problems reading News with Netscape

[Salman Ahmed <ssahmed@interlog.com>]

I tried using Netscape Messenger to read News and have
run into a very annoying problem :

Netscape Messenger does not seem to be able to save/remember
column header widths. When initially reading a newsgroup, the
Messenger window is sized really, really wide. The newsgroup name,
# of unread msgs, # of read msgs columns are way oversized, and the
window pane showing the message threads and the body of the
selected message (if any) is very, very narrow with the result that
the whole Messenger window is extremely huge and part of it
pans off the current workspace.

Now, once I setup the widths the way I want and I exit Netscape
I expect Messenger to remember these settings so that when I
start up Messenger the next time I won't have to do all the resizing
of the columns!!

But Messenger insists on being stupid and doesn't remember the
last column width settings that I used. Is there any way to fix this
problem ? I've looked at various settings under the Preferences
dialog but haven't found anything that might be related to this.

FWIW, Netscape Messenger on Windows behaves quite well and
I don't have this problem at all.

I checked some NG archives and didn't see any postings related to
this problem so I am wondering if other people have experienced any
problems similar to this with Netscape Messenger under Linux.

Alternatively, can anyone recommend a good, full-featured X windows
based newsreader ? I tried Xrn and after using Netscape Messenger
(under Windows) for quite some time, I can't stand the plain look of
Xrn.

Thanks for any info on this very annoying problem with Netscape.
--
Salman Ahmed
ssahmed AT interlog DOT com