changing RSS readers

Since I've decided to gradually move away from my reliance on Outlook, I've decided to stop using Newsgator as my RSS reader and have started using Bloglines. After a week I'm pretty happy with it but I'm not sure it's the total bomb. What are you guys using?

Comments

[Tony]

I am currently using NetNewsWire Lite on my Mac mini. I tried the new Safari RSS but didn't like that at all.

I can't remember what I was using on my Windows machine, probably Thunderbird.

I am using IpodderX for podcasting but may just use that for podcasts and RSS news feeds as well. Not sure yet as I think having them seperate is easier to manage.

[Phillip Molly Malone]

I am using Newsgator. You could look at the FeedDemon. Its sort of like NewsGator (now Newsgator bought it out) and it also works with the Newsgator feeds. Haven't fully used it but looks okay.
Molly

[Aaron Heath]

I'm currently using iPodderx on both mac and windows.

I like it!

[Raduza]

I'm using Bloglines, and quite like it. Web-based is a huge plus. However, it has some issues with showing entries I've already read and a number of feeds (particularly podcast feeds for some reason) come up with a slew of old entries dating back months when a new one is posted. It's a bit weird, but the pros far outweigh the cons. There's also been a bit of downtime recently, but never for very long which is good (and they've got the nice plumber to tell you the site is borked).

[Daryl Cook]

I've been using Sage -- a Firefox plugin and therefore cross-platform -- for quite a while. There's a couple of neat hacks for it on the web too, so you can change the reader layout using a css file. Sweet.

[Phillip Molly Malone]

Hey Raduza,
Were the feeds only or mainly from TPN? I get that all the time in a couple of things I have used. Very Annoying.

Cam: Another tool that I saws that looks kind of cool and integrates with Bloglines (not sure if it does it well or not) is Great News (http://www.curiostudio.com/). You might want to check it out. If I didn't have Newsgator, I would probably check it out more.

JAT
Molly

[mabster]

I use SharpReader. Really simple, cut-down interface.

[Ian]

I wrote my own rss reader with .net but I have started playing with Pluck (www.pluck.com) it's an offline reader for IE, it works well and stores your feeds on the server which is usefull to me as I read feeds at home an work (but don't tell me boss!)

[Des Paroz]

Contrary to Raduza, I moved off Bloglines because of their downtime. It was over 12 hours at a time, at least three times in the space of a week. This was about 6 weeks ago.

I went to Newsgator for a while, but couldn't handle Outlook (as discussed on the Productivity Show). I changed over to FeedDemon 1.6 (beta versions), which syncs with your Newsgator account, and it is lovely. Works really really well.

I run FD on 2 separate machines, and also use NewGator Online for access from mobile and third party machines. All sync pretty well.

If you've already got a NewsGator account, I'd give FeedDemon a try.

[Frank Arrigo]

feeddemon is great.

[phil]

I have been using feeddemon and love it. As onfolio are now offering a free version, I thought I would give that a go considering my only complaint with feeddemon is that it does not intergrate with firefox well.

I have only been going for a couple of days but so far I like onfolio. The advantage is that it has the web research component as well. So, if you want to save that post of mine you can Cam :)

[David N Wallace]

I use Thunderbird. I find it handy having email and blogs together.

[Ian Betteridge]

Cam, if you've already got a NewsGator account, I'd really recommend sticking with it. You can either go the web route (which is free!) and use it only with the NewsGator online site, or you can pay the sub and use FeedDemon instead. The latest beta version of FD is looking pretty smart, and uses the new NewsGator sync engine (much faster and more flexible).

One of the things that I like about NG is the ability to use either of the clients - Outlook edition or FeedDemon - or the web. And the NG guys are clearly trying to encourage more people to intergrate support into desktop clients, as they recently announced a competition for apps using their API (win a Dell laptop or PowerBook). Hopefully they'll get a desktop Mac client out of that - then my RSS world will be complete :)

[Tony]

Thanks Daryl I remember I was using sage for Firefox on my Windows box. A very handy little program.

Isn't gator and I would therefore also assume Newsgator the company that installs all kinds of spyware and other stuff on yor machine with hope of guiding you to sites it wants you to look at...or is it another kind of gator?

[Nicole Simon]

Bloglines. The only way to read 800 feeds across three machines.

Tried feeddemon (has synchro) but the fact how they handle the ui for
folders just ticked me off after 10 sek of using it.

What ever it may have as features, it fails me at this basic one.
Sharpreader was okay, had problems with my database; and as some blogs
update often, the one hour request time by blogines is quite good.

Why did you not try the online version of newgator? Not that I use it at all, because I refuse to sign up for a service which does not even provide me basic screenshot documentation.

[MattyT]

Bloglines. Rocks.

I'm a moderate user (160 odd feeds) and have found it indispensible.

Despite what Des and Raduza said, I can't remember running into any problems due to downtime at all. However, I do see some repeated posts that is annoying (the collapse button is your friend!). And no, I don't think TPN feeds have ever proved problematic.

Oh, BTW the Firefox plugins for Bloglines are essential! :)

As for podcasts, I use Doppler but am beginning to look elsewhere due to the high CPU usage.

Matt

[Phillip Molly Malone]

On Podcatchers, I am using my Download Manager, Getright Pro (Beta 3, see my post: http://mollyzine-podcasting.blogspot.com/2005/08/my-favourite-download-manager-now.html). Its got away to go but nice to have a Download Manager and Podcatcher in one.

Molly

[Tony]

Ok I am just a guy who uses RSS cause it is a hell of alot easier to read websites than visit them all 1 by 1 and most of them are social and not work related BUT how can you manage to have 800 RSS feeds and manage it. Yes I know you have an RSS feed but that wasn't what I meant.

[Ian Betteridge]

Tony - no, NewsGator is a TOTALLY different company to the Gator that does spyware. They rock - really nice people.

[Nicole Simon]

Tony in case you are talking to me: Reading 800 feeds is easy; but not all of them get the same attention.

There are some I will always read completly, there are some which I scan with high attention and read every entry I find intersting, some I just scan and some I just scan once a month or so. :)

Some are also the according feeds for podcasts, here they are mainly shownotes for information, some are "ego" and search feeds, which are also easily scanable.

If one can skim through. :)

[Des Paroz]

Great to see that people are so passionate about their newsreaders!

For the record, I thought Bloglines rocked for quite sometime, up until their period of instability. I also found out that they were (and still are I believe) having up to 12 hour delays in retrieving feeds. OK if you only read once a day.....

Basically they grew too big too fast.

If I was going to a totally browser based newsreader, I'd probably go Bloglines. Its much better than NewsGator Online. But FeedDemon is the trick for me at the moment.

[Jim Vrckovski]

RSS Bandit (rssbandit.org). Open source reader. Can be used as a NNTP readere.

[Denise]

Give NewsGator Online a try. It synchs with Online and FeedDemon and the free podcatcher, FeedStation, rocks.