Netnews is a world-wide electronic bulletin board.
There are newsgroups for almost every subject
you can think of (and many more that you can't, or wouldn't want
to think of!). To access netnews, you can use one of
two programs, rn or xrn. The first is a command-line
version which is started by entering rn (for 'readnews').
The second is xrn, an X-window's news reader that has many
more enhancements over the command-line version. The xrn
version can be invoked by either typing the command xrn,
or by selecting the XRn option in the 'Tools' window (which comes
up when you press the left mouse button away from any X-terminal windows).
The first difference you will notice is that the command-line
version comes up very quickly; the X-window's version takes its
time. The X-window's version has all of the controls up front, in
a collection of labeled buttons, while the command-line
version relies upon character commands that are listed within a
context-sensitive help menu that is available by entering 'h'. The
best way to determine which version you will want to use, and the
best way to learn how to use the bulletin boards, is to spend time
using them.
In addition to reading the news, you are able to post replies to actually get involved in the discussions yourself. Issue man rn or man xrn for more information on netnews and posting to newsgroups. When you first use netnews you will be subscribed to a group called news.announce.newusers. Please read the articles regarding network policy before you post articles. What you send from these systems will be seen by hundreds of thousands of people worldwide and will help others form opinions of us here.