A newsreader is a software application that reads articles on

Usenet Usenet (), a portmanteau of User's Network, is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose UUCP, Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Elli ...

distributed throughout

newsgroups A Usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system for messages posted from users in different locations using the Internet. They are not only discussion groups or conversations, but also a repository to publish articles, start ...

. Newsreaders act as clients which connect to a

news server A news server is a collection of software used to handle Usenet articles. It may also refer to a computer itself which is primarily or solely used for handling Usenet. Access to Usenet is only available through news server providers. Articles an ...

, via the

Network News Transfer Protocol The Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) is an application Protocol (computing), protocol used for transporting Usenet news articles (''netnews'') between news servers, and for reading/posting articles by the end user client applications. Brian ...

(NNTP), to download articles and post new articles. In addition to text-based articles, Usenet is also used to distribute binary files, generally in dedicated "binaries" newsgroups. The term ''newsreader'' is sometimes (erroneously) used interchangeably with ''

news aggregator In computing, a news aggregator, also termed a feed aggregator, content aggregator, feed reader, news reader, or simply an aggregator, is client software or a web application that aggregates digital Content (media), content such as online newsp ...

''. Newsreaders that help users to adhere to the established conventions of Usenet, known as

netiquette Etiquette in technology, colloquially referred to as netiquette, is a term used to refer to the unofficial code of policies that encourage good behavior on the Internet which is used to regulate respect and polite behavior on social media platforms ...

, are evaluated by the Good Netkeeping Seal of Approval (GNKSA).

Types of newsreaders

There are several different types of newsreaders, depending on the type of service the user needs—whether intended primarily for discussion or for downloading files posted to the alt.binaries hierarchy: Gnus-reading-news

; Desktop newsreaders : Designed to integrate well with common GUI environments, and often integrated with a

web browser A web browser, often shortened to browser, is an application for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's scr ...

email client An email client, email reader or, more formally, message user agent (MUA) or mail user agent is a computer program used to access and manage a user's email. A web application which provides message management, composition, and reception functio ...

. Examples: Windows Live Mail,

Mozilla Thunderbird Mozilla Thunderbird is a free and open-source email client that also functions as a personal information manager with a Digital calendar, calendar and contactbook, as well as an RSS feed reader, chat client (IRC/XMPP/Matrix (protocol), Matrix), ...

, Xnews, Forté Agent,

Unison Unison (stylised as UNISON) is a Great Britain, British trade union. Along with Unite the Union, Unite, Unison is one of the two largest trade unions in the United Kingdom, with over 1.2 million members who work predominantly in public servic ...

, Newswatcher and Pan. ; Traditional newsreaders : Designed primarily for reading/posting text posts; limited and often cumbersome binary attachment download functionality.

Gnus Gnus (), or Gnus Network User Services, is a message reader which is part of GNU Emacs. It supports reading and composing both e-mail and news and can also act as an RSS reader, web processor, and directory browser for both local and remote file ...

, as well as more specialized newsreaders such as

slrn slrn is a Console application, console-based news client for multiple operating systems, developed by John E. Davis and others. It was originally developed in 1994 for Unix-like operating systems and OpenVMS, VMS, and now also supports Microsoft ...

, nn and

tin Tin is a chemical element; it has symbol Sn () and atomic number 50. A silvery-colored metal, tin is soft enough to be cut with little force, and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, a bar of tin makes a sound, the ...

. ; Binary downloaders : Although Usenet originally started as a text-based messaging system without any file attachment ability, many Usenet users today do not participate in

discussion groups A focus group is a group interview involving a small number (sometimes up to ten) of demographically predefined participants. Their reactions to specific researcher/evaluator-posed questions are studied. Focus groups are used in market research ...

, as was common during the 1980s and 1990s and only use newsgroups for downloading files such as music, movies, pornography, software and games. Therefore, streamlined clients have been developed for quickly grabbing binary articles, and without the extraneous clutter of text reading and posting features for which file downloaders have little use.

References

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Types of newsreaders

See also

References