RSS Owl: a new feedreader
posted at 9:39 am on October 26, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
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Yes, this is another geek post. Deal with it.
In my quest to play with Ubuntu Linux, I’ve had to look around for some alternatives to the software I use in Windows. Firefox, Opera, and Thunderbird all have Linux versions and work like a charm, fortunately, but I had some difficulty finding a feedreader I liked. Feedreaders are a critical tool for bloggers, who have to monitor dozens of different newspapers, wire services, and blogs and keep up to the moment on all of them. Without a reliable and flexible feedreader, I’d be sunk.
I tried using Newsfox, the embedded RSS feedreader from Firefox, but it didn’t quite have the flexibility I liked in timing, retention, and grouping. Akregator, Newsgator and Liferea had their good points, but having been spoiled by Sharpreader and then Omea, both of them fell short on options as well. I’ve used Google Reader before, and while that helps in making the reader portable, it has even less control on order, grouping, and retention — as it should as a hosted service.
Eventually, I discovered RSS Owl, but I could never figure out how to get it to run in Linux. It has a Linux version but no installer package, and I’m not adept enough at Ubuntu to figure out how to get it to run. Instead, I installed it on my Windows machine to see whether it would make a suitable substitute for Omea. I’ve had problems with corruption in the Omea database, causing entries to get corrupted, and repeated rebuilds and fixes just haven’t resolved the problem.
RSS Owl loads faster, cleaner, and has almost all of the options I like in Omea. It also highlights updated posts, not just new entries, so I can tell when bloggers have edited existing entries. It plays Java scripts in the windows, allowing me to see video clips without having to open pages in the browser. And so far, at least, I haven’t seen a hint of corruption in the files as I have with Omea.
I’m going to keep using RSS Owl until it proves itself unworthy. Hopefully, I’ll be able to figure out how to load it in Ubuntu, where I needed it in the first place.
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I think http://www.rssowl.org is what you meant to link to..
Mojoski on October 26, 2008 at 9:43 AM
Deal with it? And good morning to you too. Hope your sunday morning is a nice and pleasant morning.
Good grief.
wise_man on October 26, 2008 at 9:46 AM
=Gulp=
Yes, sir!
jgapinoy on October 26, 2008 at 9:48 AM
Last Sunday morning, I was breathlessly waiting for Ed & AP’s thoughts about some stories that broke the previous night, & Ed’s first post was geek stuff, so I gave him grief.
jgapinoy on October 26, 2008 at 9:50 AM
Hey, some of us appreciate the geek posts :)
Boogscraft on October 26, 2008 at 9:51 AM
Except for my iGoogle start page, I haven’t yet embraced the RSS thing, partly because I never found a dedicated reader I really liked using. I don’t read nearly as many blogs as you guys, but I’ll give this one a try. Thanks!
Hannibal Smith on October 26, 2008 at 9:55 AM
Huh
ballz2wallz on October 26, 2008 at 9:56 AM
I keep getting a virus on your homepage.
ballz2wallz on October 26, 2008 at 9:56 AM
Agreed. No one’s produced the killer app for RSS yet. Most readers seem strangely clunky to me, still.
Purple Fury on October 26, 2008 at 9:59 AM
I have seen this term “RSS feedreader”, but didn’t know much at all about it. Learned something new today.
Thanks.
keebs on October 26, 2008 at 10:02 AM
@ballz2Wallz
Ya, Chrome keeps telling me there is a link to a malware site on the hotair homepage. Here is the report:
Report
RiteWingFascist on October 26, 2008 at 10:03 AM
Me too. Fake Scan Webpage or something.
NorthernCross on October 26, 2008 at 10:04 AM
Email me, Ed. We’ll git-r-done.
The Monster on October 26, 2008 at 10:07 AM
RSS readers as an actual software app is pretty redundant. 80% of the time you wind up browsing out to a link in the RSS you are interested in. Might as well stay with web page RSS readers or one built in ot the browser.
LIST TIME!
Top web RSS readers IMO
1. my.live.com (microsoft)
2. igoogle.com (google)
3. my.yahoo.co (yahoo)
Browser based
1. Maxthon
2. Opera
3. Any of the numerous FireFox extensions
4. Safari
5. IE
6. Chrome doesnt have one yet (that I can find)
RiteWingFascist on October 26, 2008 at 10:09 AM
..as long as we are talking geek stuff…
I get a “stop running scripts” error on every computer when I go to hotair home. How do I get rid of that?
It says something about scripts on this page causing it to run slowly and do I want to quit running scrips on this page…
Any ideas?
jjjen on October 26, 2008 at 10:11 AM
Your blog, your subjects. Personally I like the tech posts. Charles Johnson does them on LGF, and I always enjoy them there, even when I can’t follow what’s going on.
piraticalbob on October 26, 2008 at 10:11 AM
I think it’s a bad link to the image for this post. I’ve fixed it.
