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The Internet

Favorite NNTP Client? 59

Posted by Cliff from the what-do-you-read-your-news-with? dept.
keller asks: "We all have our favourite browser, mail client and OS! So what about Usenet Reader? I have always used Netscape's built-in one, and have always been satisfied, but are there better alternatives out there. I'm not looking for any features in particular, just something easy to use and nice to look at."
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Favorite NNTP Client? More

Favorite NNTP Client?

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  • The Pimp-Ass Newsreader (Score:3, Insightful)

    by egrinake ( 308662 ) <`erikg' `at' `codepoet.no'> on Tuesday November 27, 2001 @06:19AM (#2618346)
    PAN (the Pimp Ass Newsreader) is without a doubt the best newsreader I've used on any platform. Pan seems to be Unix/Linux only, and is based on the gtk+ toolkit.

    Check it out at http://pan.rebelbase.com [rebelbase.com].

    • Release names (Score:2, Interesting)

      by codexus ( 538087 )
      I've never used it but I really like the release names: "Cherry Blossoms Fall" "Alethiometer" (cf. His Dark Materials trilogy ;) "Why Don't You Just Make Ten Louder" The author has humor and I'm gonna give this newsreader a try.
  • I've had great luck using SLRN for both Windows and Linux. It is text only, but it respects your mime types and/or mailcap entries, so viewing graphical items isn't a problem. It also lets you use your favorite editor to compose news posts, which I find to be a definate plus.

    Since slrn exists for nearly every major platform, those who switch between many boxen on a regular basis will benefit from having a consistent interface. Also, scoring, downloading multi-part binaries, editing your posts, and administering news groups are all simple and easy to learn.

    I've tried dozens of news readers, and I've come to believe in slrn as the top of the pile. However, if you're just using an X environment and no other platform, pan (the Pimp Ass Newsreader) is a great graphical client.

  • Forte agent (Score:3, Informative)

    by Jon Peterson ( 1443 ) <jonNO@SPAMsnowdrift.org> on Tuesday November 27, 2001 @07:07AM (#2618422) Homepage
    http://www.forteinc.com/

    It was good enough for me to give up nn (and rn, and trn).
    • I'll have to second that recommendation. Development of Agent (and it's free little cousin, Free Agent) seemed to stop for a couple years, but Forte has recently released some upgrades. Their site indicates that users will be able to vote for new features on the eagerly anticipated Agent 2.0.
    • Actually, I've tried everything else, but I've
      gone back to nn. Especially since the
      debian nn is finally functional again.


      So scoring isn't as finely graduated as other
      newsreaders. It still kicks butt, IMHO.

    • It was good enough for me to give up nn (and rn, and trn).
      Agent does a pretty good job of downloading binaries, but it sucks for actually reading news...the interface is rather cumbersome for moving through the messages. For reading news, I haven't run across a WIMP newsreader that I like...they're barely tolerable at best.

      trn rocks...always has (it and its predecessors), always will. Besides, if Windows eats itself, I don't have to worry about losing my killfiles and .newsrc since I run trn (and mutt) on a separate box that runs Linux.

      • but it sucks for actually reading news...the interface is rather cumbersome for moving through the messages.

        What problem did you encountered while moving between messages?
        There are plenty of ways of doing it, and it depends on the sorting method. It's a very powerful program.

        • but it sucks for actually reading news...the interface is rather cumbersome for moving through the messages.
          What problem did you encountered while moving between messages?
          Keyboard navigation didn't work for the most part. I'll admit that I haven't put a whole lot of time into it, so I might be missing something. Since I mainly use Agent only for snarfing mp3z and such, the interface annoyances are tolerable to that extent.
        • Keyboard navigation didn't work for the most part.

          Most of the power users (myself included ;) use only the keyboard. We've never seen problem with it. If you're still using it, can you give some example so I can help you?
          Also, feel free to ask questions in alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent . :)

  • ...as I use Outlook Express ;)

    But IMHO this is a powerfull NNTP client, as it offers all I need to get, read, and post to a NNTP server.

