Full Circle Magazine FR

In July 2012, while the Ubuntu App Showdown was in full swing, an article appeared on OMG! Ubuntu!. The article entitled ‘Rise of the RSS Clients’ listed 4 new RSS readers - LightRead, Una reader, Feedivore and Pressboy - that were being developed as a part of the competition. The community’s excitement was palpable, many users wanted a slicker and more modern newsreader than their current one.

Now, more than a year later, I went back to see how these new RSS clients were faring.

LightRead, with its beautiful UI, had won a large fan following, many referred to it as the ‘Best Linux RSS Client’. However, the project was dealt a crippling blow when Google Reader shut down in July, 2013. LightRead was essentially an ‘offline Google Reader’. As one user succinctly put it, without Google Reader, LightRead was ‘useless’. The LightRead team responded by saying they’ve applied for API access for Feedly, but, at the time of writing, no further update has been released.

En Juillet 2012, alors que l' Ubuntu App Showdown était en plein boum, un article est paru sur « OMG! Ubuntu ! ». L' article intitulé « Rise of the RSS Clients » (l'ascension des clients RSS) citait 4 nouveaux lecteurs RSS - LightRead, Una Reader, Feedivore et Pressboy - qui ont été mis au point dans le cadre de la compétition. L'excitation de la communauté était palpable, de nombreux utilisateurs voulaient un lecteur de news plus sophistiqué et plus moderne que ceux existants jusqu'alors. Maintenant, plus d'un an plus tard, j'ai cherché à savoir comment ces lecteurs RSS se portaient. LightRead, avec sa belle interface, avait été suivi par un grand nombre de fans et on en parlait comme du meilleur lecteur RSS Linux. Cependant, le projet a été victime d'un coup fatal quand Google Reader s'est arrêté en Juillet 2013. LightRead était essentiellement un « Google Reader » offline. Un utilisateur a dit alors, sans Google Reader, LightRead est «inutile». L'équipe de LightRead a répondu en indiquant qu'ils ont travaillé sur l'accès à l'API pour Feedly mais, au moment où je rédige cet article, aucune autre mise à jour n'est sortie.

Una reader had a rough start, the project lead expressed his fears on a comment thread: “I don't believe Una will be ready in time for the contest”. His fears turned out to be well founded, and Una didn’t make the Ubuntu App Showdown list. Later in the year, Chris McCutcheon made an announcement - “Due to the lack of free time, the Una project is being put on hold.” However, mid 2013 Chris made another announcement, one that promised a brighter future: “Una Reader development will be starting up again but this time in multiple flavors.”

And how is Pressboy doing? Well, it’s available for download; however, I suspect development is not all that active. In an embarrassing turn of events, I became one of the top contributors by simply filing a bug about Pressboy not working for my version of Ubuntu

« Una Reader » a connu un début difficile, le chef de projet avait exprimé ses craintes sur un fil de discussion : “ Je ne crois pas qu'Una sera prêt à temps pour le concours ”. Ses craintes se sont avérées fondées, et Una n'a pas été sur la liste du Ubuntu App Showdown. Plus tard dans l'année, Chris McCutcheon a fait une annonce - “En raison du manque de temps libre, le projet Una est mis en attente.” Toutefois, mi-2013 Chris a fait une autre annonce et, a promis un avenir meilleur : «le développement de Una Reader débutera à nouveau mais avec de nouvelles couleurs. » Et comment va Pressboy ? Eh bien, il est disponible pour le téléchargement; toutefois, je soupçonne que son développement n'est plus du tout actif. Les événements ont pris une tournure gênante, je suis devenu l'un des principaux contributeurs en déposant simplement un bug sur Pressboy qui ne fonctionne pas pour ma version d'Ubuntu.

Finally Feedivore.

Well, the news is bad; I tried hard to locate the app; however, all I found was a year old Reddit thread and a screenshot.

I also looked through the list of submitted apps for the Showdown but failed to locate Feedivore. To put it simply, Feedivore has disappeared.

So, while LightRead finds a way to work around the Google Reader shutdown, Una completes its resurrection, and Pressboy finds new contributors (and don’t get me wrong, I’m really looking forward to all of that happening), we have to fall back on the Old Guard - Akregator, Liferea and RSSOwl.

Et enfin Feedivore… Eh bien, les nouvelles sont mauvaises; j'ai essayé de trouver l'application; cependant tout ce que j'ai trouvé fur un vieux fil d'info de l'année dernière sur Reddit et une capture d'écran. J'ai aussi jeté un œil à la liste des applications inscrites au « Showdown », mais je n'ai pas réussi à localiser Feedivore. Il faut se rendre à l'évidence, Feedivore a disparu. Ainsi, alors que LightRead doit trouver un moyen de contourner l'arrêt Google Reader, Una doit achever sa résurrection et, Pressboy doit trouver de nouveaux contributeurs ( et ne vous méprenez pas , je suis vraiment impatient de tout cela se produise), nous devons nous rabattre sur la vieille garde - Akregator , Liferea et RSSOwl.

Once upon a time

Akregator has been a part of KDE since the 3.4 release circa 2005.

Liferea was created on July 3, 2003. Lars Windolf, the project lead, explained the need for such a RSS client. “Problem was that Straw and Syndigator were too buggy, and back then installing Python and its relevant libraries was hell. Solving the dependency once at compile time seemed to be the better choice.”

RSSOwl, by strange coincidence, also began in July 2003. It was created by Benjamin Pasero. In January 2005, it was chosen as the SourceForge Project of the Month, marking its arrival as a major Open Source newsreader.