Ed Morrissey on October 26, 2008 at 10:11 AM
@jjjen
what browser are you running?
RiteWingFascist on October 26, 2008 at 10:12 AM
Have you tried a simple aptget on the package from the command line?
flipflop on October 26, 2008 at 10:15 AM
@piratcalbob
the only time i visit LGF anymore is when he isnt posting on tech stuff…Its pretty clear he only knows half of what he is talking about, and your really only need to be familiar with his ajax-”ified” website and the posts about them. Note to hotair, if you are going ot incorporate ajax, look at LGF as an example on how not to do things.
RiteWingFascist on October 26, 2008 at 10:15 AM
Captain,
Mojoski is right. You need to update link to the .org. The .com guy is a cybercamper.
Notice lines at bottom of front splash page on rssowl.org. Do you have java installed?
I’m on my fedora system right now, but I think the way you get java (which is “non-free” in Ubuntu’s classification system and hence is in “multiverse”) is:
apt-get install sun-java6
I think sun-java6 is a shortcut for “everything related to java6″, which includes
sun-java6-demo
sun-java6-jdk
and, maybe,
sun-java6-source
You can browse all the available packages via http://packages.ubuntu.com/
The sections you are interested in are under the three “hardy” entries.
I recommend java6 over java5.
Ubuntu has a few native rss feed processors:
firefox-sage [lightweight rss and atom feed reader for firefox]
rawdog [rss feed aggregator without Delusions of Grandeur]
thunderbird [you already have this one, it seems]
blam [an RSS aggregator for GNOME]
unclesmrgol on October 26, 2008 at 10:15 AM
Ed
Trick or Treat “Obama who is that girl” This is worth the read just for the Aunt Esther- Sanford and Sons’ comparison to Michelle Obama :) They always tell a man if you want to know how your wife will age, look at her mother..Just in time for Halloween Boo!
http://sarah-palin-2008.blogspot.com/2008/10/whos-vera-baker.html
Dr Evil on October 26, 2008 at 10:16 AM
Oh, and there is
http://www.rssowl.org/help#item_13
over on the rssowl site. Seems to be pretty inclusive as to what you do to hook rssowl up to java (you shouldn’t need to do that if you install java6 via apt-get from the ubuntu repositories rather than going to java.sun.com) and to have it know about your browser.
unclesmrgol on October 26, 2008 at 10:20 AM
I’ve got to admit Ed,this techy lingo,is
way above my head like an F-14 Tomcat in
full-afterburner!haha:)
canopfor on October 26, 2008 at 10:22 AM
Internet Explorer.
jjjen on October 26, 2008 at 10:23 AM
For Firefox, I use the Sage-Too feed reader add-on. I love it! Also, the WIZZ add-on has more features.
Sage-Too
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7263
Wizz RSS News Reader
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/424
Wizz RSS News Reader Lite
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6759
To post blog articles, you could use ScribeFire Blog Editor.
PeterReaper on October 26, 2008 at 10:25 AM
I just use the firefox built-in RSS feed capability. it just creates a folder in my bookmarks that works like a menu. hover over it, and all the available feeds show up in menu format.
Also, You’ll be interested to know that the “Linux” version of rssowl is simply a repackaged Windows version. all the makers did was take the “.exe” extension off the executable. This means the darn thing doesn’t work. Idiotic. It may be a nice RSS reader, but it’s apparently made by guys with zero experience doing cross-platform software design.
Oh, if you DO want to get rssowl working on Ubuntu Linux, here is what you must do: (without using a terminal window)
1) Install Wine. main menu -> Add/Remove…-> select “all available applications” from the drop-down menu at the top -> Search for Wine. Select Wine and click “Apply” then close the Add/Remove application once Wine is done installing.
2) Download and install the WINDOWS version of JAVA: Go here to download: http://javadl.sun.com/webapps/download/AutoDL?BundleId=24935 double-click and install it. (skip the Open Office installer, you already have the Linux version of this installed)
3) Download and run the Windows version of RSS OWl: http://downloads.sourceforge.net/rssowl/rssowl-2.0-M8a.win32.win32.x86.zip
This will allow rssowl to just run from your home folder. I suggest making a symlink (shortcut) on your desktop or in your programs menu so you don’t have to dig into your home folder to launch it every time.
Enjoy!
wearyman on October 26, 2008 at 10:25 AM
All you need to read is the daily NYT.
vinman on October 26, 2008 at 10:27 AM
Ed, and anyone else, why do I need a RSSR other than GoogleReader? Just curious….
