Very Computer

by **Roberto Alsi** » Thu, 04 Sep 1997 04:00:00

>Hi,

>I have spent ages looking for a good offline news reader for my linux
>Laptop - But to no avail.

>Last night I tried out knews, qnews and skim, knews looked about the
>best one but is suited to a permanent connection.

I will make a small plug for one I am developing, called krn. You can get
it at http://www.veryComputer.com/

Quote:
>The best newsreader package I have ever used is Free Agent,
>unfortunately this is for Windows.

>I want (Free Agent for Linux) a newsreader that works well off line and
>I don't even mind paying for it if its commercial.

Well, feel free to pay me ;-)

Quote:
>What I mean by offline is able to read and reply to postings with out
>being on line, Free Agent is great for this, from home I retrieve
>headers and selected bodies before leaving for work and then spend my
>commuting time on the train reading and writing to the newsgroups.

>One particularly good feature of Free Agent is how you can set
>paramenetrs for when you purge groups, i.e. remove anything over 30 days
>old that hasn't had a body retrieved for it.

>Can anyone recommend a comparable newsreader?

>Maybe if the ultimate on/offline newsreader hasn't yet been written it
>would be a good project, - one which I would be interested to
>participate in.

I could use help, so please see if you are interested.

Best regards.
--

("\''/").__..-''"`-. . Roberto Alsina

(_Y_.)' ._ ) `._`. " -.-' Centro de Telematica
_..`-'_..-_/ /-'_.' Universidad Nacional del Lit*
(l)-'' ((i).' ((!.' Santa Fe - Argentina

by **Bill Gribbl** » Thu, 04 Sep 1997 04:00:00

> The best newsreader package I have ever used is Free Agent,
> unfortunately this is for Windows.

> I want (Free Agent for Linux) a newsreader that works well off line and
> I don't even mind paying for it if its commercial.

The best newsreader I have ever seen is Gnus, which is a package for
GNU emacs. You can't even begin to imagine how powerful it is. Not
only that, but the writer (Lars Ingebright) is a madman, releasing
sometimes two or three new versions a week.

Check gnu.emacs.gnus for the canonical FTP site to get the most recent
version (I'm muddling along with a version that's two months old --
about 50 minor versions released since then!)

I've never used gnus in off-line mode, but I am certain that it can
be made to do the right thing.

Bill Gribble

by **Douglas Ridgw** » Thu, 04 Sep 1997 04:00:00

: I have spent ages looking for a good offline news reader for my linux
: Laptop - But to no avail.

: The best newsreader package I have ever used is Free Agent,
: unfortunately this is for Windows.

Also look into things designed to work with an online newsreader. There's
a package called 'suck' which is designed to allow offline viewing by
downloading news into a local news spool.

Additionally, if you want Free Agent on Linux, that may be possible as
well. I tried out the 16bit version with the latest Wine (970820) and
it seemed to work okay. Wine is still pre-alpha, but for many win16 programs
it seems reliable. Wine is pretty easy to compile, but if you can't spare
the space there's an RPM in the contrib directory at ftp.redhat.com.

d.

by **Davy De Wae** » Sat, 06 Sep 1997 04:00:00

Quote:>Additionally, if you want Free Agent on Linux, that may be possible as
>well. I tried out the 16bit version with the latest Wine (970820) and
>it seemed to work okay. Wine is still pre-alpha, but for many win16 programs
>it seems reliable. Wine is pretty easy to compile, but if you can't spare
>the space there's an RPM in the contrib directory at ftp.redhat.com.

I started using linux because I wanted to get away from the Microsft
easystreet of home computing. I consider myself to be reasonably
intelligent when it comes to computers , but what I don't see
myself doing is running linux only to use emulation software on it.
Windows is great for people who don't want a lot of problems setting
things up and so ... But hey , every linux user I know says Microsoft
& windows is *, and linux is great , but a simple thing like an
offline newsreader is probably to much to ask.