    And by the way, UNIX users may (I write this even if I'm sure they wont :) try Outlook Express which is bundled with Internet Explorer for UNIX [microsoft.com].
    • But IMHO this is a powerfull NNTP client, as it offers all I need to get, read, and post to a NNTP server.

      Well, if it satisfies your need it doesn't means that it a powerfull NNTP client. Actually it only provides basic functionality. IMHO NNTP client can not be called powerfull unless it supports at least kill lists.

      Do not think I'm trolling. My point is that powerfull NNTP client should have much more features than OE.

      • Umm.... Tools... Newsgroup Filters. It's in OE 4.72 and probably before that.
        • Well, I've not used OE for long time. Sorry for non-intential FUD.

          But wait .... Can it do .... hmm ... scoring ?! Quite powerful feature. For example my Gnus is configured to show only first message from each thread. If I find start of thread intreasting I manually increase score for it so all its messages will be shown. If I do nothing with thread I just don't see other messages in it. Also if I post message any replies have additional score so they are shown on top. And finally messages from some authors are moded up or down so either they are on top also (and can be shown even if I've not selected thread) or they never shown (there are always some trolls on high volume newsgroups). Can OE do something similar?

    • IE for LINUX as part of the settlement...not cause I want it or anyrthing, just because it would hurt them so much to do it...
      Of course better yet, perhaps the settlement agreement should stipulate 100% porting and compatibility of all MS apps in the Linux environment.
      • Honnestly it would be a really good thing for Linux.

        If it was that way, I think that Dell [dell.com], Compaq [compaq.com], HP [hp.com], and others would sell more Linux-powered PCs (cheaper price), so people would buy more, and probably learn to like Linux as a "really good OS which will help working, playing, learning" --- better than the usual "black screen with command prompt designed by geeks for geeks" :).

        WTF are they waiting for ? :)
    • Anyone out there tried downloading the Solaris version and install it on FreeBSD?

      I've used some Xerox printer utilities that were written for SunOS on FreeBSD. They were pretty basic and worked fine. I'm wondering about something as complex as IE working

  • Gnus (Score:2, Informative)

    by m_ilya ( 311437 )
    My vote is for Gnus.
    • It integrates well with my faivorite OS^H^Htext editor Emacs.
    • It has support for scoring which is very valuable feature when you are subscribed on several high volume news groups and maillists.

    • Re:Gnus (Score:1)

      by cdh ( 6170 )
      My thoughts exactly. In fact, one of the most powerful features is adaptive scoring. This mechanism keeps track of what articles you actually read and then will score those threads higher the next time you go to the group. Very nice.

      Add to the fact that it's totally programmable and it's hard to beat. You really leverage it when you use it to read your email too.

      Just for reference, you can get it at: gnus.org [gnus.org]. It's also a standard part of (X)Emacs, so you should already have it. Just M-x gnus.

  • Xnews (Score:2, Informative)

    by strstr ( 539330 )
    Xnews is one of the more popular, and better, Windows news readers.

    http://xnews.3dnews.net/ [3dnews.net]

    :)

    • I'll second that! It's also updated frequently, has good online docs, and it's free!
    • I'll third it and note that it has good keyboard commands in addition to a solid graphical interface. This provides the convenience of reading and navigating efficiently (it reminds me a little of trn), with less of the "how do I do that again?" puzzlement for little-used commands.
  • *lameness filter fodder*

  • Microplanet "Gravity" (Score:3, Informative)

    by Chelloveck ( 14643 ) on Tuesday November 27, 2001 @09:39AM (#2618684)

    I always liked 'trn' under Unix, though I think it's pretty much been orphaned now. I've also heard good things about 'slrn' and 'nn'. All of these are console-based readers. I left the Unix scene too long ago to have found a good reader that runs under X.

    Under Win32 I think that Microplanet's Gravity [microplanet.com] is a fantastic reader. It got orphaned a year or two ago (and the link is down now, so the company may be defunct) but you can still get it from various download sites. Try Webattack [webattack.com].

    When Microplanet abandoned it they released the last build (v2.50) as freeware. Good going, guys! I liked it enough to pay for it at v1.1, and I'm glad it's still available.

