jmorlan
Hmm... That's funny.
Premium
join:2001-02-05
Pacifica, CA
 ·Pacific Bell - SBC
4 edits | [POLL] Newsreaders - 2008 Member Choice News Clients (formerly Usenet Newsreaders or NNTP Clients) allow access to Usenet newsgroups. Newsgroups (aka UseNet) are organized by hierarchy and include almost every conceivable topic. These message forums or discussion groups reside on thousands of Usenet servers which communicate with each other and with end users via NNTP (Network News Transfer Protocol), RFC 0977 and RFC 2980. Most serious discussion takes place within the "Big 8" hierarchies (comp, humanities, misc, news, rec, sci, soc, and talk). Newsgroups encompass everything from some of the best high level discussion forums, to a haven for the worst flaming, kooks, trolls and sockpupets in all the internet. It is also a massive file sharing venue for every possible subject, most of which is posted in the alt.binaries.* hierarchy.
In recent years, the amount of material available on Usenet has grown dramatically and continues to increase. Today, a full Usenet feed is over 2 terabytes per day, most of it from the posting of binaries. Some newsreaders are designed for downloading binaries, others are for reading text and participating in discussions, and some work well for both. With so much material available daily, services have arisen which attempt to index the binary content of Usenet. One of the most popular is NZB (NewZBin) indexing. An NZB indexing service creates a text file which can be read by your NZB aware NNTP client to automatically download the files you want, without downloading and searching all the overviews (headers) in each newsgroup. An excellent introduction to newsgroup binaries for beginners is Slyck's Guide to the Newsgroups.
This poll is about Usenet NNTP clients only. Please do not post RSS Aggregators (sometimes called "NewsReaders") here. They are not related to Usenet or NNTP. If you access Newsgroups via the web, e.g. Google Groups or MailGate, please include that information in your comments. Also if you run a local NNTP proxy server such as Hamster or NewsPlex, please mention it in your comments. Please supply reasons for your choices. Include your personal experiences, pros & cons, any comparisons with other readers, what newsgroup providers or indexing services used, and anything else that you think might be useful.
This year, there is no choice of "other." Last year that choice was used only by people who thought the poll was about RSS Aggregators and it messed up the results. If your choice is not on the list, it is likely your favorite "newsreader" is actually an RSS Aggregator. If you use an unlisted NNTP client please provide a link to the home page if possible.
Special thanks to fourboxers  and lilhurricane for patiently helping me learn how to create a poll. | |
|
 
Ryan
Premium
join:2001-03-03
Attleboro, MA | Re: [POLL] Newsreaders - 2008 Member Choice I love newsleecher although I have been thinking about switching to newsbin since they offer a lifetime license. | |
|
dadkins
Can you do Blu?
Premium,MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA | Grabit.
Free and it works. | |
|
|
|
MarkAW
Barry White or lil bratt
Premium
join:2001-08-27
Canada | Nice job on the poll jmorlan .
Opera and Thunderbird. | |
|
Jigsaw
Stardust We Are
Premium
join:2000-10-21
Cleveland, OH | Been using newsbin Pro for a while now. | |
|
Dread
Macs suck
Premium
join:2005-02-28
Bronx, NY | I'm forced to use Unison on mac
Newsleecher was the best newsreader I have ever used.. too bad it's windows only
so I guess my "choice" is Unison
--
48-27 | |
|
 | 
Dogfather
Premium
join:2007-12-26
Laguna Hills, CA | Re: [POLL] Newsreaders - 2008 Member Choice Ditto. I find myself in Boot Camp more often than I'll run Unison 'cause I miss Newsleecher+SuperSearch so much. | |
|
jmorlan
Hmm... That's funny.
Premium
join:2001-02-05
Pacifica, CA
·Pacific Bell - SBC
| Thanks for the good comments. Keep 'em coming!
I voted Forte Agent which I have been using since I first moved from DOS to Windows. The newest version does a good job of multiplexing multiple servers and supporting NZB. My main gripe about Agent is that its filtering system seems rather primitive. E.g. you cannot easily filter sporge that is coming from a particular provider.
