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Application Review
PMINews
2
Review
by: Craig Miller – 04/10/11
OS Reviewed on: eComStation
2.0
Audio: Uniaud16 V1.9.25 & Uniaud32 V2.1.2
Video
Card Driver: SNAP, version 3 (eCS 2.0 package)
Year:
1998
Version: 2.00.1205
Application Type: News
Reader
Developed by: SouthSoft, Inc.
Published by: Stardock
Systems, Inc.
Homepage
Link: Click
Here
Wikipedia Link: Additional
Usernet Info
Download
PMINews 2 now!
This
is the full version with a data file that has the Serial Number.
File Size: 2.02 Megs.
(1)
Introduction:
Do
you read the news groups? If you do, you've probably wished there
was a way to read them quicker and more conveniently. If you
don't, it's probably because the newsgroups can be difficult to
organize and understand. Enter PMINews 2.0! PMINews 2.0 is a
powerful yet easy to use news reader that gives users no shortage
of choices in how they read the news. Its multithreaded design
allows you to do several things at the same time within it.
Moreover, it is tightly integrated with PMMail, OS/2's #1
selling e-mail program. If you use newsgroups or think
you might want to try them, try PMINews 2.0!
PMINews 2.0 was designed for both casual newsgroup users as well as newsgroup junkies. Its powerful features include the ability to search newsgroups for a particular phrase or attribute, offline reading, SPAM filtering, custom address books, Great binary post handling, and a lot more! PMINews 2.0 does it all!
- Stardock's website
Ok, First off, lets talk about what a Usernet is, and why (or even if) you need a news reader in the year 2011. Especially when a eComStation user has IRC, Yahoo! Groups, www.os2world Forums, ICQ like apps, and email, to connect with on another.
By the way, I am blatantly copying Wikipedia(!):
Usenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It developed from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.
Usenet is one of the oldest computer network communications systems still in widespread use. It was conceived in 1979 and publicly established in 1980 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University,[1] over a decade before the World Wide Web was developed and the general public got access to the Internet. It was originally built on the "poor man's ARPANET," employing UUCP as its transport protocol to offer mail and file transfers, as well as announcements through the newly developed news software such as A News. The name USENET emphasized its creators' hope that the USENIX organization would take an active role in its operation.[2]
The articles that users post to Usenet are organized into topical categories called newsgroups, which are themselves logically organized into hierarchies of subjects. For instance, sci.math and sci.physics are within the sci hierarchy, for science. When a user subscribes to a newsgroup, the news client software keeps track of which articles that user has read.[3]
In most newsgroups, the majority of the articles are responses to some other article. The set of articles which can be traced to one single non-reply article is called a thread. Most modern newsreaders display the articles arranged into threads and subthreads.
In Newsgroups, once you boil it down, is simply another way to get your news, social needs, and questions asked. Though not nearly as popular anymore, I still think there is a use for it.
(2) Installation:
PMINews 2 uses a non WarpIn, non IBM Installer. I am finding out more and more that in the late 90's, it was a free for all of how to get an application on your desktop. In it's self, not a horrible thing, but it does become a problem if you need to remove the app since there is no true unified uninstall. Anyways, I'm getting off subject, lets get to work.
Even the install icon is different then anything I have seen for eComStation, it looks and acts like a Windows app. Once you download the PMINews_v2_eCS.zip, from the top of this page, unzip it (I suggest the desktop, it's just easier). There should be two files, one this the program, the other a text file with the SN. Double click on the program PMI200.EXE.
So,
hummm...am I still in eCS?
Hit next,
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Hoary, were done with the install, yawn.
(3) Startup:
To get PMINews 2 working, you need to have some information before we start. Specificity you need a news server to connect to. If your ISP has a news server then it should be easy to get it from them. If not, there are free servers out there. Personally, I am using a free server, you can get a list of them (and more information on Usernets) from here:
Free and Public Usenet News Servers - http://freenews.maxbaud.net/
Just to make this easier for you, the server information for the one I use is:
news.mi.ras.ru, port 119
Ok, so now that we have that done, let's get PMINews 2 setup so we can do this review!
Click on the PMINews 2 icon, and you will be presented with a new window:
Before you get yourself in trouble, goto PMINews, then Servers. Then, in the menu bar, go to Server, then add, you should see a window like this (Blank though):
If your ISP does not have a news server, then try out the settings I have here. Fill in the blanks and hit “OK”
You
will get very used to this window.
You will return to the PMINews Server Manager. Click on the “Get Newsgroup List” and PMINews will start pulling all the newsgroups it finds from the servers. Depending on your connection, the Newsgroups window should populate with every newsgroup out there, and this can take awhile.
Once it is done, you can put a subject in the location under the text Newsgroups (I put os2) in the blank so you see where I am talking about. Hitting “Filter”, or just enter, will then show only the groups that find whatever you are looking for.
And trust me on this, no matter how “different” your tastes are, you will find a group. I mean, go ahead and type “midget”, I know you want to...
Anyways...since we are gentlemen here, I have picked os2, you will see the groups almost instantly pop up, from there you can find groups that you find interesting and click on them, when you do, a new window will pop up asking you where you want your new group. For now, let it put it in the default folder. Latter, you can make separate folders to make it easier to show different interests.