What was a pleasant suprise using linux were the server capabilities ,
for something as free as linux , I have to commend everybody on the
project for keeping it alive.

Just wanted to say this.

bye

by **Tim Smi** » Sat, 06 Sep 1997 04:00:00

Quote:>I have spent ages looking for a good offline news reader for my linux
>Laptop - But to no avail.

INN + suck + trn.

--Tim Smith

by **Roberto Alsi** » Sat, 06 Sep 1997 04:00:00

>>I have spent ages looking for a good offline news reader for my linux
>>Laptop - But to no avail.

>INN + suck + trn.

That wastes lots of bandwidth. I know that's no problem on the US, but
down here they charge by the minute :-)

--

("\''/").__..-''"`-. . Roberto Alsina

(_Y_.)' ._ ) `._`. " -.-' Centro de Telematica
_..`-'_..-_/ /-'_.' Universidad Nacional del Lit*
(l)-'' ((i).' ((!.' Santa Fe - Argentina

by **Juhani Rantane** » Sat, 06 Sep 1997 04:00:00

> xagent uses xforms.086

Do you think it makes sense to use proprietary widget set with GPL'ed
program? In practice, it makes the whole program proprietary (f.e,
consider if you would want to port it to a platform where Xforms is
not available). I don't mean that you should make your program
proprietary, it's great thing that people make their programs free. To
be *truly* free, in sense of freedom, one should not use any
proprietary libraries if possible (and it is, GTK is a free Motif-like
widget set available under LGPL).

Quote:> The program is getting bigger and bigger, and planned are:
> filters (release .07) , 'secret agent' (in the first real beta, what
> it does is still a secret, but I am open to suggestions).

I would appreciate if your program would able to pass incoming news
messages through external (spam-)filter. There are plenty of these
available, so I don't think that makin another filter is high
priority.

Quote:> Its all written in C (not C++) and the source is GPL.
> I strongly recommend not using version .05, but waiting for .06.

I use GNU Emacs's GNUS package. It's really great, but may take a
while to learn. It might be a good try, if you need newsreader that
even washes your dishes and brews coffee for you:-)

--
Juhani Rantanen
Tyvikatu 17 C 13 33340 Tampere http://www.sgic.fi/~misty/
-- "Windows on graafisuutena ansiosta paras k?ytt?j?rjestelm?" --
-- Tv-Tampere, Internet-kurssi --

by **frank.boe..** » Sun, 07 Sep 1997 04:00:00

> >>I have spent ages looking for a good offline news reader for my linux
> >>Laptop - But to no avail.

> >INN + suck + trn.
> That wastes lots of bandwidth. I know that's no problem on the US, but
> down here they charge by the minute :-)

Agreed. Especially when running a leafsite on a laptop (as I do) there
are some things to take into account too. I have done a lot of experiments
and eventually ended up with a perfectly taylored solution made of

pnews+suck+tin+xfmail

I can do postings to newsgroups, mail reply to sender, email itself
and whatever else (everything offline, of course). I don't use any of
this huge things like sendmail or inn. But I patched the sorces of
inews and pnews to suit my needs. Once connected, I can exchange
everything in one batch.

BTW: To answer the question wether or not one can use leafnode, one
should find out if the upstream nntp server supports the NEWNEWS
command (telnet to port 119...)

Frank

--

------------------------------------------------------------------
How can you be in two places at once when you're not anywhere at all

by **Bud Roger** » Sun, 07 Sep 1997 04:00:00

> >>I have spent ages looking for a good offline news reader for my linux
> >>Laptop - But to no avail.

> >INN + suck + trn.

> That wastes lots of bandwidth. I know that's no problem on the US, but
> down here they charge by the minute :-)

True. And INN + suck is gross overkill for most people who just want
to read a few groups. And trn is an excellent newsreader, but in no
way comparable to Free Agent.

