NetNewsWire 2.1 released, should I buy it?

Posted by Neil Crosby on May 12, 2006 09:20 PM

For a couple of weeks now, I’ve been using NetNewsWire at home on my Mac Mini. I decided to go with it because from everything I’d heard it was the best RSS reader available for the Mac. It syncs with NewsGator (so I can subsequently sync with FeedDemon at work and not read the same posts twice), it lets me put things into folders and it looks okay.

But I’m not enthralled by it. Compared to FeedDemon, it just seems to be lacking something. It’s the little things that annoy me, such as the previously selected feed folder not collapsing when you go to view a feed in another folder. The fact that the folder and feed ordering seems to be done by date, rather than name, order (unless you manually reorder them) is pretty damn annoying too. I really miss the summary page that FeedDemon shows containing a list of all feeds with unread items.

So what other good RSS readers are out there for the Mac? I have 118 feeds that I subscribe to, all nicely foldered up. I’d like to be able to sync with NetNewsWire, but that’s by no means essential. What I’d really like is a clone of FeedDemon for the Mac, but I know that’s not going to happen. Does anyone have any suggestions for a Feed Reader for the Mac I should try?

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Comments

  1. by trovster on May 13, 2006 12:25 AM

    Richard Rutter is recommending Shrook, which I may look into. Currently, I’m not using an RSS reader ON my Mac, instead using an online solution with Netvibes.

  2. by Neil Crosby [TypeKey Profile Page] on May 13, 2006 09:20 AM

    Thanks for the heads-up about Shrook, trovster. I’ve just installed it (along with Vienna), and I must say - it looks promising.

    I like that because of the four columned layout you can in effect only have one folder open at a time (this is really the big thing that I want - only one sub folder open at a time!). Annoyingly though, when I imported my grouped OPML file into Shrook, it put all my feeds into one big folder. Looks like I’ll have to export a load of little OPML files from NetNewsWire and then import them separately into Shrook, so that I can keep testing it for a bit. I don’t think it’s a problem with the export in NetNewsWire, since Vienna was quite happy importing the individual groups.

    Anyway, I’m going to give Shrook a go and see what I think after a few days of usage. I’m not totally sure why, but I don’t think I’ll be using NetVibes - I’m an old fuddy-duddy who thinks that feed readers should be rich applications on the desktop, rather than being online. It’s wrong-headed thinking though, and I might be tempted to try NetVibes out later.

  3. by Sieue on May 13, 2006 11:09 PM

    I’m currently using Bloglines. I prefer a web based solution for all the reasons you’ve mentioned up there ^

    Mostly though I like that, providing people have done their RSS feeds correctly, I can read the entire entry without having to click elsewhere.

  4. by trovster on May 14, 2006 12:39 AM

    I’m not sure why you’re suggesting that including the entire content of an article/post as ‘correct’ or ‘right’ way to use RSS. Infact, I prefer getting a summary in the RSS, then viewing the site as it was indended, with the design/style enhancing the absorption of the information.

    Netvibes can show the articles inline, but the formating is very bland. I always open the links on the respective sites.

    You can now sync your desktop aggregators with online services, so they kind of act like bloglines/netvibes/live.com/start.com/google ig/web-based solutions, with the close interaction of a desktop application.

  5. by Neil Crosby [TypeKey Profile Page] on May 17, 2006 07:07 AM

    Personally, I generally prefer to read the information of a post in the RSS feed itself too, as it’s easier not to become distracted by the pretty design that way. It’s different horses for different course though. I take it then, trovster, that you’d appreciate it if I provided a summaries RSS feed?

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Neil Crosby now blogs at The Code Train and also runs NeilCrosby.com, The Ten Word Review and Everything is Rubbish.