[Spliff]

http://www.thothsw.com/

Thoth, Rosetta, and Ptah for OS X were introduced in November 2000.

Thoth received 40 updates with many new features and improvements. Rosetta and Ptah were similarly updated numerous times. All updates were free to existing customers. Sadly, publishing these programs is no longer practicable.

Thoth, Rosetta, and Ptah can no longer be downloaded or purchase

That's too bad. Thoth is, by far, the best usenet app out there. MT-Newswatcher is buggy (it rarely completes a download for me). Unison looks cool, but it needs many more features (like "Search"). The other available newsreaders are slow and/or awkward.

[starman]

Lame.

gnu

done

Mike

[Millennium]

Interesting: why, exactly, is development of these "no longer practicable"? Honest curiosity, since the developer hasn't given much in the way of explanation.

It seems to me that the only major change in the last month or so would be the release of Unison, but honestly I wouldn't think that Thoth's developer -a long-standing figure in Mac shareware- would turn tail and run at the sight of a little competition. Perhaps there's some factor that I don't know about? Maybe there was some new bug introduced in Panther that the developer couldn't work around?

Or maybe it has nothing to do with computers. Did he get sick or something? He wouldn't be the first developer to have to stop due to illness. Or maybe he had to change jobs, and his new one leaves him with two little time?

Seriously. All I ask is a little explanation, so that I'm not left assuming the worst about someone about whom I really don't want to be left with those assumptions.

[Zimphire]

*shrug* I have never had any problems with MT newswatcher.

[CambAngst]

I'm kind of perturbed that you can no longer download the last version of the program. I am a long-time registered user and I hadn't bothered to upgrade to the latest version in a few months. Now it looks like I'm stuck with whatever version I have.

I also think it's too bad that the author chose to be so cryptic. If the issue is that the stream of registration revenue has dried up, there are other ways of addressing the problem.

If this is all a stunt to promote some next-generation uber-NNTP client that incorporates all the features of Thoth, Rosetta and Ptah then it's really pretty lame.

[Moonray]

Millenium: I think I am not too far off when I think the developer realized that it would have needed a that big overhaul that rewriting from scratch would be easier.

We can all hope that a future Apple Mail will handle newsgropus as well, they'll need some sales arguments for 10.4 (though I doubt they'd include binary downloads).

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[Daracle]

I couldnt get it to download anything for me anyway
I could read it fine, but downloads...blah

[The Jackalope]

Personally I dumped Thoth after playing with Unison for a day. It was great, but I like U better. Who knows? Maybe the developer will be moving on to better things.

[malvolio]

Originally posted by CambAngst:
I'm kind of perturbed that you can no longer download the last version of the program. I am a long-time registered user and I hadn't bothered to upgrade to the latest version in a few months. Now it looks like I'm stuck with whatever version I have.

Another long-time registered user here. I have been keeping current with Thoth releases. Version 1.7.2 archives down to a tidy 1.5 MB zip file. PM me if you would like it emailed to you.

[trash80]

if you arn't going to continue developing it fine, but why not make the last release available? thats a bit odd.

[Vpro7]

I only used Thoth once but seemed a bit overkill, so I used Halime which was sweet.

He should release the source now so others could maybe take it on. I know that the guy behind Halime did that when he stoppped development.

[-Q-]

I couldn't stand Thoth (or Halime for that matter) but I always hate to see a Mac developer pull out of the market. It does seem kind of odd that he'd pull out so abruptly tho'. Maybe he got sued?

[khufuu]

Originally posted by trash80:
if you arn't going to continue developing it fine, but why not make the last release available? thats a bit odd.

Not if you're broke and can't afford to run a server any more.

[MaxPower]

Being a PC NewsBin Pro fan, I dislike the SDI for newsreaders. Check out Pan. Its free!

[trash80]

Originally posted by khufuu:
Not if you're broke and can't afford to run a server any more.

there are many places software can be and is stored for download

[Angus_D]

Wow, I can't believe people still use usenet...

[malvolio]

Originally posted by Angus_D:
Wow, I can't believe people still use usenet...

Hey, can't beat those alt.binaries.sounds.mp3 groups.

[Moonray]

Originally posted by Angus_D:
Wow, I can't believe people still use usenet...

You probably can't believe either people are still using internet at all, maybe you should stop going online.


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[techtrucker]

I've registered and used Thoth for quite a while now, sad to see it go. Will continue to use it but may have to check out Unison.

[gperks]

That's really a shame. Good luck to the author. I paid my registration just a couple of months ago. Ah well.

[insha]

I moved to Unison when it came out -- yeah it needs a bit more work and features but it's much better than Thoth.

[-Q-]

The reason for Thoth's discontinuation. Sorry it didn't work out for him.

[techtrucker]

It must be incredibly difficult to make a living on shareware. I wish him well.

[Moonray]

There are people who can write good software and those who can't. And who wants to sell it should know a bit about economics. Expecting a constantly growing user base is probably a common mistake, but no reason for bitter resentements when reality caughs you.

It is likely that you can't make a living with a newsreader, even if it would look good, would conform to standards, would not crash, and would not have huge memory leaks.

And not continuing a while to offer the latest version to download for customers who have paid already does not get my sympathy either.

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[Bluebomber21XX]

What a tool. He's even got a new version out (1.8.0) and refuses to release it.

He gets no sympathy from me either.

[Sarc]

I believe one of Panic's upcoming apps. is a news reader ... I certainly have high hopes for that.

[Jan Van Boghout]

Originally posted by Sarc:
I believe one of Panic's upcoming apps. is a news reader ... I certainly have high hopes for that.

It's not upcoming anymore, it's out right now and has received a few updates already�

[-Q-]

Originally posted by Jan Van Boghout:
It's not upcoming anymore, it's out right now and has received a few updates already�

And it's a quite nice newsreader. It's called Unison.

[Sarc]

didn't know that, thx for the update.