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Recently added RSS/Atom/JSON feeds to my blog: https://blog.kronis.dev/ https://blog.kronis.dev/ Honestly, i largely agree with the claim that RSS is dying. F

Recently added RSS/Atom/JSON feeds to my blog: https://blog.kronis.dev/ https://blog.kronis.dev/ Honestly, i largely agree with the claim that RSS is dying. For example, on Windows i wanted to find a decent RSS reader to use, since recently coming to like the technology myself for consumption of news (since all of the sudden everything can just be boring text, as opposed to annoying and attention catching images, styling etc., allowing em to focus on the content), which turned out to be hard. In my search, i found the following readers: - Feedly (https://feedly.com/) not really an option for me, since i want downloadable software, which is also why i use Thunderbird instead of web mail clients - Newsblur (https://www.newsblur.com/) same as above - Inoreader (https://www.inoreader.com/) same as above - Feeder (https://microsoftedge.microsoft.com/addons/detail/feeder-rss-feed-reader/jlkhefogiiibhgblliimeleiiiijbkjj) not an option, Windows Store app, i avoid that - Omea Reader (https://www.jetbrains.com/omea/reader/) by JetBrains, but requirements list Windows XP, so not updated in a long time - RSSOwl (http://www.rssowl.org/) based on Eclipse and fails to launch with new JDK versions - QuiteRSS (https://quiterss.org/en/screenshots) the layout absolutely breaks because image dimensions are not constrained, no one wants the header of the news story to fill up the entire screen - RSSGuard (https://github.com/martinrotter/rssguard) in the end i stuck with this, because just got tired because of so many bad options out there Apparently Google Reader was also pretty good but was retired. How is RSS supposed to survive if there is no good software for it out there? Give me something like LibreOffice that you just download, install and it works in surprisingly sane ways most of the time.

tech234a 5y ago
Feedbro (a browser extension) might be another option for you to consider[1]. [1]: https://nodetics.com/feedbro/ https://nodetics.com/feedbro/
sneak 5y ago
> not really an option for me, since i want downloadable software, which is also why i use Thunderbird instead of web mail clients > How is RSS supposed to survive if there is no good software for it out there? There is good software for it out there. Most people don't want to use/run/download/install local software, they'd prefer an API client on their device and a service that does the heavy lifting for them. I don't like that model either, but most people do, and they've chosen it, for better or worse. I don't think that the claim that there's no good software out there is a valid one - it's just software that you personally have disqualified. SaaS is still software, and much of it is very high quality. You just don't get to run or modify it.
- KronisLV 5y ago
  Fair enough, saying: "...if there is no good desktop software for it out there?" would be more accurate. I'm perfectly fine with most of the industry moving along to other forms of content consumption, i'll simply stick to what works for me, or choose not to consume the content if that's not possible and there's no real need for me to do so.
thesuperbigfrog 5y ago
>> For example, on Windows I wanted to find a decent RSS reader to use Microsoft Outlook and Thunderbird [1] support RSS feeds. In the mail folders pane, there is a folder named "RSS Subscriptions". Right-clicking on the folder shows "Add a New RSS Feed" option that lets you paste in an RSS URL. After you have subscribed to an RSS feed, each feed shows as a folder under "RSS Subscriptions". Clicking on the feed folder shows the feed's content. [1] https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-subscribe-news-feeds-and-blogs https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-subscribe-news-feed...
- KronisLV 5y ago
  Thanks, this is exactly what i needed! The trick was to go to File > New > Feed Account, as described in the linked page. Seems like the discoverability of the feature could be slightly improved, such as Thunderbird creating one such account by default. That said, the reader functionality itself seems excellent! It displays the items like it would any other e-mail which is nice from a consistency standpoint, but also not only resizes the images to a reasonable size, but also displays them at the bottom of the actual text! That alone puts it at the top of my short RSS reader list. Edit: It seems that it's a bit buggy. I just added a feed account and added a feed to it, retrieved the items and browsed some of them. Then i removed the feed account, which i later re-added, the feed still being there. Not only was that a bit odd, but attempting to open this feed hanged the entire program. Oh well, these things happen. The feed could not be removed while the program was running, but disappeared after the next restart, as expected. Seems like the format support is also decent, both RSS and Atom feeds work, but not the less common JSON feed format. Also, there are some problems with ordering feeds, since Thunderbird won't let me drag and drop feeds to re-order them for a particular account. The only way seems to be to use sub-folders which isn't necessarily what you might always want. But hey, it works otherwise.
davegauer 5y ago
> which is also why i use Thunderbird instead of web mail clients Thunderbird is a great feed reader! I doubt I would be using RSS/Atom feeds at all if had to check a separate client application. Having them show up when I check my email makes it incredibly easy to see if an author I follow has posted anything.
- KronisLV 5y ago
  That is a very fair point, as another commenter led me to discover! Now, in my eyes, having separate applications for separate types of information consumption (e.g. reading news vs communicating with others) isn't a bad thing, quite on the contrary, but that depends on each person.

