Newsreader?

[Bowser]

I'm making the transition from Windows to Mac, and I'm looking to
replace Agent, my newsreader/binary downloader. Is there an equivilant
in the Mac world? I've seen Unison, but it appears that it's being
abandoned. Are there any alternatives?

[Jolly Roger]

We just had such a discussion right here in comp.sys.mac.apps, where
plenty of alternatives were mentioned:

<https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/comp.sys.mac.apps/MT$20Newswatcher$20and$20Mavericks/comp.sys.mac.apps/XAwXIzyJSiE/mZjgCKGw3UAJ>

--
E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my ravenous SPAM filter.
I often ignore posts from Google. Use a real news client instead.

JR

[Doc O'Leary]

For your reference, records indicate that

Oh, man . . . you should direct your newsreader to go a few months back
in this group and read the discussions. If you like Forte Agent, your
best route is probably to keep running Windows in a VM like VirtualBox
so that you can still have access to some of the stuff that the Mac does
not shine at.

--
"Also . . . I can kill you with my brain."
River Tam, Trash, Firefly

[philo]

Though my main OS is Linux I also have a few Mac and Windows machine.

I use Thunderbird on all of them and have had no problems and I like
most of the new features a lot.


It's free, so what the heck

[Bowser]

On 2 Dec 2014 14:13:27 GMT, Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:

>On 2014-12-02, Bowser <id...@think.so> wrote:
>> I'm making the transition from Windows to Mac, and I'm looking to
>> replace Agent, my newsreader/binary downloader. Is there an equivilant
>> in the Mac world? I've seen Unison, but it appears that it's being
>> abandoned. Are there any alternatives?
>
>We just had such a discussion right here in comp.sys.mac.apps, where
>plenty of alternatives were mentioned:
>
><https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/comp.sys.mac.apps/MT$20Newswatcher$20and$20Mavericks/comp.sys.mac.apps/XAwXIzyJSiE/mZjgCKGw3UAJ>

Thanks!

[Bowser]

On Tue, 2 Dec 2014 15:39:25 +0000 (UTC), Doc O'Leary

<drol...@2usenet2014.subsume.com> wrote:

>For your reference, records indicate that
>Bowser <id...@think.so> wrote:
>
>> I'm making the transition from Windows to Mac, and I'm looking to
>> replace Agent, my newsreader/binary downloader. Is there an equivilant
>> in the Mac world? I've seen Unison, but it appears that it's being
>> abandoned. Are there any alternatives?
>
>Oh, man . . . you should direct your newsreader to go a few months back
>in this group and read the discussions. If you like Forte Agent, your
>best route is probably to keep running Windows in a VM like VirtualBox
>so that you can still have access to some of the stuff that the Mac does
>not shine at.

I plan to do just that. Strange that there's no mac equivilant for a
decent newsreader. I've tried Thunderbird, but it's pretty kludgy and
does a lousy job with binaries.

[Király]

Bowser <id...@think.so> wrote:
> I plan to do just that. Strange that there's no mac equivilant for a
> decent newsreader.

The availability of decent newsreaders has gone down in parallel with
the popularity and usage of usenet. Most internet users today don't even
know what usenet is, and so demand for newsreaders is accordingly low,
as is the incentive to develop and maintain them.

I've been using tin (runs in Terminal) for a long, long time.

--
K.

Lang may your lum reek.

[Savageduck]

...and yet regardless of all the criticism, Unison still works on most
Macs. Even Unison 1.8.1 runs on OSX 10.10.1, as can be verified by
checking the headers of this response.

It isn't Forte Agent, it isn't MT-NW, it isn't Thunderbird, it
certainly isn't slrn, but it still works for both text and binaries.
Setting up filters is different to other apps, but not impossible, and
not to difficult to customize.

I suspect that the biggest complaint regarding Unison was, that it was
payware in an ocean of freeware and shareware. Even today there are
many, even in these NGs, who resent the idea of paying for a Usenet
client. Hence the dearth of Usenet clients for Mac. Folks were going to
be critical of Unison because it didn't deliver what they wanted for no
cost. I have a feeling that now that all versions of Unison are free,
its popularity & reputation is going to improve.

--
Regards,

Savageduck

[sctvguy1]

I still run Thoth on my 2002 iMac, running Tiger 10.4.11.

[nospam]

In article <2014120410040890396-savageduck1@REMOVESPAMmecom>,

Savageduck <savageduck1@{REMOVESPAM}me.com> wrote:

> I suspect that the biggest complaint regarding Unison was, that it was
> payware in an ocean of freeware and shareware. Even today there are
> many, even in these NGs, who resent the idea of paying for a Usenet
> client. Hence the dearth of Usenet clients for Mac. Folks were going to
> be critical of Unison because it didn't deliver what they wanted for no
> cost. I have a feeling that now that all versions of Unison are free,
> its popularity & reputation is going to improve.

the biggest complaint was not its price, but rather that it simply
wasn't a very good newsreader. its filtering was awful, binary support
had serious issues, it was missing some fundamental functionality, the
user interface was poorly designed and it was very buggy.

it was clear that it was written by someone who did not use usenet and
did not understand what real world users wanted, further reinforced by
not a single person from panic ever having a presence on usenet. ever.

