nzbget: Heretofore unbeknownst to me

I had honestly never heard of .nzb files until this morning, when nzbget popped out of my vimwiki folder as the choice of the Fates for today.

I make my apology for not knowing about .nzb files as a corollary to my relative ignorance about Usenet in general. I think until I had configured slrn to work properly, that entire portion of the Internet was really just a gray area for me.

So .nzb files don’t appear on my radar until the end of 2014, which I suppose should embarrass me. I do like how nzbget handles them though.

Good use of color. Has an arrangement like most or mutt or some other console applications. Expands or contracts to fit your terminal size. The major key commands are on the screen and will update to show your choices at any given moment.

Configuration was a little tetchy, only because nzbget wants a .nzbget file (with some alternatives) as a configuration before it will start. I just gave it a blank file, a la touch .nzbget, and it started well enough after that.

As a bonus, if you’re one of those people who abhors stale software, I see by the home page that the stable version is dated November 27, and a testing version is only three days newer than that. So you rest easy in the knowledge that your software is only days, if not weeks, old. 🙄

Debian versions for Wheezy are quite a bit older, but the Arch version in community seems to be the newest.

I am curious to see what is available through .nzb files, that I can’t necessarily get through .torrents or traditional downloads. Owing to my meager experiences with Usenet readers, I must admit I have my doubts. … 😕