  • zeonews and newsgrabber (Score:4, Informative)

    by Gibbys Box of Trix ( 176568 ) on Tuesday November 27, 2001 @10:05AM (#2618738) Journal
    I recently had zeonews [zeonews.com] recommended to me. It's reminiscient of OE, but shows a lot more functionality. I prefer it to OE and ForteAgent which are the only two I've used regularly.

    Zeonews is the latest version of newsgrabber [trontech.com.au], of which you might be able to get an older version free.

  • Google (Score:1)

    by Bake ( 2609 )
    Google Groups [google.com] is the old DejaNews usenet service.

    I've found it to satisfy all of my requirements for an NNTP "client".
  • At least, that's what I always say. I've used tin [tin.org] for ten years now (ever since 1.11PL2), and still is IMNAAHO the best text-based news client.

    tin is menu-based, with lots of useful options (and not bloated with irrelevant stuff). The basic usage is very simple, and is pretty configurable. If you have a shell account in your ISP, it's the ideal choice.
    • Actually, this description might inadvertantly scare people off. While tin is arguably a power-user's tool, it is also extremely user-friendly. If you're comfortable with the Lynx navigation method (basically do everything with the arrow keys), then you'll feel right at home with tin.
    • I've tried tons of newsreaders (GUI and otherwise), but Tin just "does it" for me.

      If you have a shell account in your ISP, it's the ideal choice.

      Even if you don't - I use Tin with my cablemodem all the time.
  • I use good old OE. Whilst it's not very featureful, a lot of the other free newsreaders seem to have stagnated. (Free)Agent hasn't really changed in several years and is looking quite stale. I have not tried Zeonews yet.

  • gnus (Score:2)

    by Snowfox ( 34467 )
    I can't imagine using anything other than gnus [gnus.org]. Yes, it's got a steep learning curve, and yes you've got to learn emacs to use it. But you can access not only nntp, but a number of web discussion boards, email, mailing lists, even RSS feeds, all with the same client.

    gnus allows you to filter posts with a manually controlled (but complex) scoring system, or you can turn on a mode which just watches what you tend to read and ignore, and attempts to filter posts you're not likely to enjoy based on who posted it and "artificial stupidity" performed on keywords in the subject lines.

    gnus supports color highlighting of different reply levels within a post, useful for tracking the fragments of a discussion by the time a post is 8 replies into a thread.

    You can access it remotely with only a text interface (even in color with xemacs or emacs21), or you can access it locally and have a nice graphical interface. If you're on the road, there's no worry about resetting all your read markers as you go to and from.

    gnus is written in elisp, which makes it easy to add features you may want. And there are mailing lists and a newsgroup full of fanatics who love making changes if you've got an interesting idea, but don't have the aptitude to implement it.

    And of course, like most emacs components, you can customize the hell out of gnus. If there's anything you don't like, chances are someone's already made a configuration option to change its behavior.

  • I'm using /usr/ports/mail/pine for both,
    as it's the most convenient interface - if
    configured correctly, i.e.
    - a shell script to fetchmail -3 -o -
    - piping through a filter (removing control characters, just to be sure)
    - cat'ing the results (I have 5 accounts) to my ~/mbox
    - calling pine, reading mail&news, the latter online
  • It's simple, text based, and powerful. Combine it with mutt for email, and you have a dynamic duo of electronic messaging!
  • www.forteinc.com
    I use it in Windows and it also works well in Linux using Wine (www.winehq.com). By far my favorite newsreader.
  • Based on John Norstad's [nwu.edu] orginial widely popular NewsWatcher [nwu.edu] program Simon Frasier [smfr.org] (yes, the same fellow whose done much of the news code for Mozilla) extended it with a number of new features inlcuding multithreading [smfr.org]. The result is a rock-solid application of marvelous usability.

    Filtering [smfr.org] is trivial, writing & managing filters is easily done (and without needing to know any specific notation), scoring [smfr.org] is performed identically, saving [smfr.org] text and binaries is accomplished cleanly and with versatility, heck it can even be set to use voice commands [smfr.org] and read back material. It honors every obscure usenet convention thown at it (mail-copies-to [smfr.org], X-face [smfr.org], etc.) and follows every good usage guideline [xs4all.nl] plus handles multiple languages [smfr.org] with aplomb.

