Newsboat is not available in Ecne (Trisquel 12)
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I am concerned that a well-known and widely used terminal-based RSS news reader is no longer available in Trisquel 12, despite being included in Trisquel 11.
I would like to understand the reasoning behind its removal and respectfully request reconsideration of its inclusion.
Terminal-based RSS readers are valuable tools for users who prefer lightweight, distraction-free environments or operate on low-resource systems. Their absence reduces the availability of efficient command-line workflows that many users rely on.
Additionally, maintaining such a package aligns well with Trisquel’s philosophy of providing free, efficient, and minimal software. Since it does not introduce significant dependencies or security concerns, reintroducing it would benefit users without negatively impacting the system.
I am a translator!
I would like to understand the reasoning behind its removal and respectfully request reconsideration of its inclusion.
Trisquel 12 takes its source packages from Ubuntu 24.04 and for some reason, there is no newsboat package in Ubuntu 24.04. That is probably the reason why it is not in Trisquel. I see that newsboat is in Ubuntu 25.10, so perhaps it will be in Ubunutu 26.04 and then automatically in Trisquel 13.
In case you have the guix package manager installed on Trisquel, you can install newsboat from it. You could also try offpunk but I don't know whether it is suitable for you.
Thanks for the clarification regarding Ubuntu 24.04 as the base for Trisquel 12.
However, my concern is that this effectively means users of a stable system with support until 2029 would be without a widely used terminal RSS reader for its entire lifecycle, despite it being previously available and still actively maintained upstream.
I understand the constraints of tracking Ubuntu packages, but in this case it feels like a gap that could be reasonably addressed without waiting for the next base release. A package like Newsboat is lightweight, has minimal dependencies, and fits well within Trisquel’s philosophy of free, efficient command-line tools.
Would it be possible for Trisquel to consider maintaining it as an exception (similar to how some distributions backport or selectively package software), or at least provide an officially supported alternative in the main repositories rather than relying on external package managers?
I think this would better align with the goal of making Trisquel a fully usable system throughout its support lifetime, rather than leaving certain workflows dependent on third-party solutions.
I am a translator!
Would it be possible for Trisquel to consider maintaining it as an exception (similar to how some distributions backport or selectively package software), or at least provide an officially supported alternative in the main repositories rather than relying on external package managers?
For an alternative, did you try offpunk? (I did not try, but I also don't know newsboat).
For inclusion in Trisquel 12, you could create an issue in the Trisquel gitlab. There might be a technical reason why newsboat is not in Ubuntu 24.04. I see that it uses cargo (rust package manager), so it is maybe not that easy.
I found https://redlib.catsarch.com/r/Ubuntu/comments/1cfhmiv/newsboat_rss_reader_missing_in_2404/lggskyb/?context=3#lggskyb where someone reported installing it in Ubuntu 24.04 using the package from Ubuntu 22.04, I don't know whether that would work on Trisquel 12, taking the Trisquel 11 package instead.
The package for Ubuntu 25.04 can be directly installed on Trisquel 12: https://packages.ubuntu.com/plucky/amd64/newsboat/download
That for Ubuntu 25.10 depends on a newer version of a library, libxml2.
newsboat 2.21.0 on Trisquel 12 Ecne:
wget https://archive.trisquel.org/trisquel/pool/main/n/newsboat/newsboat_2.21-1_amd64.deb && sudo apt install libstfl0 && sudo dpkg -i newsboat_2.21-1_amd64.deb
It works! :-)