ParisParamus on October 26, 2008 at 10:28 AM
My condolences.
billhedrick on October 26, 2008 at 10:34 AM
Firefox with the ’sage’ reader and ’scrapbook’ extensions.
tarpon on October 26, 2008 at 10:35 AM
Keep up the Geek posts, Ed. Forget the haters.
I’ve never really used the non-web based rss readers, I use multiple computers and trying to keep the opml file up to date with new sites, was too hard.
I really love google reader because it is easy to use and easily viewable on multiple computers. I also like the ability to star items. I hate that its slow to update.
But everyone has different priorities. Rss Owl might be interesting to try.
Complete7 on October 26, 2008 at 10:39 AM
Google Reader all the way
Ludwig on October 26, 2008 at 11:03 AM
Uh, wearyman, you don’t have to do all that.
I just got RSS Owl up and running in Ubuntu 8.04 in a few minutes. Download the zip file for Linux from the developers’ site/Sourceforge. Unzip it into a folder of your choice. Navigate to the folder. Double click on the RSSOwl icon. You’re up and running. Make a link to your desktop if you like.
One hitch: to use Mozilla/Firefox as Owl’s browser, you have to install version 1.8 of xulrunner. NOT version 1.9, which is the usual Ubuntu install. Just search in Synaptic. If you’re got the usual repos enabled, ver. 1.8 will be labeled as just ‘xulrunner’. Load it. Fire up Owl.
Oh, you have to have the Java runtime enabled, but surely you have that already, right?
Bartrams_Garden on October 26, 2008 at 11:31 AM
What’s a ‘geek’ ? ? ? ?
DoctorDentons on October 26, 2008 at 11:35 AM
Same here. I don’t see the sense in downloading an application for doing something that my web browser can do perfectly well.
jimmy the notable on October 26, 2008 at 11:42 AM
Ed,
RSSOwl is dependent it on having Java running first. Now the Java you can get out of the Ubuntu repositories. Once you have that running then download the RSSOwl app and install it. You will also have to define what you want for a viewer to see the entries. That’s the 30,000′ overview.
Now you probably want the blow by blow what to do. Well I suggest you go here — http://www.daniels.net.nz/2005/11/10/rssowl-internal-browser-and-linux-make-for-good-fun/ .
Realize that you will have to do most of this at command line.But Daniels Blog covers how to get that program installed.
Good luck!!
Dr. Dog on October 26, 2008 at 11:44 AM
Have you seen a picture of Ed?
:)
Mcguyver on October 26, 2008 at 11:51 AM
why do you need another reader besides what’s in microsoft outlook?
lorien1973 on October 26, 2008 at 11:58 AM
Ed, being a tradionalist I say fix it the way your forefathers would have fixed it. Use a hammer.
Limerick on October 26, 2008 at 12:05 PM
traditionalist (dag-burn-stupid-keyboard-gremlins-anyway)
Limerick on October 26, 2008 at 12:05 PM
And as Obama would say: “Don’t use a sledge hammer when only a tack hammer is needed.”
Mcguyver on October 26, 2008 at 12:07 PM
Lime, go into the HotAir word press dashboard where you would edit your account name and turn on the visual editor. Then all your misspelled words will be redlined…. and Bawny Frank will approve. :)
Mcguyver on October 26, 2008 at 12:13 PM
I lovez the geek postz.
Keep ‘m coming.
Kim Hartveld on October 26, 2008 at 12:18 PM
Of all the readers I tried, Google Reader was probably the worst, as I found it impossible to unsubscribe from feeds I was no longer interested in.
I’m sticking with Bloglines and Newsgator.
Kim Hartveld on October 26, 2008 at 12:33 PM
The Taming of the Shrew! (but the peep will think I’ve been Borged by a Dkos-bot)
Limerick on October 26, 2008 at 12:34 PM
Ok, tried that but no go. Editor is on but fat finger words are still fat finger words. (I do appreciate the tip, BTW)
Limerick on October 26, 2008 at 12:44 PM
Ok, tried that, editor on, no workie. Fat finger words have not been banished.
Limerick on October 26, 2008 at 12:52 PM
Oops. You probably know this, but it’s
sudo apt-get install
where is one of the things I mentioned.
unclesmrgol on October 26, 2008 at 1:14 PM
I like FeedDemon better than RSS Owl.
Afterimage on October 26, 2008 at 1:21 PM
I despise the LGF geek posts … much different than HA geek threads.
Charles’ stuff is like watching someone wipe himself. Too much info that only the wipee cares about.
Let’s roll.
ex-Democrat on October 26, 2008 at 2:14 PM
I’m sold on my g00gle Reader, for all my RSS work. It’s the portability I like, from my desktop to laptop to office to sister-in-law’s. It’s fairly fast, allows me to order sites by importance, and ’star’ a favorite post. Not so much good for searching, but I have a decent memory, and can usually find something I’m looking for.
