NetNewsWire – or – Why would I use an RSS Reader Client?

Jan.21, 2009 in Software

As a relative newbie to the Cult of Mac, I’m always looking for neat pieces of software to optimize my Mac Experience. One I hear about over and over again is a tool called "NetNewsWire". It’s an RSS Aggregator desktop client, which a few neat features like the ability to sync with their iPhone version.

This is an app I simply don’t understand. Why is it so popular? I currently use Google Reader for my RSS needs, and before that BlogLines. With a Web-based RSS reader, it retrieves new feeds in the background, and I can then hit the website from anywhere to browse feeds, and I don’t need to worry about syncing. Both tools offer a nice iPhone interface and it all works fine. With the desktop client, I’ld have to fire up the app and wait for it to poll all my RSS feeds (currently 180), before reading. And it wouldn’t work when I leave my Mac and go to work (a Windows Machine where I can’t install software).

Am I missing something? What makes NetNewsWire a "must-have" for the Mac? Is it simply a personal preference thing? Is there some amazing feature that Google Reader doesn’t/can’t have? Have I misunderstood how NNW works? I’m not trying to bash the product, I’m just trying to figure out why I would want it. [tag:rss][tag:netnewswire][tag:mac]

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JWM

I like NNW, but haven't really tried many of the others, since NNW seems perfect for my use of RSS feeds. I don't really have too much problem with syncing my read items, as I usually only read the news during the week (while at the office, no less). I do have the iPhone app, and do have it installed on other computers (but these two are rarely used). As I'm not so sure about the features of the other products, the main things I like about NNW is the fact that it 1. is a desktop app which is harder to accidentally close than a browser tab, 2. reminds me of when I was using Thunderbird as my RSS reader (email styled look with sidebar, top pane with article info, and bottom pane with the actual article brought in, and 3. the use of webkit to browse the articles live location within the application and actually use tabs (in a right hand tab bar) to keep multiple articles open. In summary, I have a bad habit of Command+Q, so I always quit my browser when I'm done (thus closing another open window with my articles – which has since been negated by the restore previous session features).
http://samrhall.com Sam Hall

I had the same idea, and I posted my thoughts here:

http://lifeonamac.com/2009/01/21/netnewswire-or…

But briefly, I think it comes down to the individual's workflow. Both have many of the same features.

What puts me over the top for NNW is the ability to highlight part of an article and post it to MarsEdit for blogging. I have one blog in particular that I update daily with news links. It would take me twice as long with Google, even using a bookmarklet from MarsEdit. (I've tested this, thinking it wouldn't matter. There's a slight difference in the handling from Safari than from NNW.)

I'll admit, though, it took me a while to come around to NNW. Wouldn't leave. At least not right now…
JWM

I like NNW, but haven't really tried many of the others, since NNW seems perfect for my use of RSS feeds. I don't really have too much problem with syncing my read items, as I usually only read the news during the week (while at the office, no less). I do have the iPhone app, and do have it installed on other computers (but these two are rarely used). As I'm not so sure about the features of the other products, the main things I like about NNW is the fact that it 1. is a desktop app which is harder to accidentally close than a browser tab, 2. reminds me of when I was using Thunderbird as my RSS reader (email styled look with sidebar, top pane with article info, and bottom pane with the actual article brought in, and 3. the use of webkit to browse the articles live location within the application and actually use tabs (in a right hand tab bar) to keep multiple articles open. In summary, I have a bad habit of Command+Q, so I always quit my browser when I'm done (thus closing another open window with my articles – which has since been negated by the restore previous session features).
http://samrhall.com Sam Hall

I had the same idea, and I posted my thoughts here:

http://lifeonamac.com/2009/01/21/netnewswire-or…

But briefly, I think it comes down to the individual's workflow. Both have many of the same features.

What puts me over the top for NNW is the ability to highlight part of an article and post it to MarsEdit for blogging. I have one blog in particular that I update daily with news links. It would take me twice as long with Google, even using a bookmarklet from MarsEdit. (I've tested this, thinking it wouldn't matter. There's a slight difference in the handling from Safari than from NNW.)

I'll admit, though, it took me a while to come around to NNW. Wouldn't leave. At least not right now…

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