Looking for good newsreader program [closed]

I am looking for good newsreader (NNTP) program, which 1) is preferrably free, 2) allows me to see older posts, not just latest, 3) can download posts for offline reading, 4) has good indexing/searching capabilities, 5) downloads new posts in interesting threads automatically, but doesn't download posts from ignored threads.

I started with Thunderbird, as that's what I use for email, but I don't know how to get to older posts in Thunderbird.

I don't need handling of binary data, archives, etc. Just regular newsreader.

Which newsreader software do you prefer?

Thunderbird is fine as a newsreader. Just go to the group and click on File->Download next 500 messages

(It is a bit cumbersome if you want to download ALL newsgroup posts, but you can probably find an extension at Thunderbird Addons)

Opera

Newsgroup reader in Opera is the same as the RSS feeds and email look, use and feel.

• Free
• Able to set time interval on auto download threads
• Option to download for offline reading
• Allows for threads to be ignored (possibly skipped)
• Search is fairly done, same as searching Opera mail messages

No idea if it allows for calling back to older posts, this may be set by who you access the newsgroups through.

_{Other Opera users should update this wikied answer if they can expound or clarify points}

Emacs Gnus is fantastic, once it is set up. Despite all the hard work of the developers to make it easy, it still requires a fair bit of fiddling to set it up. Once it's up and running, it has no equal.

Gnus comes with Emacs. The included info docs are enough to get it running. The newsgroup gnu.emacs.gnus exists and is active.