OT (Way off) Newsgroups readers

[JoeSpareBedroom]

.....said the child who top posts just to be an asshole.

[Oren]

The NNTP server makes no difference. OP needs the program to run on his OS (Win7). I bet it will run in XP mode.

OP -- try the install of X-News. If Win7 burps, and offers XP mode, run the install. Nothing left but to see. It won't harm your machine, but only rely on the install, itself. I'm thinking it will work in XP mode - I have old software that worked on Win7 when I selected run in XP mode.

[Ed Pawlowski]

"JimT" wrote

Windows Live Mail version 2010 is as good as OE. The new 2011 version sucks for newsgroups. I used system restore to get rid of it and revert back to the 2010 version.

MS does not seem to care about newsgroups at all. They removed the ability to have the . character define the old message when you reply. They only sow a thumbnail of photos, but they do offer a slide show for multiple photos, a potential benefit there.

[David Nebenzahl]

On 10/31/2010 1:13 PM Bob-tx spake thus:

I'm puzzled why you find Thunderbird's email functions fine but call it "not good at all" for newsgroups. The two are treated very similarly in Tbird.

What exactly don't you like about Thunderbird's newsgroup handling? I use it myself, realize it may not be the world's greatest newsreader, but think it's a hell of a lot better than anything Micro$oft has ever released.

I'm curious.

[David Nebenzahl]

On 10/31/2010 4:50 PM JimT spake thus:

Like what? Be specific, man.

I recently discovered, to my surprise actually, that Thunderbird doesn't know how to find messages by message ID. Kinda surprising, being as it's an open-source project written by geeks who supposedly want to follow all them RFCs and stuff.

[Oren]

I'll venture a guess. T-Bird is an e-mail client for the most part and not a true news reader, per se. I don't use, nor have ever used T-bird, but that is my understanding. I can be corrected if I'm wrong on this.

[DD_BobK]

Consider a MacBook Pro & run your old Windows machine as a VM (Virtual Machine via Fusion by VM Ware)

You'll be able to run your entire old WIndows machine (sans the old hardware) as a virtual machine. My PC died nearly two years ago but I cloned onto my new Mac before it bit the dust. I used to run it all the time but slow by slow I made the total shift to the Mac world.

Great software & was only ~ $60

I even have a VM (virtual machine) of ancient WIn 95 that I run very occasionally, like a few times per year.

Keep your old PC software running via a Windows VM on a Mac..... seems strange but it really works.

I even have a DOS Bellville washer program (from late 1990's) that I can still run. :)

Go Mac & "VM" your Windows troubles away.

cheers Bob

[David Nebenzahl]

On 10/31/2010 7:33 PM Oren spake thus:

Well, no, Thunderbird *is* designed both as an email and a news client, so you're wrong there.

But I'm asking about *specific* complaints about Thunderbird as a newsreader.

Smoke 'em if you got 'em.

[Bob-tx]

"JimT" wrote

Windows Live Mail version 2010 is as good as OE. The new 2011 version sucks for newsgroups. I used system restore to get rid of it and revert back to the 2010 version.

MS does not seem to care about newsgroups at all. They removed the ability to have the . character define the old message when you reply. They only sow a thumbnail of photos, but they do offer a slide show for multiple photos, a potential benefit there.

________________________________________

I thought about using Restore to go back to the 2010 version, but from what I understand about restore, one will lose all the software that has been installed, plus all the W-7 updates, of which there are a bunch.

Bob-tx

[Han]

Oren wrote in news:kf6sc65nadqhsf6njptscq8p70c7t88qab@

4ax.com:

Sorry you diudn't see the smiley that wasn't there .

[dpb]

Arthur Shapiro wrote: ...

Why use a second window at all? Set up here w/ split window of headers in top, view in lower. No need for any window operations at all -- 'n' for next unread, 't' for next unread thread, 'k' to kill/quit watching thread, etc., etc., ...

If want to make a reply, then opens a window for that purpose, of course, but other than that, no.

--

[dpb]

...

People who regularly don't (bottom-post, that is) are almost always kill-filed... :)

'Page' and/or 'End' make quick work of that and keeping the thread window pretty small (there's no need for it, much, anyway, really) makes it pretty painless (certainly far better than a separate window, anyway).

