Which are the best news readers and mail readers? WHY?

  • Thread starter Thread starter LittleMac
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LittleMac

Bottom-posting here only, please...

After reading that MS will abandon OE now... that is, they won't update
it any more... I am now looking for a new newsreader and I doubt if I am
alone in this. (And, a new mailreader, too.) "We" would like to know
which is the best newsreader and which is the best mailreader. But more
than a blank opinion are needed. We have a lot of experience out there
so let's say WHY we are saying what we are saying. (After all, why make
the next guy go through all of the personal testing that each one of us
now went through?)

What we need are features such as: (1) Cooperation with AV; (2) Offline
reading; (3) Handles both mail and news; etc. Does anyone have any links
to sites which compare programs and name their features?
 
What we need are features such as: (1) Cooperation with AV; (2) Offline
reading; (3) Handles both mail and news; etc. Does anyone have any links
to sites which compare programs and name their features?
Click to expand...

Personally, I never could use OE. IMHO, anything is a big improvement.

For e-mail, I like FoxMail, Phoenix Mail.

For news groups, I like Forte Free Agent and 40tude Dialog.

Unfortunately, Dialog appears to be on a very slow development track. Too
bad, because it has a very nice integrated e-mail program. The package is
quite usable right now, and should be tried. http://www.40tude.com/dialog/

Sneaking up from behind is Mozilla Thunderbird. At over 8 MB, It's big and
fat, but does not feel slow or clunky.



Bob
 
After reading that MS will abandon OE now... that is, they won't update
it any more... I am now looking for a new newsreader and I doubt if I am
alone in this. (And, a new mailreader, too.) "We" would like to know
which is the best newsreader and which is the best mailreader. But more
than a blank opinion are needed. We have a lot of experience out there
so let's say WHY we are saying what we are saying. (After all, why make
the next guy go through all of the personal testing that each one of us
now went through?)

What we need are features such as: (1) Cooperation with AV; (2) Offline
reading; (3) Handles both mail and news; etc. Does anyone have any links
to sites which compare programs and name their features?
Click to expand...

I use Pegasus Mail for Email
XNews for News Groups


--
----------------------------------------
Quantum Illusions: http://quantum.2ya.com
Pegasus Mail Support Site: http://pegasus.quantum.2ya.com
Freeware Site: http://freeware.quantum.2ya.com
DATA Solutions: http://datasolutions.quantum.2ya.com

If you truly want to contact me click the link
http://quantum.2ya.com/email.htm
 
Bottom-posting here only, please...

After reading that MS will abandon OE now... that is, they won't update
it any more... I am now looking for a new newsreader and I doubt if I am
alone in this. (And, a new mailreader, too.) "We" would like to know
which is the best newsreader and which is the best mailreader. But more
than a blank opinion are needed. We have a lot of experience out there
so let's say WHY we are saying what we are saying. (After all, why make
the next guy go through all of the personal testing that each one of us
now went through?)

What we need are features such as: (1) Cooperation with AV; (2) Offline
reading; (3) Handles both mail and news; etc. Does anyone have any links
to sites which compare programs and name their features?
Click to expand...
40tude Dialog
http://www.40tude.com/dialog/

regards

Dud
 
LittleMac said:
which is the best newsreader and which is the best mailreader.
But more than a blank opinion are needed. We have a lot of experience
out there so let's say WHY we are saying what we are saying.
Click to expand...

GNU Emacs with Gnus is simply the best mail reader and newsreader.
This is not a blank opinion, this is simply based on the actual
amount of features, flexibility and possibilities to customize it
to suit personal needs. It's absolutely free with full source code
and best computer geniuses in the world have been developing it
for more than 30 years. It's available for few dozens of different
hardware and operating systems, including for example MS-Windows
(all versions), GNU/Linux, FreeBSD and all major Unix(tm) versions.
http://www.emacs.org/ is a nice place to get you started.
 
Sami said:
GNU Emacs with Gnus is simply the best mail reader and newsreader.
This is not a blank opinion, this is simply based on the actual
amount of features, flexibility and possibilities
Click to expand...

There can be *to many* features and possibilities in a program.
If I were a usenet novice I would prefer an easy to use news client
which does not overwhelm me with thousands of features. (Not to mention
that I still like simple programs.)

bye,

Onno
 
There can be *to many* features and possibilities in a program.
If I were a usenet novice I would prefer an easy to use news client
which does not overwhelm me with thousands of features. (Not to mention
that I still like simple programs.)

bye,

Onno
Click to expand...

Agreed. For this reason, my preference is for separate programs that
are simple and reliable - Pegasus Mail 3.12c for email and Agent 1.93
for a newsreader.
 
