New Newsreader Suggestions

SO

I'm ready to grow up and fork out some money (if necessary) for a real
newsreader. I am currently playing with a trial version of Agent, and
am not sure if I like it or not.

Suggestions ... comments ... etc?????


PS - It sure has been quiet around these parts lately. Where has
everyone gone?




-- 
kk
==
Beware of the man of one book.
~ Thomas Aquinas ~

kram wrote:

> I'm ready to grow up and fork out some money (if necessary) for a real
> newsreader.

I don't know of any evidence that any payware newsreaders are superior
to any shareware or freeware newsreaders.

> I am currently playing with a trial version of Agent, and
> am not sure if I like it or not.
>
> Suggestions ... comments ... etc?????

There's a newsgroup which spends a lot of its time debating the features
of various newsreaders, be they Mac, linux, or Win based -- 
news.software.readers.  Among Win users, Xnews is pretty popular.

It would be helpful if you gave some tho't to what you are looking for
in a newsreader in terms of features and interface.  You should consider
whether or not you do binaries or if you want to use the same newsreader
for text and binaries.  You should consider whether or not filtering
power is important to you.  Also whether or not you use multiple
newsservers.  If you only have experience with one newsreader, the
quickest way to get some experience and try to figure out what you are
looking for is to try some others.  I'm not sure that the suggestions of
others are particularly helpful.

> PS - It sure has been quiet around these parts lately. Where has
> everyone gone?

Probably most people just lurk until Charles sez something :-)

-- 
Mike Easter
kibitzer, not SC admin

On Sat, 23 Feb 2008 17:34:35 -0800, "Mike Easter"
<MikeE@ster.invalid>
wrote:

>kram wrote:
>
>> I'm ready to grow up and fork out some money (if necessary) for a real
>> newsreader.
>
>I don't know of any evidence that any payware newsreaders are superior
>to any shareware or freeware newsreaders.
>
>> I am currently playing with a trial version of Agent, and
>> am not sure if I like it or not.
>>
>> Suggestions ... comments ... etc?????
>
>There's a newsgroup which spends a lot of its time debating the features
>of various newsreaders, be they Mac, linux, or Win based -- 
>news.software.readers.  Among Win users, Xnews is pretty popular.

I'll check it out, thanks.

>It would be helpful if you gave some tho't to what you are looking for
>in a newsreader in terms of features and interface.  You should consider
>whether or not you do binaries or if you want to use the same newsreader
>for text and binaries. 

I'm strictly a text kinda gal.

> You should consider whether or not filtering
>power is important to you.

Junk filtering and a good  rule builder would be nice.

>  Also whether or not you use multiple
>newsservers.

Yes.
 
>If you only have experience with one newsreader, the
>quickest way to get some experience and try to figure out what you are
>looking for is to try some others.

I was fine with OE 'till I "upgraded" to Vista, (actually got a new
computer and didn't have a choice)  and Microsoft Mail just doesn't
seem to thread properly :( 

The interface for Agent seems klonky to me. But maybe it's just the
newness of it. But then again I am absolutely *loathing* Office 2007.
(again - no choice, this time my employer's forced "upgrade")

>I'm not sure that the suggestions of
>others are particularly helpful.

I've always trusted this group's opinion, and have hardly ever had
that "oh crap" reaction after installing something that someone here
had recommended.

Even though I haven't been here much lately, this was the first place
I thought of to ask.

>> PS - It sure has been quiet around these parts lately. Where has
>> everyone gone?

>Probably most people just lurk until Charles sez something :-)

I've noticed that he has taken to just bemoaning the days of the week,
one at a time :)


-- 
kk
==
Beware of the man of one book.
~ Thomas Aquinas ~

kram wrote:
>"Mike Easter"
>> kram wrote:

>>> I am currently playing with a trial version of Agent, and
>>> am not sure if I like it or not.
>>>
>>> Suggestions ... comments ... etc?????

> I was fine with OE 'till I "upgraded" to Vista, (actually got a
new
> computer and didn't have a choice)  and Microsoft Mail just doesn't
> seem to thread properly :(

There is something wrong with the world when MS (effectively) has the
power to force Vista on people.

The subject of threading is one that gets me into arguments (differing
discussions) in news.software.readers where most of the participants
'have no use' for someone who uses OE as a newsreader and further don't
understand how come someone reads messages without so-called threading.

I don't thread and read like 'normal' newsreaders and I am an 'OE
wrangler' who is also most often using W98se at the same time as almost
a dozen different linux distros which linuxes are always changing.
Occasionally I fire up the one computer with one partition which has XP
installed so that I can answer an XP question that is different from its
W98 sibling.

The term 'threading' as used by newsreaders has a specific meaning
regarding sorting by the References line, but generically 'threading'
messages should really only mean 'sorting' the messages one way or
another so as to read them in an orderly fashion.

In the case of OE and subsequently Mail, the terminology is 'sort
messages by conversation' when the user wants to sort the messages by
references.  Personally I don't do it that way.

Depending on the 'intensity' of activity of a group, I'm most likely to
first glance at it with the messages unsorted by references and sorted
only by date, so that the most recent is at the top.  Then, I'm most
likely to want to look at a 'thread' of a conversation, but I don't want
that thread sorted by references, I want that thread of conversation
sorted chronologically.  There is a subtle difference in sorting a
particular topic/conversation/subject chronologically and sorting it by
references.  That's another subject, but you started with the 'Mail just
doesn't seem to thread properly.'

> The interface for Agent seems klonky to me. But maybe it's just the
> newness of it. But then again I am absolutely *loathing* Office 2007.
> (again - no choice, this time my employer's forced "upgrade")

Office 2003 was the last great MS Office and there are some severe
problems with 2007.  It is very sad that you are having to use newer OS
and apps than to use the OS and apps which have more advantages and less
disadvantages.



-- 
Mike Easter
kibitzer, not SC admin

Frog Prince wrote:
> "kram"

>> I am currently playing with a trial version of
>> Agent, and am not sure if I like it or not.

> I'm in need of recommendations for an email app with a decent news
> reader for Mac )S 10.5.x for my wife's MacBook Pro.   I'm learning
> (very slowly) how to play with Macs but still taking baby steps.

Disclaimer:  I've never driven a mac, but I read stuff....

I'm not sure I would be stuck on a marriage between a mac mail+news

Have you had a look at MT NewsWatcher and/or MacSoup?

This topic was recently bounced around between several newsgroups, then
mac ones & n.s.r news.software.readers

GG thread: http://snipr.com/20aq7
Subject: Mac Newsreader?
Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2008 18:18:04 -0800

Lineup of mac newsers:  http://www.newsreaders.com/mac/clients.html  Mac
OS X newsreaders:

-- 
Mike Easter
kibitzer, not SC admin