mostfoolhardy.org

After having used google reader on and off for a while (mostly off) I decided that it was time to look into a decent not-web based RSS reader that was good at serving me news. Firstly I had a few requirements:

1. Must be free.
2. Must not suck.
3. Must not have too many annoying quirks.

So after some searching I found two candidates:

• Vienna
• NetNewsWire Lite N.B.: I’m sure the payed for version is far superior to the lite one.

NetNewsWire Lite Things that I like about NNWl:

• That really shiny unified interface.
• The ability to send things to a blog writing program. Note to self: Find blog editing program which is free.
• It’s user inteface.
• That icon.
• The polysyballic name.

Things I dislike about NNWl:

• Opening a browser window every time I click on a link.
• Not being able to have the reading pane to the side
• The fact that it could be so much better- if I payed for it

Vienna- From the open source corner. Things that I like about Vienna:

• Being able to say it in one breath
• The icon less UI
• The built in tabbed browser- which is based on Safari
• The right aligned reading pane.
• Its’ open source -itude.

Some things which I dislike about Vienna:

• The Metal UI.
• No custom favicons.

Conclusion Net news wire lite is a well built but understandably feature anaemic, due to its’ bigger brother Net News Wire Pro. Vienna has a plethora of features and is a fully fledged rss aggregator although could do with more of its options accessible from the preferences section and would do well to lose the metal in favour of a dark-metal theme such as the one featuring in iTunes 6. The winner? Vienna! XD