GNU Emacs with Gnus is simply the best mail reader and newsreader.
This is not a blank opinion, this is simply based on the actual
amount of features, flexibility and possibilities
Click to expand...
There can be *to many* features and possibilities in a program.[/QUOTE]

The original poster asked for the best, so I gave him the best...
As simple as that, if you wan't an quick-and-easy newsreader and
mail software you must ask for "user friendly" or "idiot friendly"
software, not the _best_.
If I were a usenet novice I would prefer an easy to use news client
which does not overwhelm me with thousands of features.
Click to expand...

If you can read english and take some time to study basic things,
using GNU Emacs and Gnus is not an impossible task. My girlfriend
is truly a computer beginner, not even that good in english. But
after I spent few hours studying her she can use my GNU/Linux for
basic things and access mail/news with GNU Emacs.
(Not to mention that I still like simple programs.)
Click to expand...

Complex programs, like GNU Emacs and Gnus, which are designed by
smart people do not throw all their thousands of features right
to your face. You can use only the features you need and be quite
happy knowing that if you need something more complex, you got
the right tool to do it.

Exactly the same thing with Microsoft Word, most people only know
few simple basic text editing features and get their actual work
done with them. In reality MS-Word actually contains huge amounts
of features for more complex tasks, most of them are left un-used
by the majority of users...
 
Sami said:
The original poster asked for the best, so I gave him the best...
As simple as that, if you wan't an quick-and-easy newsreader and
mail software you must ask for "user friendly" or "idiot friendly"
software, not the _best_.
Click to expand...

The "best" newsreader is the one that exactly fits my needs.
If I am a beginner that is one that is easy to use. If I do a lot of
mail / news crossover the best newsreader has a mail / news gateway.
If I have a slow PC the best newsreader is the one that uses the least
resources. If I need to combine many online tasks, a Suite like Mozilla
would be the best choice.
If you can read english and take some time to study basic things,
using GNU Emacs and Gnus is not an impossible task.
Click to expand...

Well, the same is true for learning C++ and writing your own newsreader.
My girlfriend is truly a computer beginner, not even that good in
english. But after I spent few hours studying her she can use my
GNU/Linux for basic things and access mail/news with GNU Emacs.
Click to expand...

*Using* Linux is not a problem. That is almost the same as using
Windows. Setting it up is difficult.

Also, I do not have a few hours to explain how a system works each time
someone asks me for a program.
In reality MS-Word actually contains huge amounts of features for
more complex tasks, most of them are left un-used by the majority
of users...
Click to expand...

Well, and nonetheless there are things Word cannot do. And also, there
is a reason why Wordpad and Notepad exist: Ever tried to create a simple
text file with Word?

bye,

Onno
 
[posted and mailed]

Sami Sihvonen said:
There can be *to many* features and possibilities in a program.
Click to expand...

The original poster asked for the best, so I gave him the best...
As simple as that, if you wan't an quick-and-easy newsreader and
mail software you must ask for "user friendly" or "idiot friendly"
software, not the _best_.[/QUOTE]

Best is entirely subjective. What's the _best_ car? Also what's _best_ for
me may be entirely useless for you. Without some criteria invariably what is
recommended as the _best_ is whatever the respondent is currently using. The
only criteria the original poster supplied was:

What we need are features such as: (1) Cooperation with AV; (2) Offline
reading; (3) Handles both mail and news; etc. Does anyone have any links
to sites which compare programs and name their features?

Sorry but abuse of the term _best_ is a pet peeve of mine. People are
continually asking for recommendations for the _best_ whatever and rarely
supply any criteria.
 
LittleMac said:
Bottom-posting here only, please...
Click to expand...

Ofcourse ..
After reading that MS will abandon OE now... that is, they won't update
it any more...
Click to expand...

MS abandoned OE a long time ago .. it's only just official now.
I am now looking for a new newsreader and I doubt if I am
alone in this. (And, a new mailreader, too.) "We" would like to know
which is the best newsreader and which is the best mailreader. But more
than a blank opinion are needed.
Click to expand...

My previous mail/news reader was OE - I used it because it had both mail and
news in one east to use package.
It did a lot of bad things by default but I could change a lot of it and correct
the rest with thirdparty programs.

But I got tired of that.
I wanted a mail/news client that was more stable and less of a security risk,
without a pile of bugs I had to workaround.

I'm happy to say that I found all of that in Mozilla Thunderbird.
I had been using Mozilla Firebird (Phoenix at the time) as my favorite browser
and I was loving it so from the very first alpha version I tried thunderbird,
and I have stuck with it since.

Version 0.2 was just released some hours ago and it's pretty speedy.