[Lloyd Parsons]

But for all of that it was pretty popular. While I preferred
MT-Newswatcher, I didn't find Unison bad at all and it did all I needed
it to do. Still use it when I'm on my MBPr

--
Lloyd

[dorayme]

In article <9pm08a1j57d9rtmfg...@4ax.com>,

Bowser <id...@think.so> wrote:

> I've tried Thunderbird, but it's pretty kludgy and
> does a lousy job with binaries.

How does it do without binaries?

--
dorayme

[Warren Oates]

In article <m5pr7c$ugv$1...@dont-email.me>, m...@home.spamsucks.ca (Király)
wrote:

That's not Apple software it doesn't run in the GUI and it's evil!!!!1!
--
Where's the Vangelis music?
Pris' tongue is sticking out in in the wide shot after Batty has kissed her.
They have put back more tits into the Zhora dressing room scene.
-- notes for Blade Runner

[Jolly Roger]

On 2014-12-04, Warren Oates <warren...@gmail.com> wrote:
> In article <m5pr7c$ugv$1...@dont-email.me>, m...@home.spamsucks.ca (Király)
> wrote:
>
>> Bowser <id...@think.so> wrote:
>> > I plan to do just that. Strange that there's no mac equivilant for a
>> > decent newsreader.
>>
>> The availability of decent newsreaders has gone down in parallel with
>> the popularity and usage of usenet. Most internet users today don't even
>> know what usenet is, and so demand for newsreaders is accordingly low,
>> as is the incentive to develop and maintain them.
>>
>> I've been using tin (runs in Terminal) for a long, long time.
>
> That's not Apple software it doesn't run in the GUI and it's evil!!!!1!

*snicker* It's true. I read it right here in this news group!

[Doc O'Leary]

For your reference, records indicate that

nospam <nos...@nospam.invalid> wrote:

> In article <2014120410040890396-savageduck1@REMOVESPAMmecom>,
> Savageduck <savageduck1@{REMOVESPAM}me.com> wrote:
>
> > I have a feeling that now that all versions of Unison are free,
> > its popularity & reputation is going to improve.
>
> the biggest complaint was not its price,

Agreed. I paid for the 1.x version of Unison because it seemed to do
well enough at first blush, but the more I ran into things I wanted to
filter, the more cumbersome it proved to be. And it was terribly slow
to download for me. I passed on paying for the 2.x version because
they didn’t seem interested in addressing the issues I had. When they
made it free, I went back to give it one last shot, but I still don’t
like how it works.

> it was clear that it was written by someone who did not use usenet and
> did not understand what real world users wanted, further reinforced by
> not a single person from panic ever having a presence on usenet. ever.

I think it’s probably closer to the truth to say that Unison was
probably a labor of love by someone who used Usenet in one particular
way. But it makes no business sense to ship something like that; if
you sell something to customers you can’t ignore them when they ask for
features you don’t care about yourself.

[FPP]

Go ahead... rub it in. :-)
--
Q: How do you know when <NoB...@nowhere.com> is lying? A: Ubiquitous
<web...@polaris.net> fingers are moving.
<NoB...@nowhere.com> reveals himself to be a sockpuppet of sickpuppy
Ubiquitous <web...@polaris.net>
http://al.howardknight.net/msgid.cgi?STYPE=msgid&A=0&MSGI=%3Cm3jcte%24pq1%241%40dont-email.me%3E

[FPP]

Unison was GREAT at one thing, though...

It really made me appreciate how much I liked MT-Newswatcher.

[poldy]

On 12/5/14 2:54 AM, FPP wrote:
> On 2014-12-04 18:15:50 +0000, sctvguy1 <sctv...@invalid.net> said:
>
>> On Thu, 04 Dec 2014 14:31:08 +0000, Király wrote:
>>
>>> Bowser <id...@think.so> wrote:
>>>> I plan to do just that. Strange that there's no mac equivilant for a
>>>> decent newsreader.
>>>
>>> The availability of decent newsreaders has gone down in parallel with
>>> the popularity and usage of usenet. Most internet users today don't even
>>> know what usenet is, and so demand for newsreaders is accordingly low,
>>> as is the incentive to develop and maintain them.
>>>
>>> I've been using tin (runs in Terminal) for a long, long time.
>>
>> I still run Thoth on my 2002 iMac, running Tiger 10.4.11.
>
> Go ahead... rub it in. :-)

Anyone ever try this iOS app?

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/newstap-usenet-newsreader/id292410356?mt=8

[nospam]

In article <m5u0c7$6ng$3...@dont-email.me>, poldy <po...@kfu.com> wrote:

> Anyone ever try this iOS app?
>
> https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/newstap-usenet-newsreader/id292410356?mt=8

it 'works' in that it can read posts but it's missing a lot of
functionality.

there's a free demo version that can access one group. try it, although
you won't notice that it doesn't support crossposting with only one
group.

