First: What is RSS all About?
I have done the newsletter thing before I started blogging. Back in the 1990’s and early 00’s I was both a publisher and subscriber to numerous newsletters. Unfortunately, my inbox was also full of email spam and emails produced by early computer viruses trying to infect my own computer. At the peak, I was getting 350 emails a day and for many years afterward I was still getting about 150 emails a day. That never ending tide pretty much killed the email newsletter for me.
RSS readers give me control of what I subscribe to without having to surrender my email address. RSS feeds let me be notified of updates especially for blogs or news sites that don’t post very frequently. And I can unsubscribe at any time, since I’m in control. All good stuff.
RSS readers come in all flavors: 1. desktop/laptop readers, 2. cloud based readers, 3. apps for phones and tablets, and specialized podcast readers.
You can learn about the best RSS feed readers here: Best Free RSS Reader-Aggregator - Gizmo’s Freeware
Cloud vs. Desktop
I’m currently trying to avoid any more monthly fees so I have switched from cloud based readers to desktop readers which are free software (apps) I download right to my laptop. Right now I recommend:
macOS - Netnewswire which is IMHO about the gold standard for desktop RSS readers.
Linux and Windows - QuiteRSS I’m using the Linux version. I’ve been told the Windows version is very nice too.
Did this article help you? Let me know what you think.
