Pineapple News is a USENET newsreader for Mac OS X. It is primarily an offline reader, but it has features and user interface conventions that make it easy to use online also. As you can see, it uses the traditional three-pane paradigm.
Way back in 1999, I started working on the BeOS version of this program, which I unleashed on an unsuspecting public in 2000. The Mac OS X version was released five years later, in 2005. They share almost no code, because the BeOS and Mac OS X Cocoa APIs are quite different. The two programs are otherwise similar, though.
The program is easy to set Up and use. Steven Ansell, the guy who drew all the program’s graphics, had never heard of USENET before. He was able to Get up and running with Pineapple News after asking me only one question, which I answered in just a few sentences. And that was before I had finished the manual.
Features
It’s easy to set up multiple server accounts and use them all simultaneously. You can Create many identities, each with its own signature file, and switch between them quickly. You can set individual groups for headers-only or full article downloads, which helps you make the best use of your network bandwidth. The program allows you to create your own storage folders, which you can use to save copies of messages that interest you. Cross-post detection means you won’t have to read the same article more than once. The program has a killfile, so you can ignore unruly posters. You can proof messages you write with Mac OS X’s built-in spell-checker. Extensive online help is available in standard Mac OS X helpbook format, which allows you to quickly search for keywords of interest.
The program displays quoted text in distinctive colors, so it’s easy to see who said what. If you don’t like the default colors, you can customize them from the program’s preferences window.
