Usenet is literally the last (and to the best of my knowledge the only) world-accessible discussion system that is completely unfiltered and non-moderated.
It is unfortunate however that some ISPs have decided to drop newsgroup access altogether. My local Florida ISP, Brighthouse, does have complimentary service by Newshosting. This happened because Roadrunner (as in Time Warner) dropped access to it. But other ISPs don’t offer this, so you’re left with no access whatsoever. However there are alternatives. More on that in a moment.
One of the best uses of Usenet is for Linux discussion. To this day Usenet is very active on this topic, and is a great resource for help when you need it. Usually you can get a Linux question answered within minutes via Usenet.
Such example newsgroups are alt.comp.linux, alt.comp.os.linux, alt.linux and many more.
If you do not have newsgroup access via your ISP, Google Groups is an alternative. Here’s a link list from the newsgroups listed above:
Of course, using Google Groups is not the same as having direct access. Usenet is always best used with a mail client that supports it, such as Outlook Express, Windows Live Mail, Mozilla Thunderbird and so on. The reason it’s better with a client is because you have more control over how the discussion looks. Google Groups is done "The Google Way," which definitely isn’t the best way. This is not to say Google Groups is unusable, but once you’ve used Usenet in a true client, you’ll understand the advantages.
There are others ways of getting to Usenet if your ISP doesn’t support it and you don’t want to use Google Groups, such as NewsDemon, ThunderNews and Giganews. All of them charge, with Giga being the cheapest of the lot. Are they worth paying for? That’s up for you to decide.
Before you check out the alternatives, see if your ISP supports Usenet access first. Many still do but the documentation for it is absolutely buried. If you’re not able to locate the documentation instructing you what the newsgroup server is (which is what you need to access it,) try a Google search for "[your ISP] newsgroup server." This will usually return the information you’re looking for, or at least give an answer on whether your ISP has a newsgroup server or not.