User Interface

Most RSS readers have a traditional three-pane user interface (UI) that resembles email readers. The first column is inevitably the browser that helps you select the feed source. The second column split into 2 panes, one gives a bird eye view of all the news items while the second shows the specific entry. Such a UI, while rather monotonous, has the advantage of being tried and tested and simply works.

Akregator (above left), Liferea (above right) and RSSOwl (bottom right) all have a three-pane GUI but with subtle differences that I have outlined below.

Akregator has a simple toolbar with options to fetch feeds for the current source or to fetch all feeds. You can also mark a feed as read and move back and forth. The inbuilt browser supports tabbed browsing and is unobtrusive – allowing you to view the news comfortably. The search bar is also straightforward and allows you to easily find what you’re looking for.

Liferea offers more comprehensive controls from the toolbar. Its toolbar includes options to create a new subscription, see the next unread item, mark items as read, update all feeds, and even search through the feeds. For most users these controls are sufficient and they will seldom have to navigate through the menu. Smart design. The inbuilt browser also supports tabs; however, it’s not as simple or fast as Akregator’s browser.

RSSOwl offers perhaps the most complex UI. As is clear from the screenshot, its toolbar is stuffed with buttons and drop-down menus; however, it still remains fairly intuitive. Such a crowded toolbar has its advantage too; you can perform almost all (not just common) actions without ever going through the confusing menu hierarchy. If you prefer a more minimalistic toolbar, you can customize it (View → Customize Toolbar). In the end, if I had to sum up RSSOwl’s GUI in two words, I would say ‘Power User’.

Reading Experience and Other Features

Akregator has a wonderful embedded browser. The tabs allow you to keep several stories open at once, and the minimal browser controls mean the news item gets prominence. Akregator aims to be a simple RSS reader; it doesn’t have many more features. There are no smart folders or sharing options. But most users probably would not need such features under normal circumstances. The lack of features doesn’t take away from Akregator; in fact it helps to underscore the fact that Akregator is a minimal easy-to-use RSS reader that is perfect for casual users.

Liferea offers a great viewing experience as well. Its browser is not as good as Akregator, but still functions nicely. The ability to add bookmarks is appreciated. Liferea also allows you to define ‘Search Folders’ and has advanced search options that include searching in Twitter or Reddit.com. On the whole, Liferea does a good job of providing all the basic features users want in a simple UI – with more advanced features concealed under the hood.

Finally, RSSOwl – I’ve mentioned this before but, for emphasis, I’ll repeat it – RSSOwl is a newsreader for power users. Sure it offers a great viewing experience, a fully functional browser, and sharing options (including Facebook, Twitter, Email) that will be appreciated by all users. However, the majority of its offerings such as the ability to archive news items, a labelling system, multi-field search, news bins coupled with news filters that make them automatic, are clearly targeted at advanced users.

Conclusion

The choice of an RSS reader is an extremely personal one. However, I think most users will find Liferea to be a good fit. With its simple UI and comprehensive toolbar, Liferea can be operated by even the most non-tech savvy. However, features like ‘search folders’ and news bins will be greatly appreciated by the more experienced users.

Akregator is a great choice for those who wish to have a smoother browsing experience, and do not need any of the above mentioned advanced features. RSSOwl is perfect for advanced users who wish to set up complicated systems in place for staying on top of the news.

The Near Future

With LightRead, Pressboy and Una reader at the vanguard of the Linux RSS client revolution, we will, hopefully, soon have even more options. When I asked Mr. Windolf, project lead of Liferea, whether he was worried about the competition, he replied, “They are competition in the sense of trying to create even better feed readers and matching other use cases. But as we are all open source projects, it is about the fun and learning new things.” To a more open future.

Summary - Akregator The Good • Simple UI • Great inbuilt browser

The Bad • Lack of advanced features such as automatic folders, sharing options, etc. • The toolbar doesn’t have some common options like ‘Add New Subscription’

Website: http://kde.org/applications/internet/akregator/

Summary - Liferea

The Good • Simple and intuitive UI with comprehensive toolbar options • Advanced features like creating smart folders and news bins

The Bad • No sharing options • Inbuilt browser has inconvenient tabs

Website: http://lzone.de/liferea/

Note: At the time of writing the new release of Liferea (1.10.0) had not come out; I based my article on an older version and many blemishes may now have been fixed.

Summary - RSSOwl

The Good • Plethora of options including an archiving system, advanced search, etc. • Sharing options that are perfect for more social users • Flexible and customizable UI

The Bad • UI a bit complicated compared to the other two • Consumes a lot of memory while running, sometimes crashes

Website: http://www.rssowl.org/

The Winner of this Software Showdown is

Liferea! **

Quick My Story by Andrea Fiorina

I've followed Full Circle since FCM#10 (or so), and it's always a pleasure when a new issue is released.

I began using Linux in 2004 from the first version of Ubuntu (I've still got the CD with Ubuntu 4.10 on it!) but since I got married I cannot follow my curiosity to try and break the system and learn what should not be done. And when you have your first daughter, free time is always less and less. But I'm still curious and whenever I can I follow a question and try to learn something.

Recently, I planned to buy a Raspberry PI to setup a little FTP server in my office (we're a very little factory of only three people, and we try to do everything by ourselves if possible, and by using open source software for my personal, and economic, reasons), buy PCDuino to set up a media center at home, setup a VPN from my house and my office, and find a solution to plan the backup in my office between the little server with Mint and the other PC's which have Windows XP, 7 and Linux.

I'm waiting until Christmas to buy anything (my wife always told me that I'm not allowed buy anything on Christmas Eve). I was trying to backup my PC's, but I cannot manage the rsync/Windows and I stopped trying after several nights with lack of sleep and very little result.

I remembered that Full Circle was look for some material to publish (even letters and request), and this is my first step