news readers again

[Tony Baechler]

Keith Barrett wrote:
> Still looking for a reader to read text newsgroups.
>
> Has anyone used slrn with speakup?
>
> Following the previous messages, I did try using apt-get to install trn 
> but seems it is no longer part of debian?
>   


Hi,

trn is quite old and is probably no longer supported.  I suspect slrn is 
the same.  I would suggest either tin or alpine, both of which should be 
in Debian.  I think Alpine is only in unstable.  It isn't on Etch 
anyway.  tin has been around for a very long time and is generally 
friendly and easy to use.  I used pine a long time ago and also found it 
friendly, but pine is non-free and has been replaced by Alpine.  If you 
wish to keep local copies of any particular newsgroups, also look into 
suck and leafnode.  Since you probably won't want to download every 
article from most newsgroups, use either tin with the -r switch or rtin 
to access a remote nntp server.  Note that Google Groups is not a news 
server, it's a web gateway to newsgroups.