What I could use is a bookmarks organizer for Firefox. I use the Foxmarks synchronizer add-on, but it’s no good for search-and-rescue missions.
Someone has a good bookmark organizer? I’ll pay.. )
Serr8d on October 26, 2008 at 2:22 PM
Thunderbird has a built-in RSS reader. I love it. Email and blogs in one place.
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Thunderbird_:_FAQs_:_RSS_Basics
you’ll probably need Thunderbrowse
http://thunderbrowse.com/
azmanam on October 26, 2008 at 2:46 PM
Google Reader all the way, Ed. Searchability within feeds is unsurpassed. And after an item is marked read a feed is still searchable. Even after deleting items they are still searchable. Also, Google Reader shared and starred items can be fed to FriendFeed.com .
http://friendfeed.com/ganeshpuri89
ganeshpuri89 on October 26, 2008 at 3:05 PM
why do you need another reader besides what’s in microsoft outlook?
lorien1973
————————————————
Why do you need outlook if you are running Linux?
Dr. Dog on October 26, 2008 at 3:27 PM
I am a google reader fan. But I have a problem with sites like hotair and michellemalkin.com – they don’t provide full text in the feeds. What good is seeing a blog post from hotair in google reader if I have to click through to open it up in a different window anyway… :-(
Other sites (like newsbusters and stop the ACLU) do it just fine with full text feeds.
chrissv on October 26, 2008 at 4:20 PM
Ed, as long as you have Java installed, you should be able to just unzip the package and double-click the executable file RSSOwl. I tried that just now on my Kubuntu 8.0.4 KDE 3.5.9 Linux machine and it worked just fine.
Dusk Eagle on October 26, 2008 at 5:24 PM
Serr8d on October 26, 2008 at 2:22 PM
Have a look at http://delicious.com
raz0r on October 26, 2008 at 10:04 PM
Ed,
I love the occasional geek post! Please keep doing them.
I didn’t know about RSSOwl. It looks really cool!
thuja on October 26, 2008 at 10:23 PM
I use google reader as only a backup to Omea…the negative with omea is they have stopped development due to more pressing development issues and it is now GPL open source.
Omea has plenty of flexibility if you learn the rules functions and the filter process. Also you can split out into user defined workspaces to virtualize your projects focus.
Google and other online readers for me just have too much delay built into them.
I poll 400 plus RSS feeds in Omea each 15 minutes and it handles the job fine.
Most browser based or add on readers would choke on that kind of feed demand.
Omea also word indexes every word of every post as it gets them making searching the entire history lightning fast
I pull in about 2200 posts a day in Omea and it only has a corruption problem for me if an improper shutdown of the entire computer occurs and the rebuild takes a long time for me due to the size of the data base and it re indexes every word in the database from scratch.
I have multiple online readers I use and carry about 1800 feeds on them but don’t even attempt to keep current on reading them and only use the search function to mine the info I want from their data base.
My highest priority 100 feeds or so I keep as a tree structured set of live bookmarks in FireFox and still do the saving of those in Omea.
But if you actually dig into omea the rules functions and other feature of the reader are almost as flexible as a programing language interface..the power is there you just have to learn how to flex it beyond they major capability it has right out of the box.
CommentGuy on October 27, 2008 at 12:00 AM
I would have to be really impressed to switch from Google Reader. In fact, an offline reader is pretty much out of the question.
Ortzinator on October 27, 2008 at 2:53 AM
RSSOwl is apparently built on the Eclipse platform and has an SWT dependency which is not standard across linux platforms.
A minor gotcha, and easily fixed, but an amateurish schoolboy error of judgement.
LimeyGeek on October 27, 2008 at 10:30 AM
after reading this I KNEW it had to be from Ed..
DaveC on October 27, 2008 at 12:02 PM
Mojoski is right. You need to update link to the .org. The .com guy is a cybercamper.
No, no, the .com guy is far worse than that. It’s Sedo, the same yahoos who are trying to
stealbarrowobtain Patterico’s site.Do you have java installed?
Yes, that would be a problem. After that, it’s a simple matter of unzip’ing and then running the ./RSSOwl executable. Or just adding a launcher.
Curiously, it fails to quit when I “File->Quit” or hit the X box. I have to kill it manually. It also doesn’t seem to pass on material to my browser for further reading. Given that I’ve got Sage (v1.4.2) running in Iceweasel to my satisfaction, I’m not going to lose much sleep over my inability to get RSSOwl running.
I R A Darth Aggie on October 27, 2008 at 4:15 PM
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