The RSS feed reader landscape

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Desktop & Linux Readers, Especially for Video/YouTube

  • Some users struggle to find non-SaaS, desktop RSS readers on Linux that can play YouTube videos inline instead of opening a browser.
  • Suggestions include Thunderbird, newsboat with helper scripts (e.g., opening YouTube links in mpv), yarr (self‑hosted with embedded video), and various terminal TUIs.
  • There is interest in “video/podcast” awareness as a clearly advertised feature, not something hidden or requiring scripting.

Apple Ecosystem Favorites

  • NetNewsWire gets extensive praise: fast, ad‑free, no gimmicks, long history, free, and sync via iCloud or third‑party backends (FreshRSS, Feedbin, Miniflux, etc.).
  • Other popular Apple-native options include Reeder (older, one‑time‑purchase versions preferred by some), News Explorer, Unread, and specialized apps like Mela for recipes.
  • Some lament the lack of NetNewsWire on Linux and dislike newer Reeder subscription/redesign directions.

Self‑Hosted & Backend‑Centric Approaches

  • FreshRSS, Miniflux, Tiny Tiny RSS (now in forked/transition state), BazQux, Feedbin, NewsBlur, The Old Reader and Inoreader are widely discussed as “backends” that sync state and sometimes fetch full content.
  • Many frontends (NetNewsWire, Reeder, RSSGuard, FocusReader, ReadYou, PoweReader, etc.) plug into these backends.
  • Several people run Dockerized stacks (FreshRSS + RSS‑Bridge, Miniflux, TT‑RSS forks) or even Discord bots and terminal-only readers.

Partial Feeds, Full‑Text, and Scraping

  • A major pain point is sites publishing only snippets in RSS; readers then act as link aggregators.
  • Some services/readers integrate full-text extractors (FiveFilters, built‑in reader modes, CSS selectors in FreshRSS, Miniflux’s full-page fetching).
  • Users value being able to stay in the reader and read full articles offline.

Browser Extensions & Email-Based Reading

  • Multiple Firefox/Chrome extensions (FeedBro, Brief, Brook, blogcat, new-tab pages) are highlighted for in‑browser reading.
  • A strong minority prefers converting feeds to email (rss2email, Blogtrottr, custom scripts), seeing email as the most durable, universal client; others reject this as inbox clutter.

Social Features, Google Reader Nostalgia, and “Content”

  • Many miss Google Reader’s social sharing/commenting and blame its demise for weakening the “old web.”
  • Some propose decentralized recommendation systems built on RSS/OPML, blogrolls, or ActivityPub‑like layers.
  • There’s pushback on describing reading as “content consumption”; people see RSS as a way to follow humans and ideas outside ad‑driven algorithms.

DIY Readers, Technical Notes & Meta‑Critique

  • Numerous commenters have built their own readers (scripts, TUIs, static HTML generators), often with AI assistance.
  • Technical issues mentioned: duplicate detection, caching/ETags, poll rates, image/media RSS extensions, and multi‑device sync (sometimes via generic tools like Syncthing).
  • Several call the Lighthouse article thin, AI‑ish, and obviously content marketing, but still appreciate the thread as a discovery hub for lesser‑known tools.