$0.02, ymmv, etc., of course...

[Arthur Shapiro]

I'll chime in here, as one who prefers the ancient Win95-era newsreader News Xpress from which this message is being posted. I've been trying to like Thunderbird and am losing the battle.

I can either read a given message in the third panel, or double-click the message and have it open in a new Thunderbird tab. That's nice.

What ain't nice is that to get rid of the latter tab, I have to CTRL-W, just as with a browser window, or close it by clicking the usual close "X" in the tab. That's fine for browsers, where tabs often are desired to remain for some period of time. It rapidly becomes a real PITA for viewing each newsgroup message. If ESC closed the message window I'd probably be a happy camper.

If this is a configuration option, or if I'm missing the Big Picture here, please say so.

Art

[notbob]

Mainly cuz many of is are geezers with marginal eyesight and gimpy appendages. I use slrn for two reasons:

1) I can change from split to a single window and back in any mode, giving me full screen view of groups, threads, or articles, as I need. Plus, I can do it all from my keyboard without having to reach for that gotdamn mouse! 2) I'm in command line mode with gives me more area for big ol' geezer sized fonts. No borders, scroll bars, menus, or toolbars wasting valuble screen real estate.

I'd rather row through a dozen maximized windows via alt-tab than put up with all those microscopic tiled windows I gotta put on my geezer glasses to see.

nb

[Arthur Shapiro]

To lessen the probability of having to scroll - the second window is, obviously, "big". For people who bottom-post (!) and/or can't trim huge amounts of original text, the split window virtually ensures having to scroll to the bottom to see the new text. The separate window at least gives a better shot of seeing the interesting stuff without scrolling.

Art

[Nil]

On 31 Oct 2010, Oren wrote in alt.home.repair:

It probably does, but it's not necessary to do so.

[Nil]

On 01 Nov 2010, "Bob-tx" wrote in alt.home.repair:

To get back to the previous version of Windows Live Mail (which is called WLM 2009, not 2010), all you have to do is uninstall the recent Windows 2011 from Control Panel, and re-install the old version, available from Micrsoft at:

Your messages, accounts, folders, etc. should still all be intact.

[Nil]

On 31 Oct 2010, "Bob-tx" wrote in alt.home.repair:

Yes, Xnews works just fine in Windows 7, but you must install it to some location other then Program Files. The reason is that recent Windows security features prevent a program from writing user data in the program directory. If you install Xnews to some other location of your choosing, it works great. I use it daily.

[David Nebenzahl]

On 11/1/2010 10:33 AM Arthur Shapiro spake thus:

So this is your complaint with Thunderbird, correct? That you feel you have to open messages in a new window (not pane) and then have to close that window?

Not a totally invalid complaint; I understand your wanting a larger window. But you do realize that you can resize Thunderbird's panes to suit, don't you? Couldn't you just make the Tbird window tall (say the height of your desktop), then reduce the message header pane and make the message display pane as large as possible?

The only thing you might gain from a different newsreader would be the ability to move panes around within the application window; I'm not even sure which newsreaders allow you do do this. So it doesn't seem like that great an obstacle to your enjoying Thunderbird.

Of course, there may be other things you don't like about this program. I have several myself (see other postings in this thread). However, my annoyance is slight enough that it's pretty much swamped by my laziness when it comes to looking for a better news client ...

[Bob-tx]

"JimT" wrote

Windows Live Mail version 2010 is as good as OE. The new 2011 version sucks for newsgroups. I used system restore to get rid of it and revert back to the 2010 version.

MS does not seem to care about newsgroups at all. They removed the ability to have the . character define the old message when you reply. They only sow a thumbnail of photos, but they do offer a slide show for multiple photos, a potential benefit there.

________________________________________

I thought about using Restore to go back to the 2010 version, but from what I understand about restore, one will lose all the software that has been installed, plus all the W-7 updates, of which there are a bunch.

Bob-tx

_________________________________________

Several people have said they like Tbird ng reader & wanted specifics on why I don't.

1. It is a royal pain to select specific NG. Apparently, their search doesn't work
2. File size is not indicated on the subject line so one doesn't know how big a file may be before downloading.
3. Generally clumsy and difficult to use.
4. That's enough, but there are other nits.

Bob-tx