RSS reader preference

Published
by
Austen
on July 23, 2007
in Technology
.

There are many, many RSS readers out there and many of them are very good. So why don’t I use what is believed to be the best one: NetNewsWire? Because it costs $30! Sure, it’s a pretty interface, sure it has a tabbed built-in web browser, but when it comes down to it they’re making you pay $30 for prettier icons.

But then you would say that I should get NetNewsWire Lite, as it’s free. Sure, but it doesn’t have the wide column feature, the ability to the flag items, or even a search! It’s almost like a trial of NetNewsWire, a way to get you to like it, and then buy it. Enter RSSOwl.

RSSOwl may not be the prettiest program in the world, but it certainly isn’t ugly either. It’s cross-platform, which is exactly why I started using it a couple of months ago, knowing that one day I would need another feed reader to learn.

It has all of the features (or at least that I need) of NetNewsWire and (surprise!) it’s free. You can’t argue with those numbers. If you can get a feed reader for free, would you really want to add on $30 for prettier icons and a sligtly familiar *cough*iTunes* interface?

2 Responses to “RSS reader preference”

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  1. 1 Mike
    July 23, 2007 at 2:08 pm

    I’ve been using NetNewsWire since the beginning. It has lots of features I like: posting to a blog with MarsEdit, posting to del.icio.us, a clippings group, which can be shared via NewsGator Online, and syncing with NewsGator, .Mac, or http://FTP.

    I also like being able to set custom refresh schedules for different groups - I have it refresh manually (so I can get more work done ;) but I have one group I need to keep up to date with, like versiontracker, updated every hour.

    I just looked at RSSOwl and didn’t like it. I generally dislike Java applications because they just don’t feel really native. I also didn’t like that it zooms the window to the full screen when you first start it.

  2. 2 Austen
    July 23, 2007 at 8:29 pm

    okay, okay… I get it. You’ve out-proved me. That’s what happens when I pick a fight with an experienced coder. ;-) Let me re-state: For me at least, RSS Owl offers what I need. I understand that to many people all of those features are important, and worth the extra $30.

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