RSS readers on Linux

This afternoon I asked on UnixToolTip for suggestions of RSS readers on Linux. Here are the suggestions I got, in order of popularity.

Update:

Some other readers available on Linux:

 

25 thoughts on “RSS readers on Linux

  1. The one I like the best so far is Feedly. http://feedly.com/ They have pretty decent Chrome and Android apps. The other cool thing they did is to duplicate the Google Reader API on top of a custom AppEngine instance, so that other feed readers that rely on Google Reader can continue to run without a hiccup (with nothing more than a server URL change) when Google pulls the plug, assuming their customers have sync’d at least once with both their Google account and Feedly’s AppEngine server before then.

  2. Actually they have a Firefox extension too. So it’s not a Linux console app, but both the major open source browsers run Feedly apps or extensions great on the Linux desktop. And there are iOS apps too if that’s your thing :-) The whole Feedly system feels very polished and nicely integrated, like somebody has put their heart and soul into it.

  3. I have used Newsbeuter and it is really nice CLI reader. It was a bitch to get installed. The problem with it is that it would be difficult to use on a mobile device.

  4. I’m trying out the Firefox plugin Brief and I like it so far. Very simple.

    It took a little bit to figure out how to import feeds. Right click on the RSS icon, then go to options, feeds, import. The default file extension is OPML, but Google exports XML, so just use the dropdown to browse for XML.

    I want to read every post from some blogs, but I subscribe to a lot of blogs that I may only want to read occasionally. That’s what I like about RSS. If someone only writes about topics I care about 1 in 10 posts, fine. I’ll subscribe and skim the headlines. All that to say that the ability to quickly skim all headlines — rather than organizing posts with a folder for each blog — is important for me.

  5. Paul: That’s because Google announced this week that they are shutting down Google Reader in July.

  6. My favourite RSS reader is Sage, a Firefox plug in. You get the headlines of each feed, sorted by feed, on the left side in a bar, then can open each one, instead of a huge row of articles one after the other. It also lets you read them on the original website, so doesn’t leach bandwidth from the original site.

  7. I installed Tiny Tiny RSS on my shared hosting account. So now I have a browser based RSS reader available from any connected device, and that is under my complete control.

  8. rawdog, canto, raggle, rsstail, snownews – just to name a few others.

    Personally I prefer canto, it’s config is in Python, well documented and easy to extend with custom features.

  9. If Emacs really makes the top 8, either the RSS client ecosystem on Linux is remarkably starved or you have a rather unusual set of suggestions.

  10. gwern: It was a small sample. The items at the top of the list came up several times. Emacs and Thunderbird only came up once.

  11. Thank you for this list. Since you and some of the commenters here mentioned the Firefox plugin, I would like to mention Opera and its built-in RSS reader, which have been working nicely for me on my linux machine for several years now.
    It is lacking a cross-device-solution/synchronisation, though, which is a drawback.

  12. Two small corrections: RSSOwl is multiplatform desktop, not web, and I think Tiny Tiny RSS requires a server installation before you can use its web reader.

  13. RSSOwl would be better classified as a desktop app, surely? Though it does have, I understand, some ability to sync with Google Reader (and others?) I used it for a few years as purely a desktop app.

  14. QuiteRSS, RSS/Atom feed reader written on Qt/ะก++. Version 0.12.3 released today ;).
    Also works on OS/2.

  15. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I was looking for alternatives after Google’s announcement about disontinuing Reader…

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