I love it's excellent spam filtering.
I like that no longer can people cheat and put their post at the top of a
newsgroup by faking their time .. Thunderbird somehow detects the actual time of
posting.
I like that it's easy to use and looks good (even though it's theme is not yet
completed .. it still borrows some graphics from the old Mozilla suite)
It can use themes (like skins but more advanced)
You can customise the UI
You can install extensions for it
You can customise almost anything if you know a little CSS and/or javascript.
It doesn't mistreat ascii-art and respects codeformatting.
It's more secure than OE and much less of a virusrisk , and makes it easier to
avoid being tracked.
It comes with a spellchecker - english only , but you can download and install
dictionaries for many other languages (I did .. it works great).
And it handles things like quoting and signatures correctly.

... And it actually makes progress each week .. with OE I felt that it was
standing still and nothing was happening with it for years.

I love it - using it right now.
I would definatly recommend it to other OE users that wants to switch like I did.

Sincerely
CeeJay
 
LittleMac said:
Bottom-posting here only, please...

After reading that MS will abandon OE now... that is, they won't
update it any more... I am now looking for a new newsreader and I
doubt if I am alone in this. (And, a new mailreader, too.) "We" would
like to know which is the best newsreader and which is the best
mailreader. But more than a blank opinion are needed. We have a lot
of experience out there so let's say WHY we are saying what we are
saying. (After all, why make the next guy go through all of the
personal testing that each one of us now went through?)

What we need are features such as: (1) Cooperation with AV; (2)
Offline reading; (3) Handles both mail and news; etc. Does anyone
have any links to sites which compare programs and name their
features?
Click to expand...
My .02 is OE for News (non-binary), Gravity 2.6 for binary newsgroups, and
Poco for email; the last one is not free.

OE for me is the easiest to read text type of news, like this newsgroup,
24hoursupport.helpdesk, alt.comp.antivirus, etc. Seems to keep the topics
together easier.
 
Hello Christian,
You wrote on Thu, 04 Sep 2003 00:32:39 +0200:
LittleMac wrote:
Click to expand...
??>> Bottom-posting here only, please...
Ofcourse ..
Click to expand...

??>> After reading that MS will abandon OE now... that is, they won't update
??>> it any more...
MS abandoned OE a long time ago .. it's only just official now.
Click to expand...

No they didn't - it is and will be still supported and updated. That
statement was retracted - the dude made an error (left hand wasn't speaking
with the right one).
 
And said:
On Wed, 3 Sep 2003 19:56:43 +0200, Onno Tasler


Agreed. For this reason, my preference is for separate
programs that are simple and reliable - Pegasus Mail 3.12c
for email and Agent 1.93 for a newsreader.
Click to expand...

Agent is too far in the wrong direction; you go from too many
features to not enough. Any newsreader that can't handle
multiple servers simply isn't worth bothering with.


--
:-) Christopher Jahn
:-(

http://mywebpage.netscape.com/xjahn/Main.html

The best teddy bears are the live kind.
 
The "best" newsreader is the one that exactly fits my needs.
If I am a beginner that is one that is easy to use.
Click to expand...

This is true. But another consideration is that as a beginner
learns more and more, it would be nice if the easy-to-use app also
has features that will be wanted/needed as the user moves out of the
beginner phase. There need not be a trade-off between ease of use
and richness of features. (I realize GNU Emacs was being discussed,
but I don't mean to say anything about Emacs in particular here.)

I found Xnews to be very simple to use, and almost every time I
have wanted some 'new' feature, it has been available. (Note to OP:
Xnews is an online reader - Hamster is a good choice for essentially
making any reader an offline one.)

Dialog is also dead simple for a beginner to use, I think. And from
what I've been reading in n.s.r, it is also very fully-featured.
 
What we need are features such as: (1) Cooperation with AV;
Click to expand...

What sort of cooperation do you need? Any AV should be able to scan
any files that are downloaded, regardless of which app is used to
download them.
(2) Offline reading;
Click to expand...

It's been mentioned already, but lemme mention Hamster again. It
will pull a newsfeed and act as a local server, enabling any reader
to function offline. Hamster is very easy to set up, and once it's
going it does not require any tinkering (though if you /want/ to
tinker with it, the possilities are many). Considering using Hamster
widens the field of newsreaders you might use.
(3) Handles both mail and news;
Click to expand...

Imo, that is a requirement that is very very difficult to meet. I
haven't seen an app that is designed for both those different
purposes that is worth recommending to anyone. That may change as I
explore Dialog more....
etc.
Click to expand...

That's a tough requirement to discuss concisely. :-)
 
Any newsreader that can't handle
multiple servers simply isn't worth bothering with.
Click to expand...

Not everyone *needs* multiple servers. I use Netscape for the rare
times that occurs. It has too many good features and security for me
to give it up just because of one or two missing features.
 
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