Forté Agent is an email and news client used on the Windows operating system. Agent can also be used on the Linux platform by using Wine. Initially popular in the mid-1990s, Forté created the first truly powerful GUI newsreader on the Windows platform. However, it suffered a wane in popularity due to an increasing amount of competitors, particularly Microsoft Windows-bundled Outlook Express and more specialized clients like Microplanet Gravity. A scaled down free version, called Free Agent, has traditionally been available alongside the full-featured agent.

Agent was developed at the San Diego Supercomputer Center by Mark Sidell and released in 1995. Forté was acquired by Genesys (now Alcatel) in 1997, which in turn sold Forté's Consumer Software group in 2000 to Charles Dazler Knuff, one of the original developers. During this time development slowed down considerably, but important features such as yEnc support were added, and Agent retained much of its userbase.

See also

• List of news clients

External links

• Forté Inc.
• alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent the Agent newsgroup

Usenet clients

Forté Agent | Forté Agent