[Jolly Roger]

On 2014-12-06, poldy <po...@kfu.com> wrote:
>
> Anyone ever try this iOS app?
>
> https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/newstap-usenet-newsreader/id292410356?mt=8

Sure. It's not a Mac app though.

[Doc O'Leary]

For your reference, records indicate that

poldy <po...@kfu.com> wrote:

> Anyone ever try this iOS app?
>
> https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/newstap-usenet-newsreader/id292410356?mt=8

Bought it, but don’t use it. The developer made some really questionable
choices when it comes to having Usenet on a mobile device. It hasn’t
been updated in 2 years and still has a pre-iOS 7 interface. It’s as
dead as all the Mac newsreaders are.

[dorayme]

In article <m5v93s$6eg$1...@dont-email.me>,

Doc O'Leary <drol...@2usenet2014.subsume.com> wrote:

> For your reference, records indicate that
> poldy <po...@kfu.com> wrote:
>
> > Anyone ever try this iOS app?
> >
> > https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/newstap-usenet-newsreader/id292410356?mt=8
>
> Bought it, but don’t use it. The developer made some really questionable
> choices when it comes to having Usenet on a mobile device. It hasn’t
> been updated in 2 years and still has a pre-iOS 7 interface. It’s as
> dead as all the Mac newsreaders are.

I tried it but was disappointed and basically gave up, just looking at
usenet on my Macbook with SL. Or, occasionally, on my iPad, on Google
Groups, where I have a very dear and close friend.

--
dorayme

[Peter James]

I made the change from Windows to the Mac some years ago. I tried all
the available news readers and after about a year settled on MacSoup.

It's not perfect, but it does have good steady performance with a good
display of messages in a clear and easy to understand way.

I do wish it had spell correction though, that is a major bug bear for
me.

Peter

--
-
The e-mail address obviously doesn't exist. If it's essential
that you contact me then try peterATpfjamesDOTcoDOTuk

[Jolly Roger]

On 2014-12-07, Lewis <g.k...@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> wrote:
>
> Rather embarrassing for any Mac app to not use the systems spell
> checking. I mean, you have to actually put forth effort on a Mac to not
> have spell checking.

Not if the software was written back when spell checking was not so
ubiquitous.

[unfrostedpoptart]

On Thursday, December 4, 2014 5:02:29 AM UTC-8, Bowser wrote:
> On Tue, 2 Dec 2014 15:39:25 +0000 (UTC), Doc O'Leary
> <droleary> wrote:
>
> >For your reference, records indicate that

> >Bowser <idont> wrote:
> >
> >> I'm making the transition from Windows to Mac, and I'm looking to
> >> replace Agent, my newsreader/binary downloader. Is there an equivilant
> >> in the Mac world? I've seen Unison, but it appears that it's being
> >> abandoned. Are there any alternatives?

> >in this group and read the discussions. If you like Forte Agent, your
> >best route is probably to keep running Windows in a VM like VirtualBox
> >so that you can still have access to some of the stuff that the Mac does
> >not shine at.
>
> I plan to do just that. Strange that there's no mac equivilant for a
> decent newsreader. I've tried Thunderbird, but it's pretty kludgy and
> does a lousy job with binaries.

I also used Agent back to it's beta-test days. Been using Mac for a few years now and am very unimpressed by any native newsreaders.

For text groups - like this one - which are almost non-existent these days (and I've been on Usenet since '87 using rn in Unix) I just access through Google Groups (groups.google.com). Not great but easy to use and tied in with their Usenet archive (which is how google started - as dejanews.com).

For binaries, I've used newsleecher for years and continued on the Mac under Crossover and Parallels/Win7.

[Richard Wakeford]

On Sun, 7 Dec 2014 11:51:16 -0800 (PST), unfrostedpoptart wrote:

> I've used newsleecher for years and continued on the Mac under Crossover

I used to use Agent when I had a Windows PC but moved to Dialog which I
liked very much and, when I moved permanently to Mac usage in 2008, I found
that it worked fine with Crossover and so have continued with it together
with my diary programme, although I now have Day One on the Mac and am
laboriously copying ten years of Windows usage over to it!

[Jolly Roger]

On 2014-12-08, Lewis <g.k...@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> wrote:
> Okay, so one time? In band camp? Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> was all, like:

>> On 2014-12-07, Lewis <g.k...@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> wrote:
>>>
>>> Rather embarrassing for any Mac app to not use the systems spell
>>> checking. I mean, you have to actually put forth effort on a Mac to not
>>> have spell checking.
>
>> Not if the software was written back when spell checking was not so
>> ubiquitous.
>

> It has aways been a service in OS X. If you use the standard text areas,
> you literally get spell checking for free. In order to NOT have spell
> checking, you have to have created your own TextView for editing text.
> That is what is meant by "considerable effort".

For modern software, that may be the case; but you made that comment
replying to a post regarding MacSoup - hardly a modern Mac OS X
application. Accordingly you'd be wrong to suggest that the author of
MacSoup made an effort *not* to support spell checking. The more likely
reason it doesn't support spell checking is it is using older APIs and
frameworks.