, feel free to use whatever you like. Aria2 seems capable enough and it's probably even objectively better... But it has a lot of history to overcome before it replaces anything.
If you want to pursue this and get Ubuntu to replace wget
with Aria2 as the default for Ubuntu, you'd have to talk to the Ubuntu developers on the ubuntu-devel mailing list. Expect resistance. You'll have to make arguments overcoming the above and you may have to do some of the work up front (eg providing a legacy handoff script as a wget binary replacement). It's possible, I'm sure it is but I won't lie and say it'll be easy.
The reason everybody uses wget
is slightly cyclical. It's everywhere and everybody knows it. Until Aria2 (which I can barely type twice without spelling it incorrectly) is as omnipresent as wget
, experienced users are going to keep using what they know if it's good enough. There's a lot of muscle memory to overcome.
wget
downloaded files (due to poor internet connection), I had to find something faster and stronger in getting files with multiple connection support.wget
would seem to be more in line with this philosophy thanaria2c
. Likewise, this is why people usecat
overtr
oversed
overawk
overperl
when the application permits, even though the later entries in that list have correspondingly more features. A simpler program with fewer features is usually the better choice when you don't need those features.