There is on offline newreader for X called xagent that is a fair
work-alike for Free Agent. It's written with the XForms graphical
toolkit. It's still alpha, but it shows promise. I thought I had a
URL, but I can't find it right now.

--

by **Roberto Alsin** » Mon, 08 Sep 1997 04:00:00

> : I will make a small plug for one I am developing, called krn. You can get
> : it at http://www.veryComputer.com/

> : >I want (Free Agent for Linux) a newsreader that works well off line and
> : >I don't even mind paying for it if its commercial.

> : Well, feel free to pay me ;-)

> You'll be affected by Qt's license.

> :))))))

You should read the license more carefully :-)
Really, selling programs under the GPL is ok. The Qt license only forbids
licensing the program under licenses other than GPL/BSD/Artistic.

("\''/").__..-''"`-. . Roberto Alsina

(_Y_.)' ._ ) `._`. " -.-' Centro de Telematica
_..`-'_..-_/ /-'_.' Universidad Nacional del Lit*
(l)-'' ((i).' ((!.' Santa Fe - Argentina

by **Phil Fraerin** » Mon, 08 Sep 1997 04:00:00

> Do you think it makes sense to use proprietary widget set with GPL'ed
> program? In practice, it makes the whole program proprietary (f.e,
> consider if you would want to port it to a platform where Xforms is
> not available). I don't mean that you should make your program
> proprietary, it's great thing that people make their programs free. To
> be *truly* free, in sense of freedom, one should not use any
> proprietary libraries if possible (and it is, GTK is a free Motif-like
> widget set available under LGPL).

I dunno, but the FSF does it with Motif.

Quote:> I use GNU Emacs's GNUS package. It's really great, but may take a
> while to learn. It might be a good try, if you need newsreader that
> even washes your dishes and brews coffee for you:-)

See? You already have software that interfaces to a proprietary
widget set, depending on compilation options.

--
Phil Fraering "Somewhere in the back of her mind, she had always

whirr... ching! lit at best by torches, the domain of cretins and
/Will work for *tape*/ mechanical calculators." - V. Vinge, _A Fire Upon The
Deep_

by **Chris Water** » Wed, 10 Sep 1997 04:00:00

> > Do you think it makes sense to use proprietary widget set with GPL'ed
> > program? In practice, it makes the whole program proprietary (f.e,
> > consider if you would want to port it to a platform where Xforms is
> > not available). I don't mean that you should make your program
> > proprietary, it's great thing that people make their programs free. To
> > be *truly* free, in sense of freedom, one should not use any
> > proprietary libraries if possible (and it is, GTK is a free Motif-like
> > widget set available under LGPL).
> I dunno, but the FSF does it with Motif.

There's a big difference there. Motif ships with most versions of
*NIX, so it falls under the GPL clause which says:

"However, as a special exception, the source code distributed
need not include anything that is normally distributed (in
either source or binary form) with the major components
(compiler, kernel, and so on) of the operating system on which
the executable runs, unless that component itself accompanies
the executable."

Xforms does not qualify under those terms. Neither does Trolltech's
Qt library, though they also tried to use Motif as an excuse on their
web page.

Of course, since Motif doesn't ship with Linux, people who ship GPL'd
binaries linked with Motif for Linux are also on pretty shakey
ground. If I were to do so, I'd want to make sure that my code linked
and ran with Lesstif beforehand.

Ultimately, you can do whatever you want, and, unless someone *wants*
to sue you, you'll be fine. It depends on how much risk you want in
your life. Me, I stay away from Xforms and Qt and similar libraries
when working with GPL'd code.
--
Chris Waters |

www.dsp.net/xtifr/ (web) | volcaniconi- standalone haiku.

by **Joe Bu** » Wed, 10 Sep 1997 04:00:00

> So until a court of law rules on what "the operating system" in the
> much-quoted GPL passage means, I think this can't be answered.

