I was about to download the Helix.ISO and I noticed it was available as a torrent.

Now I don't know much about torrents except that they are similar to P2P networks (same but different).

Is it going to be faster/more reliable to download via a torrent rather than through Firefoxes download manager?

Are Bittorrent clients full of spyware much like P2P clients?

Can you recommend a client program subject to the above?

Pardon my ignorance but I've not dabbled with filesharing progs since the original Napster days and my only other experience with them has been removing the spyware that comes with E-donkey/grokster etc.