A few weeks ago, Google announced that they would be shutting down Google Reader on 1st July.
I used Reader for 2 things: keeping up with podcast episodes and keeping an eye on rarely-updated blogs. I didn't subscribe to anything with more than 1 post per day, as I couldn't keep up with so many new articles.
Once I recovered from the shock and disappointment of Reader itself going away, I came to the conclusion that none of the alternatives are really there yet.
The client I'm using is newsbeuter. It's a text terminal application (this is a good thing) and has podcast queuing integration too. It can import an OPML file, which is a list of the feeds that you subscribe to. Reader has a URL to export your feed list as OPML too, so migrating is not difficult.
One nice feature newsbeuter has is the ability to export and import a list of articles that you've already read. This means that, using a git repository on bitbucket, I can synchronise read articles in a crude way between PCs. Fortunately I had mostly weened myself off Reader on portable devices, as my Google password is too annoying to type in.
The real downside is that refreshing articles is pretty slow. A couple of tweaks help here. Instead of reloading all feeds in one thread, newsbeuter supports multiple threads. 4 seems to speed things up a bit, I couldn't notice much difference using more than this.
Here's my .newsbeuter/config file:
I used Reader for 2 things: keeping up with podcast episodes and keeping an eye on rarely-updated blogs. I didn't subscribe to anything with more than 1 post per day, as I couldn't keep up with so many new articles.
Once I recovered from the shock and disappointment of Reader itself going away, I came to the conclusion that none of the alternatives are really there yet.
- Feedly - requires a browser plugin, and is still based on your Reader account details
- theoldreader.com - threatening a freemium model
- rss2email/tiny-rss - you have to run your own server - the only option that makes sense long-term - but it is a lot of hassle
- Just about everything else shows large photos on their homepage and thinks that social media buttons are a good idea. I don't think we'd get along.
The client I'm using is newsbeuter. It's a text terminal application (this is a good thing) and has podcast queuing integration too. It can import an OPML file, which is a list of the feeds that you subscribe to. Reader has a URL to export your feed list as OPML too, so migrating is not difficult.
One nice feature newsbeuter has is the ability to export and import a list of articles that you've already read. This means that, using a git repository on bitbucket, I can synchronise read articles in a crude way between PCs. Fortunately I had mostly weened myself off Reader on portable devices, as my Google password is too annoying to type in.
The real downside is that refreshing articles is pretty slow. A couple of tweaks help here. Instead of reloading all feeds in one thread, newsbeuter supports multiple threads. 4 seems to speed things up a bit, I couldn't notice much difference using more than this.
Here's my .newsbeuter/config file:
bind-key k up
bind-key j down
reload-threads 4
reload-only-visible-feeds yes
I have the same problem. I use Google Reader on a daily basis and have not found any good alternative.
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