My Preferred Console Software 
=============================

Here's a list of the software that I use on the command 
line. My emphasis is -- and has always been -- on simplicity 
of usage. This phlog post will be updated over time and I'm 
going to link it to the main page of my gopher hole.


Internet Browsing 
=================

lynx - The (for me) original web and gopher browser. Accept 
no substitutes!

gopher - the University of Minnesota's gopher client. I 
still use it regularly (but not as often as lynx).

newsbeuter - an rss feed reader. To change the default 
browser, create a file named 'config' in the .newsbeuter 
directory and add a line defining the browser of your 
choice. Mine reads: browser lynx

slrn - newsgroup navigation was never so easy. Arrow. Arrow. 
Spacebar. Spacebar. Spacebar. You get the idea!

rtv - reddit terminal viewer. The available commands are 
displayed in the bottom bar.

toot - mastodon client. The curses interface has been 
greatly improved since the version in the Debian stable 
repository (version 21). I just downloaded and installed the 
Debian testing ("Bullseye") package (version 26) with dpkg 
and it seems to be working well so far.


Email 
=====

alpine - the most current version of the University of 
Washington's simple, reliable email client, pine. 
Developer Eduardo Chappa provides help at comp.mail.pine.


Instant Messaging
=================

finch - the cli interface for libpurple. It works well for 
XMPP. I haven't tried it with other protocols for ages.


Music and Video 
===============

mplayer - it plays *everything* I've ever thrown at it and 
the commands are intuitive. I often go into a music folder 
and type "mplayer *". It's my go-to video player too.

moc - a reasonable alternative for music if you prefer a 
gui-style interface. But it's no Mpxplay for DOS.


eBooks 
======

epr - a python epub reader. It made dgold's life better![1] 
I wrote about it in more detail here:

gopher://zaibatsu.circumlunar.space/0/~visiblink/phlog/20191130


Text Editor 
===========

nano - go away with your vi(m)s and emacs! My first email 
client was pine, and nano is a clone of the original, simple 
pine editor, pico. I'm writing this list with it.


[1] gopher://ascraeus.org/0/phlog/045.txt