To pick the right group, remember that the major set of worldwide newsgroups is contained within nine hierarchies, eight of which are operated under consensual guidelines that govern their administration and naming. The current Big Eight are:
* comp.* – computer-related discussions (comp.software, comp.sys.amiga)
* humanities.* – fine arts, literature, and philosophy (humanities.classics, humanities.design.misc)
* misc.* – miscellaneous topics (misc.education, misc.forsale, misc.kids)
* news.* – discussions and announcements about news (meaning Usenet, not current events) (news.groups, news.admin)
* rec.* – recreation and entertainment (rec.music, rec.arts.movies)
* sci.* – science related discussions (sci.psychology, sci.research)
* soc.* – social discussions (soc.college.org, soc.culture.african)
* talk.* – talk about various controversial topics (talk.religion, talk.politics, talk.origins)
Once you pick the folder you want it in, a newspaper icon will appear to the left of the name, telling you that, that group has been subscribes to. The groups will automatically populate in the main window, so take as many newsgroups as you want, then when you are done, close the window.
Now, your PMINews windows will look like this, minus two of the groups I have:
So
many posts, so much crap...
Ok, so you made it this far, good, lets see if that trip was worth it.
(4) The Program:
PMINews 2 is fast, that is the first thing I need to state. When you click on that PMINews icon it will pop up almost instantly. That is nice to see because Mozilla (version 3.53 at the time of this article, and yes, I need to upgrade to 3.6.13, but I am waiting for version 4.0) takes forever to boot up.
Also, if you have ever used PMMail for OS/2 you should be right at home with the format and look of the program since there are not much differences (This is becoming less apparent as PMINews is not being upgrades anymore and PMMail is). In fact, many features of PMMail are reflected almost identically in PMINews, such as filters, signatures, read and composition windows, settings notebooks and more.
PMMail
v3.09.34.1672 to the left, PMINews v2 to the right
Oddly, one of the things that should have been a no brainier is what is missing in the above picture: split screen for messages and the message itself. Why this was not included as default or at least an option is beyond me. So what happens when you want to read a post? You click on the post you want to read and it opens into a new window. Really? Why do I need more crap on my screen?
From the above picture you will notice (the PMINews part) I have Multiple GroupLists. If you read a significant number of newsgroups, multiple GroupLists are likely to be one of the most useful and unique features of PMINews. Users can have different sets of newsgroups in each GroupList. Each GroupList can also contain its own settings, such as different e-mail addresses, signatures, custom filters, etc. If you expand the picture I have it split into three different groups, one for eCS, the other for Other Operating Systems like FreeDOS and BeOS, then I have a Misc Newsgroups for anything else like Mozilla to Florida information. A good example of how it works even just with my email, for the eCS groups I have my admin (@) bluenexus.net, for all the others I have my Yahoo! Account contact email.
If you go into PMINews, then settings at the top menu screen you will find general settings. There is a place for power users here, but as everyone knows here, I am not. So REXX as some of the settings are above me. It's nice to know that the power users have some room here, I just left everything alone.
You can see though there is offline support. While I think this was important during the days of dial-up, it is nice to use if you have eComStation on a laptop without Internet, maybe when on a bus, plane, train, whatever. After marking the messages or threads you wish to view, PMINews downloads them to your machine to view at your leisure.
When writing a post the spell checking features of PMINews help ensure that your posts do not go out with a bunch of unnecessary spelling mistakes. The spell checker's dictionary is dynamic, so the more you use it, the better it will be at correcting your mistakes. I found the spell checker so-so, and actually felt more conformable writing my post in OpenOffice, then copying it to PMINews. In a pinch though, it's not horrible.
Testing
out the posting window
One thing that is nice and automatic, is that PMINews posts your email with a No Spam message right in it. To better understand what I mean, this is how it shows up on my posts: "Craig Miller" <nospam@bluenexus.net>
Trust me when I tell you, you do not want to post anything with your regular email, there is a lot of spam in there and I'm sure if you post your real email, it will start filling your email box.
So this is the place where unfortunately I lack some better knowledge of newsreaders but I thought it would be good for you to know some of the additional features for you power users out there. I was looking though the read me for PMINews and there are some additional bullet points that they show as reasons why to use it:
Multiple Server Support. Users with access to more than a single news server can now combine the power of those news servers for their own use. PMINews integrates multiple news servers into a single master list of all available newsgroups.
Advanced Filtering and Searching. Users can filter out particular users or entire threads they do not wish to not see again with only a couple mouse clicks. PMINews' search features allow users to search any portion of a post or newsgroup filter the results based on a particular attribute. Boolean relationships can be used in searches and filtering. For example, a user could create a single filter that searches for posts that are cross-posted into ALT. newsgroups AND has the word "money" in the subject. For true newsgroup power users, PMINews also comes with its own filtering language. PMINews example filters, when activated, can help weed out SPAM and filter binary newsgroups to only display messages with actual attachments. Few newsreaders on any platform can even remotely compare to PMINews anti-SPAM features, all of which are user viewable and customizable to help make your newsgroup experience less of a hassle.
Look
at this post, you won't find things like this easily on the web.
(5) Final Thoughts:
The first thing you need to know about newsgroups, in this day, cannot be your only source of news. Honestly there is just to much crap to wade though. If you can get past that though, Newsgroups are a great “other” option for farming data that interests you.
With that said, there are many good Newsreader applications out there and I hope to hit a few more in the future. But for now, I find PMINews 2 a great native application that is easy to use but powerful enough for power users.
It is fast and I never had an issue with crashes or it hanging the system. One little option I love in PMINews 2.0 is the ability to save the window position from the menu screen, I think every app should have that.
I do recommend Newsgroups, but not for what you think. See, if you are doing it to find additional eCS news, I think you will be disappointed, but if you go in it, that you are looking for some rare nuggets of gold in some of the other groups (like Mozilla), then I think you will be happy surprised.
A good newsreader is a good addition to your Internet tools. Add it to your Yahoo! Groups (eCS has a great group there), IRC, the Web, and www.os2world.com forums, you have all your bases covered.
(6) Updates after the review:
None as of yet.