tech234a 5y ago

Feedbro (a browser extension) might be another option for you to consider[1]. [1]: https://nodetics.com/feedbro/ https://nodetics.com/feedbro/

sneak 5y ago

> not really an option for me, since i want downloadable software, which is also why i use Thunderbird instead of web mail clients > How is RSS supposed to survive if there is no good software for it out there? There is good software for it out there. Most people don't want to use/run/download/install local software, they'd prefer an API client on their device and a service that does the heavy lifting for them. I don't like that model either, but most people do, and they've chosen it, for better or worse. I don't think that the claim that there's no good software out there is a valid one - it's just software that you personally have disqualified. SaaS is still software, and much of it is very high quality. You just don't get to run or modify it.

KronisLV 5y ago
Fair enough, saying: "...if there is no good desktop software for it out there?" would be more accurate. I'm perfectly fine with most of the industry moving along to other forms of content consumption, i'll simply stick to what works for me, or choose not to consume the content if that's not possible and there's no real need for me to do so.

thesuperbigfrog 5y ago

>> For example, on Windows I wanted to find a decent RSS reader to use Microsoft Outlook and Thunderbird [1] support RSS feeds. In the mail folders pane, there is a folder named "RSS Subscriptions". Right-clicking on the folder shows "Add a New RSS Feed" option that lets you paste in an RSS URL. After you have subscribed to an RSS feed, each feed shows as a folder under "RSS Subscriptions". Clicking on the feed folder shows the feed's content. [1] https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-subscribe-news-feeds-and-blogs https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-subscribe-news-feed...

KronisLV 5y ago
Thanks, this is exactly what i needed! The trick was to go to File > New > Feed Account, as described in the linked page. Seems like the discoverability of the feature could be slightly improved, such as Thunderbird creating one such account by default. That said, the reader functionality itself seems excellent! It displays the items like it would any other e-mail which is nice from a consistency standpoint, but also not only resizes the images to a reasonable size, but also displays them at the bottom of the actual text! That alone puts it at the top of my short RSS reader list. Edit: It seems that it's a bit buggy. I just added a feed account and added a feed to it, retrieved the items and browsed some of them. Then i removed the feed account, which i later re-added, the feed still being there. Not only was that a bit odd, but attempting to open this feed hanged the entire program. Oh well, these things happen. The feed could not be removed while the program was running, but disappeared after the next restart, as expected. Seems like the format support is also decent, both RSS and Atom feeds work, but not the less common JSON feed format. Also, there are some problems with ordering feeds, since Thunderbird won't let me drag and drop feeds to re-order them for a particular account. The only way seems to be to use sub-folders which isn't necessarily what you might always want. But hey, it works otherwise.

davegauer 5y ago

> which is also why i use Thunderbird instead of web mail clients Thunderbird is a great feed reader! I doubt I would be using RSS/Atom feeds at all if had to check a separate client application. Having them show up when I check my email makes it incredibly easy to see if an author I follow has posted anything.

KronisLV 5y ago
That is a very fair point, as another commenter led me to discover! Now, in my eyes, having separate applications for separate types of information consumption (e.g. reading news vs communicating with others) isn't a bad thing, quite on the contrary, but that depends on each person.