So, you want to try torrenting on Linux, but because you're a fucking noob, you have no idea how to get started. That's where I come in.
To begin torrenting, you're gonna want a basic setup, composed of these 3 programs (links included below):
Here's how your setup will be:
The Tor Browser will be used to go onto torrenting sites (my recommendation is the Pirate Bay, for which they have an Onion domain). qBittorrent will be used to actually download the torrents from a magnet link, and Mullvad (or whatever other VPN you use) will be used to hide your activity from your ISP, who doesn't like torrenting because they're cringe.
Side note: some ISPs will block the Mullvad website, passing it off as malware (which it's not) because the VPN is so good at anonymizing your online activity that the ISP is left dead in the water as to what you're doing online. To get around this, you could either visit the site using the Tor browser when connected to the Tor network, but that makes paying for Mullvad kind of hard, especially if you're paying with a card. You'll get a popup from your card company about secure purchasing, and the transaction most likely won't go through. To pay with card successfully, another workaround is to set up a hotspot on your phone, connect your computer to that, and you should be able to access Mullvad's site on any browser and pay for it just fine.
After downloading the Tor browser, qBittorrent, and signing up for Mullvad, here's how you can actually torrent:
On the Tor browser, visit a torrenting site like the Pirate Bay and select something to torrent. The Pirate Bay no longer offers direct downloads of .torrent files, and instead uses magnet links. Open the magnet link in a new tab. The Tor browser can't actually open magnet links, but the link will still be in the searchbar, so CTRL-C the full magnet link to copy it. This entire time, you should have had your VPN turned off when using the Tor browser. The browser connects you to the Tor network, which already has multiple layers of obfuscation, rendering a VPN unnecessary, since it just slows down the connection. After copying the magnet link, close out or minimize the Tor browser, turn on the VPN, and open qBittorrent. Open the preferences section of qBittorrent, and go to advanced settings. Next to "network interface" there's a drop-down menu. Select the network interface of your VPN, and click Apply. This makes sure that qBittorrent takes advantage of your VPN. You are now ready to torrent.
Inside qBittorrent, click the "Open URL" button. qBittorrent is nice in that it automatically pastes whatever you've copied, such as the magnet link. Open the magnet link that's been pasted. It'll open a menu showing what files need to be downloaded and asks you what directory to save the downloaded torrent in. Click OK, and it'll start downloading.
The torrent will download, after which it'll say "seeding." You're probably wondering what this means. Simply put, the way torrenting works, you're not downloading a whole movie, but rather bits and pieces of it. Same for every other person downloading it. Seeding is the act of keeping the portions of a torrent that you've downloaded available for everyone else downloading the torrent as well. That said, the more people seeding a torrent, the faster the torrent downloads for everybody. Essentially, you're downloading the bits and pieces of a movie from someone else, and other parts from another person, and so on, until you have a complete movie at the end, upon which qBittorrent automatically starts seeding. The people who download a torrent but don't seed it are called leechers, and are generally frowned upon, so consider it good practice to always seed your torrents for at least a good length of time. In fact, you could even dedicate an entire computer just for downloading and seeding torrents, which is called a seedbox.
Downloading torrents can be a great way of accessing movies, TV, music, and more, but there are some things to worry about. ISPs tend to hate torrenting, as it allows you to download copyrighted material for free, which the spooks in Hollywood tend to complain about. Torrenting without a VPN is very risky business, since your ISP can see everything you do online. If they see that you're torrenting, they can throttle your bandwidth to bring your internet speeds to a screeching halt. If that doesn't stop you, you'll most likely get an angry letter from your ISP, telling you to stop torrenting or else they'll come to your house and break your kneecaps (not really, but they will most likely cut off your internet contract if you don't stop torrenting). Using a VPN masks your IP from outsiders and anonymizes your connection, keeping your ISP from seeing what you're doing online. Since they can't see what you're doing, they won't know you're torrenting, and so you won't get an angry letter from your ISP. The key to torrenting is to stay anonymous and practice good online security habits. In the end, it's that simple. Hope this helps.
Remember kids, sniffing glue will not get your parents back together. -TN82