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nonhuman · Oct 29, 2007, 10:54 AM

Can anyone recommend a good, free RSS reader? I've been using NetNewsWire Lite for about two years now, and while it certainly does the job, I'd like to take a look at the alternatives. Unfortunately, everything else I've seen so far requires you to pay for it. Why people will make web browsers and email clients for free, but not an RSS reader which is really little more than a very simple web browser is beyond me.

So does anyone know of any other free options? The one feature of NNW that I really like is that it lets you sync with a NewsGator account. This is great because I don't have to worry about my copies of NNW on different accounts listing different things as read or unread, and when I'm on the road or on someone else's computer I can just check my NewsGator account and all my feeds are right there complete with read/unread data.

angelmb · Oct 29, 2007, 11:17 AM

I use PulpFiction Lite myself and I am also looking for another RSS reader that comes as Universal app, I thought NNW was worth a look but gonna keep an eye to read what people advices you

My apologies since my post doesn't help you at all.

Cold Warrior · Oct 29, 2007, 12:35 PM

Safari and Mail will do RSS.

nonhuman · Oct 29, 2007, 04:36 PM

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior

Safari and Mail will do RSS.

Yes, but I want a standalone application for RSS. I use RSS feeds in a different way than I use email or web pages, and neither Safari nor Mail is a comfortable fit for me for reading RSS feeds (though they're both a fair sight better than Firefox...).

-Q- · Oct 29, 2007, 05:01 PM

Been using Vienna for about two weeks now. I really like it.

IronPen · Oct 29, 2007, 05:40 PM

Originally Posted by -Q-

Been using Vienna for about two weeks now. I really like it.

I second that.

If you like the headlines right in front of you as they happen, try FeedPopper 1.9 - MacUpdate

cgc · Oct 29, 2007, 08:30 PM

Vienna, hands down. Been using it for over a year now and love it.

nonhuman · Oct 29, 2007, 11:36 PM

Ok, sounds like Vienna is definitely worth checking out.

Does anyone know anything about Shrook or Ensemble? They both also seem like the could be decent, and Shrook has both Spotlight searching and syncing that allows web-based access. Ensemble has .Mac syncing but, from the looks of it, you can't access your feeds from the web and there doesn't appear to be Spotlight integration.

nonhuman · Oct 30, 2007, 10:08 PM

Ok, so downloaded Vienna. Seems pretty good so far. One feature that I really miss from NNW and haven't figured out if Vienna has it yet is this: in NNW, you can just hit 'L' to mark all the articles in the current group/feed as read and move to the next group/feed. I find this extremely useful as it makes it very easy to move though all my new headlines very quickly. Vienna has a command to let you mark all articles as read, but it won't then automatically take you to the next feed/group so you can see the next set of articles that I can tell. Is there some hidden feature that I just haven't found yet?

-Q- · Oct 30, 2007, 10:40 PM

Originally Posted by nonhuman

Is there some hidden feature that I just haven't found yet?

Not so much hidden as misnamed (in my opinion). There's a command called 'Skip Folder' and I think that's what you're looking for. It'll mark all headlines read in a group and take you to the next grouping with unread articles. The keyboard shortcut is 'shift+command+s'.

mduell · Oct 31, 2007, 12:14 AM

Firefox + Sage

Rowen · Oct 31, 2007, 12:55 AM

I heard Leopard has a new RSS reader in mail. But its nothing but rumors.

peeb · Oct 31, 2007, 03:09 AM

It does have an RSS reader. It's not a rumor.

nonhuman · Oct 31, 2007, 11:50 AM

Originally Posted by -Q-

Not so much hidden as misnamed (in my opinion). There's a command called 'Skip Folder' and I think that's what you're looking for. It'll mark all headlines read in a group and take you to the next grouping with unread articles. The keyboard shortcut is 'shift+command+s'.

Perfect, that's exactly what I'm looking for! Thanks!

I've been using Vienna for about two days now and I really like it. The only problem is the lack of syncing. Until today I was just using my MacBook, so it wasn't a big deal, but my new iMac arrived about an hour ago, so now it's very nice how with NNW I can sync my feeds and my read/unread status for all the articles with NewsGator so that articles I read on one computer don't show up again on another. It sounds like both Shrook and Ensemble have that feature, so I'll be giving them a shot as well.

nonhuman · Oct 31, 2007, 12:08 PM

Ok, Shrook and Ensemble both have really bad interfaces that are pretty much just unbearable to use. I definitely like Vienna the best of all of them, but really want that syncing feature.

Kenneth · Oct 31, 2007, 07:38 PM

I just downloaded Vienna. It's simple which I like.

xmacintosh · Nov 1, 2007, 08:23 AM

Google reader

nonhuman · Nov 1, 2007, 09:37 AM

So last night I downloaded the .Mac SDK and I'm going to see about adding .Mac syncing to Vienna myself (hooray for open source software!). I haven't done any cocoa programming before, but I do have a degree in Computer Science so I figure it should definitely be within my capabilities to do. My only real concern is the GUI aspect of it as I have basically no experience with GUI programming other than for the web. Fortunately this should be pretty simple as GUIs go as I really just need to add a pane to the preferences that lets you put in your .Mac username and password. I'm just going to go for the most basic functionality I can and then let other people improve it if they want. Hopefully I can even get my changes (with others' improvements I assume) folded into the real distribution.

lpkmckenna · Nov 1, 2007, 12:42 PM

I'll probably dump Vienna when I upgrade. One less program to worry about.