I used to use Newsplex as a local proxy to multiplex new-servers, but no long see the need when Agent does it all. I just wish it were possible to prioritize more than one server at the same level. That worked great with NewsPlex, but is not available in Agent.
I occasionally access text newsgroups on the web via Google Groups | |
|
|
|
chRoniX10
Peace sells, but who's buying?
Premium
join:2004-05-22
Tarzana, CA | I use Grabit, when I first discovered Newsgroups I decided to try this program. It works great, has native NZB support and did I mention that it was free?
--
~smooth operator~ | |
|
RX9735
Premium
join:2002-09-06
Oklahoma City, OK | I have tried all and PAN is the best. It is really a no brainer for the serious usenet fan. It is free and works in both windows and linux.
--
David | |
|
| 
KCrimson
Premium
join:2001-02-25
Brooklyn, NY
 ·Optimum Online
 ·Verizon FIOS
| Re: [POLL] Newsreaders - 2008 Member Choice said by RX9735 :I have tried all and PAN is the best. It is really a no brainer for the serious usenet fan. It is free and works in both windows and linux. I just looked at PAN screenshots - If I wanted a flatfile database view of Usenet, I'd use XNews on Windows - it has all the bells-and-whistles and its interface is not quite as clumbsy looking.
As for my preferred newsreader - Unison on Mac. It sets a new interface standard. If you spend any time browsing the groups, and not just clicking nzb files to launch a newsreader, then you should check it out sometime.
After reading the above comments about Newsleecher being preferred over Unison (by those that have Intel Macs and can Bootcamp or VM into either OS), I'm anxious to try it out. The last time I used Usenet on Windows, XNews was my favorite, and I'm not sure if Newsleecher was even available.
BTW - pretty impressive that Unison is scoring so high though for a commercial application on a non-Redmond OS. Although this is also a bit of a problem for Mac users. While it is an outstanding app in terms of interface, it does lack some of the power-user features that are found elsewhere, and it would be nice to have some worthy competition. Users have been clinging to Thoth, waiting for another power-user option. | |
|
pokesph
It Is Almost Fast
Premium
join:2001-06-25
Sacramento, CA
clubs: | grabit (mainly) for it's nzb support and outlook ex for general use. | |
|
diskdocx
join:2005-09-26
Burlington, ON
·Cogeco Cable
| I'm still mainly running Newbin Pro v4.32, but I'm using my ISP's usenet service which only has 1 week retention, so I pull headers manually. Of all the clients I've used, including the newer NBP, it still has the cleanest interface IMO. Unfortunately no nzb support in that build.
Recently got my mom setup with TekSavvy, which allows access to usenetserver, and I'm loving NewsLeecher, primarily because of the nzb interface. NBP v5 just didn't seem to work properly.
So, I voted for both, but each have strengths. That said, I could see myself converting to NewsLeecher permanently at my place soon  | |
|
|
dot_null
Premium
join:2004-06-28
Kennesaw, GA
1 edit | GrabIt (easy to use, free, has NZB support) on Windows and iGrabNews (free, NZB support) on my Mac | |
|
xmc17
@optonline.net | Free prog. Alt.Binz. It's one of the best | |
|
| FBM
join:2002-07-25
Chicago, IL | Re: [POLL] Newsreaders - 2008 Member Choice said by xmc17 :
Free prog. Alt.Binz. It's one of the best
Another vote for alt.binz (that is not in the poll) | |
|
penguins4evr
Premium
join:2002-01-17
The Colony
clubs:
| I checked SABnzbd. Actually I use its successor, SABnzbd+, since the original SABnzbd was abandoned.
I like how it works so well with my Firefox browser.
--
Team Discovery
"Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13 | |
|
Shamayim
I already have a Messiah.
Premium
join:2002-09-23
1 edit | KCrimson wrote: "Users have been clinging to Thoth, waiting for another power-user option."
I use Unison and used to use Thoth. I don't know what Thoth can do that Unison can't.
--
"tick...tick...tick..."
»www.jtf.org/
| |
|
Rob A
Same Old Jets
Premium
join:2005-01-17
Pompton Plains, NJ | opera's built in newsreader | |
|
|
| (topic locked) |
|
45 (15.5%)
·
