Author Topic: FeedDemon going free (Read 29,245 times)

KenR · « **on:** January 09, 2008, 08:09 PM »

The Daily Download reported today that Newsgator has decided to make FeedDemon and other of it's products free. FeedDemon is arguably the finest RSS aggregator available. Try it if you haven't.

Ken

Lashiec · « **Reply #1 on:** January 09, 2008, 08:18 PM »

o_O, that means another contender for the throne of best RSS client. It's going to be tough to choose one between all the choices I have in mind. Thanks for sharing it, Ken.

vegas · « **Reply #2 on:** January 09, 2008, 08:59 PM »

WOW.......Waiting for Zaine to comment on this one..........ROFL............................

lanux128 · « **Reply #3 on:** January 10, 2008, 02:12 AM »

this is great news for those still seeking the best RSS reader, such as myself..

we can expect more discussions on our regular RSS feed threads..

Grorgy · « **Reply #4 on:** January 10, 2008, 02:16 AM »

good thing to, it maybe the best rssreader around but some of its features have just never worked for me, synching for instance (why i really wanted it), sort of half works, others do it better but not automatically, and the so called premium customer support for paying users certainly never materialized.

muntealb · « **Reply #5 on:** January 10, 2008, 01:37 PM »

Another "victim" of Google Reader. They say that by making FD free they can sell more licenses of their enterprise product. It's probably true, but I think they were worried about the growing marketshare of GR, that could open the way for future products from Google targeted at the enterprise market. It's a good tactical move by NewsGator and the users will benefit from that. However, some developers of RSS clients will probably abandon developing their software. I hope that will not be the case for GreatNews (free), Newzie (free) or NewzCrawler (shareware).

tranglos · « **Reply #6 on:** January 10, 2008, 02:02 PM »

Quote from: muntealb on January 10, 2008, 01:37 PM

Another "victim" of Google Reader.

Probably so, but then RSS is web content, and the browser is the ideal environment for viewing it. I bought FeedDemon quite early on and liked it a lot, but I always caught myself trying to do things I could do in a browser, and failing - like viewing a single image, copying its location or doing "download target". All the neat features it had didn't make up for the basic browser functionality that was lost.

It was also becoming more sluggish from release to release. I dropped out when Nick Bradbury sold FeedDemon to NewsGator. I should have known better, since he'd done the same thing with HomeSite before. Can't blame him, but it *is* his SoP, so I should have known better.

He's a magnificent coder! HomeSite became an archetypal HTML editor. Even today most free and commercial HTML editors are patterned on HomeSite's UI and feature set. But when Nick Bradbury sold it to Macromedia, it was only a short time before it disappeared from the market.

FeedDemon keeps growing, but the whole deal with NewsGator subscription model left a bad taste. Meanwhile Google Reader also keeps getting new features, but to me what's most important is having it in the browser, nothing can beat that.

Nick Bradbury is a fantastically gifted coder, but I can't say I'm sorry for NewsGator...

icekin · « **Reply #7 on:** January 11, 2008, 05:02 AM »

Google Reader is still missing one big feature : Support for Authentication on Feeds. That's probably the only feature that is still keeping me from switching to it entirely. Also, Newzie is more than a feed reader, it also supports monitoring of changes to websites that don't have feeds. Another famous shareware tool, website watcher also monitors regular web pages, forums and the like.

I had emailed the Newzie team a while back, praising their software. They are apparently planning a web version as well along with more features to the desktop version.

Having tried FeedDaemon as a trialware in the past, I can't say I'm too impressed with its resource usage even though it does boast many features. It does not strike me as a 'light' feed reader. Neither does RSSOwl or RSS Bandit for that matter.

J-Mac · « **Reply #8 on:** January 11, 2008, 07:13 AM »

Only one complaint here - but it is a frustrating one: They just hit my account for the annual renewal fee about 5 weeks ago, the creeps! They are giving credits to anyone they charged as of December 9, 2007. Got me.

Jim

BTW, I took another look at Google Reader the other day. What is with this "sharing" crap?! All your feeds are now available for all your contacts to see? This stinks even more than Newsgator charging me for FeedDemon! Especially since Gmail automatically adds anyone to whom you send an email message to your contacts. And there is no way to stop your feeds from being shared unless you remove the contacts from Gmail. Blah!

Jim

muntealb · « **Reply #9 on:** January 11, 2008, 10:46 AM »

I don't think that RSS is web content. RSS carries information, that may include or not web content (images, music or videos). I prefer to use a non-web application for RSS, although I understand the appeal of Google Reader for many users.

