Newsreader for OS X

Jerry Gardner writes:
 >
 > Anyone know of a newsreader for Mac OS X that is like Agent or XNews
 > on Windows systems?

I don't know anything about these programs, so I can't tell you what
may be like them, but....

 > I've tried MT-NewsWatcher, Halime, Thoth, and others, and I don't
 > like their interfaces.

I use three different programs on my system:

- Gnus. Runs in the GNU Emacs environment. MacOS X comes with a
text-mode Emacs that runs in a Terminal window. If you compile a
GUI-mode version of Emacs (native MacOS or X11), Gnus will also run
in there. Note, however, that Gnus is a text-mode news reader - if
you like seeing inline images and stuff like that in your news,
look elsewhere.

If text-based news reading is OK, seriously consider Gnus. It is
infinitely customizable using Emacs-LISP code.

- trn. This is like an old friend if you've been using UNIX for a
long time. Text-mode only, and only runs in the Terminal
environment. But it has some features I've never seen anywhere
else (like displaying a tree view of a message-reply chain that you
can navigate with arrow keys.)

- Mozilla. It's news interface is very similar to Netscape's. You
probably know what to expect from it already.

-- David
 >> Stay informed about: Newsreader for OS X 

I would like to know this. I just got a g4 PB, and I love the machine.
But I really need a great newsreader. Agent for Windows is by far the
best out there.

J

On Mon, 07 Jul 2003 22:16:50 GMT, Jerry Gardner
wrote:

 >Anyone know of a newsreader for Mac OS X that is like Agent or XNews on
 >Windows systems?
 >
 >I've tried MT-NewsWatcher, Halime, Thoth, and others, and I don't like
 >their interfaces.
 >> Stay informed about: Newsreader for OS X 

In article ,
wrote:

 > I would like to know this. I just got a g4 PB, and I love the machine.
 > But I really need a great newsreader. Agent for Windows is by far the
 > best out there.
 >

You're just trying to start a bitchfest, right? What newsreader is
"best" is a religious subject -- highly subjective and emotionally
charged. There are those who think Agent is best, others swear by XNews
or Gravity. Still others will insist that it's emacs, Thoth,
MT-Newswatcher, Hogwasher, MacSoup, rn, slrn, trn, or what have you.
There are even some (emotionally disturbed?) individuals who claim that
Outlook Express is their favorite.

Personally, when I was on a PC, I didn't care much for Agent,
preferring XNews. On the Mac, I like Thoth -- it has a somewhat steep
learning curve, but it can do everything I want it to do, does it well,
and is highly scriptable besides.

A lot of it depends upon what you've become accustomed to using and how
open you are to learning different ways of doing things.

--
Spenser
 >> Stay informed about: Newsreader for OS X 

On Mon, 07 Jul 2003 22:47:27 GMT, J wrote:
 > I would like to know this. I just got a g4 PB, and I love the machine.
 > But I really need a great newsreader. Agent for Windows is by far the
 > best out there.

Well... it's been a *long* time since I used Agent on Windows, so I'll
just say 'opinions vary'. If you want something different for Mac, you
might try looking for Pan. It's *nix X11 based software, so it may be a
bit on the rough side as far as installation if you are used to the
'Mac' way of doing things, but it is a fairly popular GUI newsclient on
Linux, and I've heard good things from people running it on OS X.
Myself, I almost never frequent groups where I need more than plain
text, so I stick w/ a *nix text-based client called slrn. Once you
train your fingers to the key commands, incredibly fast and efficent
cruising of groups.

YMMV,

nuk

--
I know more than enough *nix to do some very destructive things,
and not nearly enough to do very many useful things.
 >> Stay informed about: Newsreader for OS X 

On Mon, 7 Jul 2003 17:16:50 -0500, Jerry Gardner wrote
(in message ):

 > Anyone know of a newsreader for Mac OS X that is like Agent or XNews on
 > Windows systems?
 >
 > I've tried MT-NewsWatcher, Halime, Thoth, and others, and I don't like
 > their interfaces.
 >
 >

I used to use Agent and when I switched back to Mac I tried all the
newsreaders hoping to find something similar. The closest I've found is
Hogwasher. It is not an exact match by any means, but I like the fact that
it hangs onto read articles and displays them in the thread tree.

BTW: The Graphical Thread Tree in Hogwasher is indispensible (IMO) once you
become used to it.

