Newsreader Survey -- Which do you use?

Dec 17, 2016 51 Replies

Well, after lots of whining and complaining, and tons of trial and error, I seem to have settled on using WLM for now. One of the things that I do not like about WLM is that it doesn?t use and apply the ">" attribute marks when quoting prior text. But, I just found a workaround for that called WLM QuoteFix. I found it here:

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I tried downloading and installing the "compiled" version as shown on the website and that worked easily. Then, I spent a long time trying to get the "edit" version to work in a way that I could customize the signature line a little. That finally worked too. And, for those who may be thinking of switching to, or trying, Windows Live Mail, Microsoft has announced that it will be ?ending support? for WLM on January 17, 2017. It will still work after that, but downloading the WLM software won?t be available after that. And, others here have pointed out that the trick for now is to download the wlsetup-all.exe file now (and save it) ? before January 17, 2017. Also, the file for the web-based installation of WLM will not work after January 17, 2017. So, be sure to get the specific wlsetup-all.exe file now. I had trouble finding exactly where to download the wlsetup-all.exe file, but someone elsewhere provided the direct link for the download shown below. Direct download to Microsoft server for the WLM12 installer executable file:

Full version 2012 installer:

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And, since I found this interesting, I think I'll post a new topic thread about the WLM Quotefix. P.S. While going through all of the various newsreader trials, I tried Forte Agent, WLM, Thunderbird, Xananews, etc. and just didn't like the way they operated and how the message lists etc. appeared on the screen. I also tried Opera but I couldn't get that to do anything since I didn't know how to get newsgroups via Opera -- just didn't know where to start with Opera open. And, I tried all kinds of tricks to get Windows 10 to allow me to run a Virtual Windows XP system so I could use Outlook Express, but apparently Microsoft has completely killed off that option.

Ralph Mowery posted for all of us...

That is what I use also. I does exactly what I want, how I want to do it. I have tried others but I guess being an old geezer has turned me off of those.

I have my old geezer card too. My first computer was the TRS 80 mod 3. Not counting an 8080 processor board I pieced together to convert some 5 level Baudot to Ascii. I am not really that heavy into computers, but just want them to work. Was doing fine with win xp then the tax program I use would not work this comming year, so bought 2 computers the had win 7 on them so I could put win 10 on them for free. Now several of the programs I use will not run under win 10. Still have to have the X computers going to run some of the programs. I think my windows office program dated back to 2007. Still does way more than I will ever use.

Opera. Works for email and news very nicely, easy to use including killfiles.

And none for me, what outdated s*it are you using?

I have a couple of machines here that came with 7 and I put XP on them. If it ever became necessary I still have the COE for 7 but I have not seen the need. I have been in the computer biz since they wound up with a key and had gears in them (The Mk13 fire control system). I worked on IBM 1401-1620 through the water cooled systems until mainframes became cards in a rack. I found out the most successful customers always stayed at least a generation off of the bleeding edge of technology and that is my plan.

Thanks. I have been trying Opera and, after reading your post, I tried it again last night. The problem is that when I open Opera and run it, I cannot even figure out what to do next to use it as a newsreader.

Any chance that you could point me to the first few steps of what I should do after opening Opera to get it to work as a newsreader?

Thanks.

"TomR" wrote in news:o3bql4$8l2$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

Xnews for many years now. Free.

Gnus, but it's probably not for you. :)

Thunderbird is probably your best bet, unless you want to spend $29 on a license for Forte Agent. Agent would definitely work on Win 10, and if you can't figure something out they have good support. (There's a large user community too, so you can often get help from another Agent user.)

There used to be a free version of Agent, but I think the last one was

3.3. I don't know whether it would work on Win 10 or not.

Microplanet Gravity is free and that might be an option. The project has all the source code, so they can keep working on it and updating it.

Some other newsreaders have been abandoned and the source code was never available. Dialog and Xnews are examples. I know some people still use them, but they could stop working on Win 10 tomorrow and nobody would really be able to do much about it. I don't think I'd recommend getting started with either of those at this point.

Opera has recently split into two. You need to download the email/news Opera, not the browser Opera. Email/news is called M2 and is found here:

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Wow! Thanks so much, JWS. I have been trying to solve this mystery for a while now. People kept saying that Opera works as a newsreader, but I could never get it set up to do that. I tried the Help key and I did Google searches and I found so-called Help pages, but none of it solved the problem. Now, I see that I needed to download a special version of Opera. Duh. I guess that the people who were saying that they use Opera as a newsreader must have downloaded a prior version before Opera split into two versions.

Well, now that I have it up and running (although I am not using it here -- I am still using WLM with QuoteFix), I will try and see if I can get Opera set up in a way that works for me. So far, I am having a little difficulty in doing that, but I only just tried it a few minutes ago. I'll look at it more later.

Yes I stuck with the old double version for ages until the browser part (which wasn't updated) refused to load enough of my favourite pages. Don't know why they split them really. There was a big discussion on the Opera forums as to why, but I've forgotten - money was the root of it I think. Although since the mail/news part hardly receives updates, I don't see why that couldn't have been left coded in with the browser. I think they took code from Chrome browser and it was too much effort to join them.

It's fairly similar to Outlook Express (which WLM is an upgrade from), so you shouldn't have too many problems. The best part I like is the "labels" (filters). You can sort email and news into folders, or ignore people you don't like.

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