Knode was arguably one of the best graphical Usenet Newsreaders ever
produced for Linux. However it was only written for KDE4. Once KDE4 was
dropped by many Linux distributions, so was Knode. There is only one Linux distribution today that still offers Knode as a standard part of the
repository and that is Q4OS which still offers a fork of the KDE3 desktop
that they call the Trinity Desktop Environment. Q4OS isn't a bad distro and
if you still like old desktop environments, it is based on Debian, and it
might be worth looking into.
However for those of us who like a slightly more modern Linux distribution, there is another option in the way of a project called distrobox[1].
Distrobox allows you to run packages from other distros in containers. For those of you who aren't familiar with the world of containers, think of it
as a way to run a program in an an automated and dedicated chroot/BSD Jail
kind of environment. Containers are normally run with one specific program
in mind and have been minimized to run that one program. Distrobox allows
you to run whatever you want in the container including graphical
applications like Knode.
If you want to run Knode, install Distrobox via its instructions and then
load up an image for a Linux distribution that you want to run.
For me, I am running OpenSUSE Leap 42.1 from 2015. That was the last version
of OpenSUSE to offer Knode. I had to do some digging to find the image, but here's what I did:
distrobox-create oldleap --image docker.io/redcorjo/sles-python2.7
This old python container I found out is based on 42.1. By running this command, it dropped me into a new shell inside the container. I was then
able to run `sudo zypper ref && sudo zypper in knode` to get it installed. I then ran the following command to get it to appear in the system menu of my external desktop environment:
distrobox-external --app knode
I could then `exit` the container and run the knode directly.
If anyone is interested in reviving knode, you can find the source code on Github[2]
p.s. a screenshot[3] of me writing this article on Knode running in a
OpenSUSE 42.1 container on my laptop running Manjaro Linux.
[1]
https://github.com/89luca89/distrobox
[2]
https://github.com/d-graef/KNode5
[3]
https://imgur.com/lgscTZb
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)