You seem to think that if Qt can be declared "part of the operating
system" your problems with Qt plus GPL go away. They don't, because you
attempt to place other restrictions on the program itself, in addition to
the restrictions on Qt itself. For example, you attempt to forbid the
distribution of programs that depend on patched versions of Qt. You
discriminate between "commercial" and "noncommercial". You make
requirements of programmers that the GPL does not make. Motif does
none of these.

--
-- Joe Buck http://www.synopsys.com/pubs/research/people/jbuck.html
If you thought flashing ads on Web sites were annoying, wait till the Web
and your operating system are "seamlessly integrated" and watch the
pulsating promotional crud spill out over your desktop. -- Scott Rosenburg

by **Roberto Alsi** » Wed, 10 Sep 1997 04:00:00

>> > Do you think it makes sense to use proprietary widget set with GPL'ed
>> > program? In practice, it makes the whole program proprietary (f.e,
>> > consider if you would want to port it to a platform where Xforms is
>> > not available). I don't mean that you should make your program
>> > proprietary, it's great thing that people make their programs free. To
>> > be *truly* free, in sense of freedom, one should not use any
>> > proprietary libraries if possible (and it is, GTK is a free Motif-like
>> > widget set available under LGPL).

>> I dunno, but the FSF does it with Motif.

>There's a big difference there. Motif ships with most versions of
>*NIX, so it falls under the GPL clause which says:

> "However, as a special exception, the source code distributed
> need not include anything that is normally distributed (in
> either source or binary form) with the major components
> (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the operating system on which
> the executable runs, unless that component itself accompanies
> the executable."

>Xforms does not qualify under those terms. Neither does Trolltech's
>Qt library, though they also tried to use Motif as an excuse on their
>web page.

Motif is not shipped with all systems, only with some (for example, it's
not shipped with AS/400s, or VAXen, or macs, or windows boxes).

Qt is shipped with some Linux distributions.

Both are shipped with a small fraction of the total systems.
Sounds fairly similar.

Quote:>Of course, since Motif doesn't ship with Linux, people who ship GPL'd
>binaries linked with Motif for Linux are also on pretty shakey
>ground. If I were to do so, I'd want to make sure that my code linked
>and ran with Lesstif beforehand.

The GPL applies to the program, not to the program on a given platform.
A program can't be GPL on one platform and not GPL on another.
A binary on one platform can not be less legal than a binary on another,
since the GPL makes no distinction between different platforms.

>Ultimately, you can do whatever you want, and, unless someone *wants*
>to sue you, you'll be fine. It depends on how much risk you want in
>your life. Me, I stay away from Xforms and Qt and similar libraries
>when working with GPL'd code.
>--
>Chris Waters |

>www.dsp.net/xtifr/ (web) | volcaniconi- standalone haiku.

--

("\''/").__..-''"`-. . Roberto Alsina

(_Y_.)' ._ ) `._`. " -.-' Centro de Telematica
_..`-'_..-_/ /-'_.' Universidad Nacional del Lit*
(l)-'' ((i).' ((!.' Santa Fe - Argentina

Very Computer

Is a newsreader comparable to Free Agent available for Linux

Is a newsreader comparable to Free Agent available for Linux

Is a newsreader comparable to Free Agent available for Linux

Is a newsreader comparable to Free Agent available for Linux

Is a newsreader comparable to Free Agent available for Linux

Is a newsreader comparable to Free Agent available for Linux

Is a newsreader comparable to Free Agent available for Linux

Is a newsreader comparable to Free Agent available for Linux

Is a newsreader comparable to Free Agent available for Linux

Is a newsreader comparable to Free Agent available for Linux

Is a newsreader comparable to Free Agent available for Linux

Is a newsreader comparable to Free Agent available for Linux

Is a newsreader comparable to Free Agent available for Linux

Is a newsreader comparable to Free Agent available for Linux

Is a newsreader comparable to Free Agent available for Linux