From Newsgroup: news.software.readers

Hi Steve,

Adding news.software.readers to the discussion.

Le 12/02/2026 |a 02:09, Steve Silverwood [KB6OJS] a |-crit-a:

I'm slowly migrating everything over from Windows to Linux. I have a
list of apps and functions that I use on Windows 11, checking each one
off when I have a Linux-based solution. When I have the list
completed, I'll cut over to Linux and not shed much of a tear....

One that I'm trying to check off is my newsreader. I've been using
Agent for years, but the developer has shelved further development of
the app and a few months ago stopped their newsgroup service as well.
Before that I used Gravity, which has been revived by Steve Gibson of
Gibson Research, but it isn't being produced for Linux, just Windows.

Question: What newsreader does the collective brain trust here
consider the best option, and why?

I'm using the latest version of Ubuntu Cinnamon, if that helps.

Thanks muchly!

You'll certainly obtain more answers from people in that newsgroup.
--
Julien |eLIE

-2-aAmbo florentes aetatibus, Arcades ambo-a-+ (Virgile, _|eglogue VII_)

--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: news.software.readers

ptomblin+netnews@xcski.com (Paul Tomblin) spake the secret code <10mlkpq$k9g$1@linode.xcski.com> thusly:

I'm still using trn. I don't think it's been updated in decades, but it still >works.

I'm working on a new version :)
<https://github.com/LegalizeAdulthood/trn>
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" free book <http://tinyurl.com/d3d-pipeline>
The Terminals Wiki <http://terminals-wiki.org>
The Computer Graphics Museum <http://computergraphicsmuseum.org>
Legalize Adulthood! (my blog) <http://legalizeadulthood.wordpress.com>
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: news.software.readers

According to Richard <>:

ptomblin+netnews@xcski.com (Paul Tomblin) spake the secret code ><10mlkpq$k9g$1@linode.xcski.com> thusly:

I'm still using trn. I don't think it's been updated in decades, but it still >>works.

I'm working on a new version :)
<https://github.com/LegalizeAdulthood/trn>

I'm very interested. I'm using a copy on MacOS that I compiled in about 2017, but I can't get it close to compiling with the current Mac programming environment.
Tick, tick, tick, ...
--
Regards,
John Levine, johnl@taugh.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. https://jl.ly
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: news.software.readers

[Added *the* newsreader group, news.software.readers, removed alt.free.nntp]

Steve Silverwood [KB6OJS] <steve.silverwood@gmail.com> wrote:
[...]

Question: What newsreader does the collective brain trust here
consider the best option, and why?

For me it's tin, the CUI (Character/'Console' UI) newsreader. Why?
Because it's very versatile and CUI. Why hunt around with a GUI and
'mouse' when you're using a pure plain *text*medium? For example, I can
read new articles (in all subscribed groups) with one hand, resting on
the keyboard.

tin should be available in/for most if not all Linux distributions.

It's also available on lots of other platforms. I use the Cygwin
version under (Microsoft) Windows.

<http://tin.org/>
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: news.software.readers

[Please do not mail me a copy of your followup]

John Levine <johnl@taugh.com> spake the secret code <10mm3ia$3d7$2@gal.iecc.com> thusly:

According to Richard <>:

ptomblin+netnews@xcski.com (Paul Tomblin) spake the secret code >><10mlkpq$k9g$1@linode.xcski.com> thusly:

I'm still using trn. I don't think it's been updated in decades, but it still
works.

I'm working on a new version :)
<https://github.com/LegalizeAdulthood/trn>

I'm very interested. I'm using a copy on MacOS that I compiled in about 2017, >but I can't get it close to compiling with the current Mac programming >environment.
Tick, tick, tick, ...

I have the macOS CI builds on github currently disabled, but mostly
because the terminal handling in trn is funky and the macOS build
failed due to the order of includes and which termcap related headers
were included. It's probably not a big deal to figure that out, but I
don't have a mac on which I can manually edit/compile/test. I would
be very grateful for some collaboration there! My primary development environment is Windows with WSL testing for linux.

