I certainly had to fiddle with it a bit to start, but once it’s up and running it’s seamless and less prone to issues than torrenting IMO.
Chesterwick Milorganite Hoan the Fourth (no relation)
I certainly had to fiddle with it a bit to start, but once it’s up and running it’s seamless and less prone to issues than torrenting IMO.
It’s likely faster - no waiting for seeds to connect and ramp up. I routinely see 900+Mbps from my provider from start to finish.
You aren’t at risk of exposing your true IP or downloads list to anyone but your Usenet provider.
Zero seeding required.
Older content is more likely to still be available in my experience (and not just with 1 dial-up seeder).
On occasion I have to go to private trackers when something never made it to Usenet, but it’s almost always something niche like an obscure out of print album. It cuts both ways though, and I’ve found some buried gems on Usenet that weren’t on any tracker.
The biggest downsides are the monthly cost of a Usenet provider, and a bit more technical expertise to host the NZB grabber.
See my reply to the parent comment.
No expert, but here’s my quick and dirty version:
Find an unlimited Usenet provider that works with your budget and location. Plenty of debate out there on which are best, and if you need a second pay-per-GB provider for filling in missing parts or not.
Spin up SABnzbd+ or a similar Usenet client on a local PC/NAS/etc.
the hard part - find a quality private Usenet indexer site that you can get an invite or has open registration.
Download the nzb files for the Linux ISO that you want from your indexer and open it with your Usenet client. (There are ways to feed the nzb file directly to your client, but that’s for next lesson).
Client looks for all of the parts listed in the nzb file on your Usenet provider, then downloads and unpacks them.
Et Voila - Linux ISO appears in your downloads directory.
A VPN is probably unnecessary, as most Usenet providers don’t log who downloads which files. Also, you can often hit your ISP’s max download rate from your Usenet provider, and there is no “seeding” to worry about.
Good luck!
A heads up if you have a G-Sync monitor from that same era: it may not do variable rate with Freesync. I was ready to pull the trigger and upgrade my 1080 Ti to an AMD card when I caught that detail. So now I need to justify the cost of a new main monitor as well if I want to have smooth variable refresh. Good luck!
I also have a no Samsung policy, because of their refrigerators.