    Finally the documentation [smfr.org] is simply fantastic. If nothing else this makes it a great program: Clear well-written comprehensive documentation properly laid out, indexed, usefully hyperlinked and always helpful. I can't express how important this is and how useful has been.

    Oh yeah, it's a free (as in lucre) Mac application running under both MacOS & MacOS X. However MT-NewsWatcher [smfr.org] is good enough friends have kept old Macs just for running it; it's that good.

    • I agree -- NewsWatcher and its derivatives (source is available, although I don't know whether the licensing meets zealot standards) are terrific. In particular, I find the SDI interface far easier to use than the paned MDI style in Mozilla, Pan, knode and all the other Unix newsreaders. Does anything comparable exist for Linux?

      (I may have SDI and MDI backwards...)

  • "MT" for Multi-threaded. Without a doubt the best I've used on any platform. Due for migration to OS X very soon. Multi-threaded NewsWatcher [smfr.org] B.
  • This was the first news reader I ever used, and I have yet to find one I like as much. It seems like each newsreader I come across has three "panes" - one to display the newsgroups, one for the headers of the currently active newsgroup, and one for the message currently being viewed. NR/2 had these in separate windows, so you could place them and overlap them as you saw fit, allowing you to maximize your screen real estate. Has anyone found a reader like this for Linux?
  • One of the many forks of John Norstad's NewsWatcher code, MT-NewsWatcher [smfr.org] boasts a very good feature set and smooth operation. Hope the MacOSX port goes well.

  • Currently I like using Mozilla [mozilla.org] to access my mail and news simultaniously, as well as have access to a MOO client (MOOzilla [www.moo.ca]) and a web browser all with one package. It is, however, a tad buggy.. I find that some newsgroups consistantly cause the mailer to crash, and I haven't yet gotten a resolution for this bug.

    I used to use a perl script I wrote, fetchnews, to read newsgroups and deposit them into mboxes for use with Mutt. Posting to USENET was done by sending to local nntp-alt.bitterness, or whatever newsgroup, which used a qmail wrapper script to send the mail out properly. It was a nice setup, but since I've lost most of the configuration, I've switched to Mozilla.

  • When I ran windows, Forte Agent from forteinc.com, really was the best nntp client I knew of.
    I has some drawbacks though: It was cumbersome to use with more than one news.server, the built-in editor was very simple.
    The pros:
    Fast to load, fast responsive navigation, good keyboard shortcuts. Self contained in one directory, with nice text based config files, making it very easy to move it around, and preserve settings when reinstalling windows.
    Nice, easely used options like; watch or ignore threads. Very powerfull 'per group' options, like .sig settings, whether to download bodies or headers only, expire criterias etc.
    I think that Forte Agent was something of a trendsetter regarding GUI newsreaders in its time. And it was and offline newsreader, which really meant something when using a pay per minute modem connection.

    Now my preferred nntp client is is KDE Knode, or rather it is not, since our current internet feed provider doesn't have usenet feed:-(, and the free newsservers, don't carry a some of the groups I am interested in.
    But so far, Knode seems even more powerfull than Forte Agent in most respects.
    Still, it lacks 'per group' expire options (a major letdown for me). And "Score killfiling" is not enough for me, I want real killfilling, eg. delete on the spot.

    OTOH, it some really, really nifty features like ">" quote marked text, excellent PGP /GPG support (not sure what to use it for, but I like it anyway)

    All in all, Knode is a powerfull nntp client.
    Superpimps "Pan" (GNOME) looks nice too (especially if one likes Forte Agent). Haven't used it in a long time, but AFAIK one of its main features, is its abillity to have several, concurrent downloads, from different servers.

  • tin (Score:1)

    by LazyBoy ( 128384 )
    www.tin.org

    I prefer keyboard navigation to read large quantities of news faster. Tin provides that and article threading.

    A lot of other non-gui newsreaders are probably
    just as good, but I'm used to the keystrokes.

    LazyBoy

  • I hate redundancy, but a poll would give you a better consensus from the /. reader base, AND you'll still get "detailed" opinions in the replies. (Besides, I like the poll option after PAN to be "Pimply Assed Cowboy Neal"...

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