Things are progressing nicely; the UTF-8 improvements contributed by
others have been integrated although they probably need some more
manual testing. Manual integration testing on all platforms and final
polish is where we're at for the 5.0 release.
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" free book <http://tinyurl.com/d3d-pipeline>
The Terminals Wiki <http://terminals-wiki.org>
The Computer Graphics Museum <http://computergraphicsmuseum.org>
Legalize Adulthood! (my blog) <http://legalizeadulthood.wordpress.com>
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: news.software.readers

[in reply to ReK2 Hispagatos <rek2@usenet_reborn.tui>]

[Added *the* newsreader group, news.software.readers, removed alt.free.nntp]

Steve Silverwood [KB6OJS] <steve.silverwood@gmail.com> wrote:
[...]

Question: What newsreader does the collective brain trust here
consider the best option, and why?

for vim and tui users I wrote a moderm/simple lite client and
I continue adding features to it called "usenet-reborn"
done in rust is fast and nice.

https://sr.ht/~rek2/Usenet_Reborn/


Happy Hacking
ReK2
--
EfA|rCiryaN+AEfA|EfuNN+AEfA+N+Ari?N+AEfna {gemini,https}://{,rek2.}hispagatos.org - mastodon: @rek2@hispagatos.space [https|gemini]://2600.Madrid - https://hispagatos.space/@rek2
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: news.software.readers

According to Richard <>:

I'm very interested. I'm using a copy on MacOS that I compiled in about 2017,
but I can't get it close to compiling with the current Mac programming >>environment.
Tick, tick, tick, ...

I have the macOS CI builds on github currently disabled, but mostly
because the terminal handling in trn is funky and the macOS build
failed due to the order of includes and which termcap related headers
were included. It's probably not a big deal to figure that out, but I
don't have a mac on which I can manually edit/compile/test. I would
be very grateful for some collaboration there! My primary development >environment is Windows with WSL testing for linux.

I don't have unlimited time but if you have some things you'd like
me to try, write to me directly.
--
Regards,
John Levine, johnl@taugh.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. https://jl.ly
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: news.software.readers

legalize+jeeves@mail.xmission.com (Richard) wrote:

. . .

[fork of trn]

Things are progressing nicely; the UTF-8 improvements contributed by
others have been integrated although they probably need some more
manual testing. Manual integration testing on all platforms and final
polish is where we're at for the 5.0 release.

trn expects the user to do things for himself in the composer.

If there is a reason to declare a character set, I add MIME headers
manually. I don't expect trn to do it for me.

Also, in followup, I parse for all that crap added to articles that make
them other than plain text, like nonbreaking spaces. When trn users who
care about this send an article, it is genuine plain text, devoid of all nontext characters.

I hope this feature remains.
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: news.software.readers

[Please do not mail me a copy of your followup]

"Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com> spake the secret code <10moh4u$2po5v$1@dont-email.me> thusly:

legalize+jeeves@mail.xmission.com (Richard) wrote:
[fork of trn]

Things are progressing nicely; the UTF-8 improvements contributed by
others have been integrated although they probably need some more
manual testing. Manual integration testing on all platforms and final >>polish is where we're at for the 5.0 release.

trn expects the user to do things for himself in the composer.

This is unchanged. The UTF-8 improvements I mentioned have to do with
proper display of UTF-8 in articles; they don't impose UTF-8 on
authors of messages.

Also, in followup, I parse for all that crap added to articles that make
them other than plain text, like nonbreaking spaces. When trn users who
care about this send an article, it is genuine plain text, devoid of all >nontext characters.

I hope this feature remains.

I too find many messages that strictly declare themselves to be UTF-8
could easily be rendered in 7-bit ASCII without any significant loss,
just minor formatting losses like "smart quotes" being rendered as
plain ASCII quote characters and so-on.

trn has a "character set conversion" mechanism that is fairly limited,
but I have an enhancement issue to add this UTF-8 => ASCII style
conversion: <https://github.com/LegalizeAdulthood/trn/issues/34>

In the current code, this mechanism was semi-disabled by the changes
made by Ambrose Li (@acli on github). It will need to be re-enabled
for the 5.0 release.

In general, the character set handling in trn is a weak spot. The
strengths are more in the threading, scoring and kill file processing.
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" free book <http://tinyurl.com/d3d-pipeline>
The Terminals Wiki <http://terminals-wiki.org>
The Computer Graphics Museum <http://computergraphicsmuseum.org>
Legalize Adulthood! (my blog) <http://legalizeadulthood.wordpress.com>
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2