<a rel="nofollow" style='text-decoration: none;' href="http://www.asar.com" target="_blank">http://www.asar.com</a>

--
Bill Tschumy
Otherwise -- Austin, TX
<a rel="nofollow" style='text-decoration: none;' href="http://www.otherwise.com" target="_blank">http://www.otherwise.com</a>
 >> Stay informed about: Newsreader for OS X 

On Mon, 07 Jul 2003 22:16:50 GMT, as the moon rose into the night's sky,
Jerry Gardner cocked back his head and howled:

 > Anyone know of a newsreader for Mac OS X that is like Agent or XNews on
 > Windows systems?
 >
 > I've tried MT-NewsWatcher, Halime, Thoth, and others, and I don't like
 > their interfaces.

I'm a long-time fan of Gravity for Windows, and I have yet to find a
newsreader for my Mac that I really like. The closest I've come to
liking is Hogwasher. It has a couple nice features that even Gravity is
missing. There was one newsreader called Newsflash that is stuck in
alpha testing but looked promising. However, it also managed to
actually crash OS X on me, so I certainly don't recommend it!

One other you may want to look into is NewsHunter. It has a distinct
advantage of giving you a single window rather than a half dozen that
most of the others do.
 >> Stay informed about: Newsreader for OS X 

On Mon, 07 Jul 2003 22:16:50 GMT, Jerry Gardner
wrote:

 >Anyone know of a newsreader for Mac OS X that is like Agent or XNews on
 >Windows systems?
 >
 >I've tried MT-NewsWatcher, Halime, Thoth, and others, and I don't like
 >their interfaces.

If you like Agent (as I obviously do) then just get Virtual PC and run
Agent. Works fine. I keep a copy on my PC and another copy on my Mac
under VPC.

=IML=

Remove the "removethis" to reply

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 >> Stay informed about: Newsreader for OS X 

In article ,
=?ISO-8859-15?Q?Just_Annutha_Dewd?= <no RemoveThis @way.josé> wrote:

 > NewsHunter

I tried that, however after 3 hours it still was not finished reading a
newsgroup!

--
Ciao,
Antonio
 >> Stay informed about: Newsreader for OS X 

In article
,
Bill Tschumy <bill.DeleteThis@otherwise.com> wrote:

 > It is not an exact match by any means, but I like the fact that
 > it hangs onto read articles and displays them in the thread tree.

Why in the world would you want to see articles you've already read?
Sounds like a bug, not a feature. If you want "features" like that just
use a crappy browser news app.
 >> Stay informed about: Newsreader for OS X 

On Tue, 08 Jul 2003 07:36:07 -0400, Rodney J wrote:
 >In article


 >Why in the world would you want to see articles you've already read?
 >Sounds like a bug, not a feature. If you want "features" like that just
 >use a crappy browser news app.

To follow the thread a little easier. In agent, when a thread gets a
reply, agent shows the entire thread. The thread has the indent threads
so seeing a previous message in the thread is simple.

If a thread doesn't have a reply in it, then the messages of the thread
are not shown.

J
 >> Stay informed about: Newsreader for OS X 

Rodney J wrote:

 > Why in the world would you want to see articles you've already read?
 > Sounds like a bug, not a feature.

Man, is that ever a desirable feature! I use it (in MacSoup) often.

--
Mike Rosenberg

<http://www.macconsult.com>
<http://bogart-tribute.net>
 >> Stay informed about: Newsreader for OS X 

In article ,
Rodney J <none.TakeThisOut@all.edu> wrote:

 > Why in the world would you want to see articles you've already read?

Simply, it happens often that ypu read a thread and then think 'I want
reread an earlier article'. Apps like macsoup remove an article directly
when you read it and skip to another message.

 > crappy browser news app.

Only in your minde!

--
Ciao,
Antonio
 >> Stay informed about: Newsreader for OS X 

On Tue, 8 Jul 2003 6:36:07 -0500, Rodney J wrote
(in message ):

 > In article


 >
  >> It is not an exact match by any means, but I like the fact that
  >> it hangs onto read articles and displays them in the thread tree.
 >
 > Why in the world would you want to see articles you've already read?
 > Sounds like a bug, not a feature. If you want "features" like that just
 > use a crappy browser news app.

Others have already replied with some good reasons. There is another that I
find very compelling. Often if I'm busy, after reading what appears to be
the most interesting articles, I'll mark the rest as read. The next day I
might have more time. If I see a thread is generating a lot of traffic and
the title is mildly interesting, I'll go back and read it. It is nice to see
graphically how the previously skipped articles fit into the current ones and
click on them to read them as I want.

Not a bug by any means, but a very important feature.

BTW: in the article list (not the graphical thread tree) you can choose to
see all articles, only read ones, only unread ones... I generally have this
set to show only the unread ones.


--
Bill Tschumy
Otherwise -- Austin, TX
<a rel="nofollow" style='text-decoration: none;' href="http://www.otherwise.com" target="_blank">http://www.otherwise.com</a>
 >> Stay informed about: Newsreader for OS X