But all the programs like FeedDemon, GreatNews, Newzie, etc. do have an integrated browser (based on IE's engine) that has tabs. They do not offer at this time all the functionality of web browsers (you cannot lock the tabs or move them, for example). But saving images or other files from the pages displayed inside the integrated browser is available in all the RSS clients. Of course the pages can be opened also in an external browser.

The move by NewsGator is a "blow" to GR, but I doubt that the present users will switch to FD. Maybe some users of the other RSS clients will switch, because FD looks very nice, has a lot of functions and also downloads podcasts. I will probably stay with the combination of GreatNews (RSS) +Ziepod (Podcasts). I don't like the fact that FD does not have a special tab for the feed, like GN or Newzie. Other than that I recognize the fact that Nick Bradbury is a very good programmer that has also a special gift for user interfaces, like Tranglos already said.

Google Reader will share only the items that are explicitly shared by the user. FeedDemon will collect by default anonymous usage statistics of the feeds (this can be disabled by unchecking "collect attention data" in the properties of every feed).

Nick Bradbury published a blog entry yesterday on the "battle" between desktop and web-based RSS readers:

http://nick.typepad.com/blog/2008/01/why-use-a-deskt.html

Lashiec · « **Reply #10 on:** January 11, 2008, 01:15 PM »

I tried Google Reader yesterday, after these comments here and some other people drooling in CyberNet, and didn't find it enticing. As always, Web apps have some weak points compared with their desktop counterparts, like them being far slower, or the lack of that famous platform agnosticism (OK, for being Google, worked really good in Opera, but I was getting some layout and server errors along the way). It's pretty good, that's for sure, but considering the way I'll access and read the feeds, I'm much better with a desktop app. Also, Google Reader lacks some customizability I've seen in desktop readers. And accessing a desktop app requires less clicks and keyboard smashing ;D

Google Reader is ideal for those checking feeds everywhere, but I always leave the Internet at home ;)

sri · « **Reply #11 on:** January 14, 2008, 06:26 AM »

FeedDemon is overrated and hyped. FeedReader is better IMO.

tamasd · « **Reply #12 on:** January 14, 2008, 09:04 AM »

Quote from: sri on January 14, 2008, 06:26 AM

FeedDemon is overrated and hyped. FeedReader is better IMO.

What are FeedReader's advantages over FeedDemon?
I use GreatNews and happy with it, it seems similar to FeedReader (screenshots), simple yet powerful (though not as much as FeedDemon).

muntealb · « **Reply #13 on:** January 14, 2008, 10:20 AM »

GreatNews is the best choice for a desktop RSS reader at this time, from my point of view, of course. It is very fast (actually the fastest RSS reader when it comes to checking feeds), is compatible with all the feed formats, is fully Unicode compatible, consumes the less amount of resources, is very stable.

FeedDemon is good-looking and full of features, but it eats a lot of resources (CPU and RAM) especially when it checks feeds (CPU can climb to 100%).

Newzie is also good-looking and has the "killer" feature of auto-arranging the feeds based on the date of the last update. It can also monitor webpages for changes and this feature works really well.

FeedReader had in the past a lot of bugs and problems related to the database (notably extreme slowness). But the new 3.12 alpha works well and is very fast compared to the previous versions (it is the first version that I could use without complaining about slowness). FR does not have tabs however, and this is a big problem for those that want to use the integrated browser. Other than that it is a decent reader.

The real test for the RSS readers would be an endurance one. Someone that has 1000 feeds and uses extensively tagging (labeling), filtering and archiving could do that test for a month and see which reader performs best with a big database.

My top of RSS readers would be:

1. GreatNews
2. FeedDemon
3. Newzie
4. FeedReader

Lashiec · « **Reply #14 on:** January 14, 2008, 10:25 AM »

muntealb, how many of those RSS readers have the feature of checking for new changes in a webpage without a RSS feed (Website-Watcher style)?

muntealb · « **Reply #15 on:** January 14, 2008, 10:30 AM »

Only one of them can monitor webpages, Newzie.

Lashiec · « **Reply #16 on:** January 14, 2008, 10:47 AM »

Uh-oh, the number of choices have been reduced drastically

nosh · « **Reply #17 on:** January 14, 2008, 10:50 AM »

Quote from: muntealb on January 14, 2008, 10:20 AM

FeedDemon is good-looking and full of features, but it eats a lot of resources (CPU and RAM) especially when it checks feeds (CPU can climb to 100%).

muntealb, this is a known bug, it can be side-stepped by disabling HTTP 1.1 (from within Internet Explorer) - I don't know the exact side-effects you incur by doing this but I haven't felt any difference in my browsing after disabling it.

