wget drupal contributed modules

Can anyone point me towards using wget to access contributed modules / projects. I don't want to use a CVS system, but now that I've migrated to Ubuntu, I want to be able to use a command line interface to quickly download and unpackage drupal modules.

I'm new to Ubuntu. I've previously used Tortoise CVS system under Windows, but I don't really need it if I can simply use a command line to download projects / latest module updates.

Thanks!

shalom from wales!
John