MikeMcLoughlin · « **Reply #18 on:** January 14, 2008, 12:03 PM »

Forgive me if everyone knows this, I didn't so thought it worth mentioning in case it helps someone with their decision.

I purchased FeedDemon (and therefore obtained a free NewsGator premium account) a short while ago because I liked the way the application looked, ran and presented its data. However, it wasn't until after this that I became aware of the most useful (to me) feature - that is synchronisation.

In a nutshell this is how it works (depending on various preferences but generally as it comes by default):
I have FeedDemon on 2 PCs - one at home - one at work.
If I subscribe to a feed at work it is automatically subscribed at home and vice-versa, same with unsubscribing.
If I launch FeedDemon at work and there are 100 items in a group, I read 50 of them then go home, the 50 I read at work do not show as new items, only the 50 unread.

This is so useful to me as I read my feeds at both places and, to my mind, it isn't that well publicised as a feature of the software. I know it is mentioned but it didn't really sink with me until after I made the purchase.

I would imagine for this to work you would need the premium NewsGator account which I suppose makes FeedDemon not really free if synchronisation is important.

Grorgy · « **Reply #19 on:** January 14, 2008, 12:30 PM »

I bought it for the synchronisation, but the synchronisation of the read items just never worked, they didn't respond to email so i gave up on them, i still think its a good reader but not nearly as good as advertised.

MikeMcLoughlin · « **Reply #20 on:** January 14, 2008, 01:11 PM »

Grorgy

By default I have found that synchronisation doesn't work. It is necessary to right click on the appropriate folder beneath subscriptions, choose Folder Properties then make sure that "Synchronize this folder with NewsGator" is checked.

You're probably aware of this but I thought I'd mention it just in case.

muntealb · « **Reply #21 on:** January 14, 2008, 01:26 PM »

Nosh, I tried what you recommended, but it didn't work. Anyway, the updating of the feeds takes little time so >90% CPU consumption for a few minutes every 3 hours (in my case) is not a big problem.

GreatNews and Newzie allow synchronizing the feeds with a free Bloglines account and this can be used instead of NewsGator premium. Moreover, GreatNews is portable and can be run from a USB stick so there is no need for synchronizing feeds between home and work.

nosh · « **Reply #22 on:** January 14, 2008, 03:48 PM »

Quote from: muntealb on January 14, 2008, 01:26 PM

Nosh, I tried what you recommended, but it didn't work. Anyway, the updating of the feeds takes little time so >90% CPU consumption for a few minutes every 3 hours (in my case) is not a big problem.

My bad. The issue I was facing was with the CPU jumping up and staying that way even after it finished checking feeds.

vegas · « **Reply #23 on:** January 15, 2008, 05:21 PM »

Quote from: sri on January 14, 2008, 06:26 AM

FeedDemon is overrated and hyped. FeedReader is better IMO.

Care to elaborate on why?

Quote from: muntealb on January 14, 2008, 10:20 AM

GreatNews is the best choice for a desktop RSS reader at this time, from my point of view, of course. It is very fast (actually the fastest RSS reader when it comes to checking feeds), is compatible with all the feed formats, is fully Unicode compatible, consumes the less amount of resources, is very stable.

FeedDemon is good-looking and full of features, but it eats a lot of resources (CPU and RAM) especially when it checks feeds (CPU can climb to 100%).

Newzie is also good-looking and has the "killer" feature of auto-arranging the feeds based on the date of the last update. It can also monitor webpages for changes and this feature works really well.

FeedReader had in the past a lot of bugs and problems related to the database (notably extreme slowness). But the new 3.12 alpha works well and is very fast compared to the previous versions (it is the first version that I could use without complaining about slowness). FR does not have tabs however, and this is a big problem for those that want to use the integrated browser. Other than that it is a decent reader.

The real test for the RSS readers would be an endurance one. Someone that has 1000 feeds and uses extensively tagging (labeling), filtering and archiving could do that test for a month and see which reader performs best with a big database.

My top of RSS readers would be:

1. GreatNews
2. FeedDemon
3. Newzie
4. FeedReader

Have you tried it since its latest release (2.6)? Alot of what was worked on for version 2.6 was improving the speed and eliminating CPU resoruces used.

Darwin · « **Reply #24 on:** January 15, 2008, 06:09 PM »

I'm running 2.6 and like it - the GUI is "prettier" - but the resource usage is as bad as ever. It'll consume over 200MB of RAM and 90% of the CPU while everything updates. As noted, though, this is only an issue DURING the updating of feeds and doesn't last long. The RAM isn't a big deal to me because I've got 2GB to play with and usually have LOTS free no matter what is going on.