4 RSS Readers Every Linux User Should Try

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RSS readers are a way to get all the online news you want without distractions, flame wars, or annoying advertisements. Here are four RSS feeds that you can use on your Linux machine.

Image: iStockphoto.com/nicomenijes

Standards like RSS are perhaps the most underrated and underused feature of the modern web. RSS feeds are plain text files that every website publishes to a fixed address, with an explicit link or common RSS icon. These feeds are continually rewritten with titles, excerpts and links to full versions of all the latest additions to this website. Then, using programs called RSS readers or aggregators, you can automatically download and read as many RSS feeds as you want, whenever you want, in one window. It’s hard to overstate how awesome this is, because:

RSS saves time. A lot of time. There is hardly more than a single “entry point”, usable even offline, for all kinds of news, from major events to friends blogs and … nothing else.
RSS feeds are not filtered. No algorithms there. Unlike what happens in social media, with RSS you are always sure to download all the news, and you are always free to ignore it or prioritize it however you want. With RSS, the only filter is your own conscious selection of news sources, so choose responsibly!
RSS is not centrally monitored. All your data stays with you. Behavior tracking stays inside your own computer, if applicable.

Basically, maybe the only thing wrong with RSS today is that too many websites hide this option from their readers. Let’s see how to use this wonderful standard with my favorite RSS readers for Linux.

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4 great RSS readers for Linux users

The main purpose of this article is to inspire readers to try out the effectiveness and privacy of the RSS method; therefore, I am deliberately presenting only four RSS programs with these characteristics: They are all stand-alone tools that do not require a web server or external databases to function; they all run on Linux and, in some cases, other operating systems; and (with one exception) they can all be installed quickly and easily, on any modern distribution. Here are four RSS readers (in more or less random order) that Linux users should check out.

1. RSSOwlnix

Behind a really strange name, RSSOwlnix (Figure A) has many qualities. For starters, it seamlessly handles all major syndication formats, not just the original RSS. It has a good search feature which you can make even more powerful by diligently applying your own tags to the news. Better yet, RSSOwlnix can remember searches and present them as if they were personalized RSS feeds.

Figure A

RSSOwlnix has a great default selection of RSS feeds.

This tool can also automatically highlight titles containing predefined keywords and save important articles to its own archive. RSSOwlnix has a great, semi-automatic RSS feed importer and can have the best online documentation in the pack besides a built-in tutorial accessible by pressing the F1 key.

2. Living area

Living area (Number B) is probably the fastest aggregator to try, as it appears to be the one that can be installed directly from standard repositories and package managers from most major distributions. Although I have never had the opportunity to test this particular feature, its authors state that Liferea can extract titles even from HTML5 websites without actual feeds. Either way, Liferea can download full articles in addition to their previews and even play podcasts (because yes, RSS isn’t just syndicated text) or show comics, as in Figure C.

Number B

In addition to texts, Liferea can aggregate links to podcasts.

Figure C

RSS in Liferea is a great way to get your daily fix of web comics.

A particularly important feature of Liferea, which may be enough to choose it for some users, is its ability to connect to web-based multi-user RSS aggregators like TinyTinyRSS or TheOldReader. By combining Liferea with accounts on these services, you can create your own personalized news feed, accessible from any computer and easily archived on your own desktop.

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3. QuitteRSS

QuieRSS (Number D) may be the preferred RSS aggregator for users who like to modify any aspect of their software interfaces imaginable. You can use its full screen mode, hide the feed list for even more space and open each excerpt, or the corresponding full article, in a separate tab. At the same time, you can confine QuiteRSS to the system tray to display the number of new or unread items at any time. In addition to adjusting the appearance of QuiteRSS in many other ways, its users can turn off images, JavaScript, and advertisements in feeds to read them even faster. Another valid reason to try QuiteRSS may be the support for fast news sharing through Telegram.

Number D

QuiteRSS has so many useful configuration options that it’s easy to get lost.

4. Newsboat

No matter how long, no list of applications for Linux desktops would be complete without at least one terminal-based program. With RSS aggregators, the choice, at least for me, is easy: Newsboat (Figures E and F), which also works on FreeBSD, macOS, and probably, if you fancy building it from source, any other Unix version.

Like Liferea, Newsboat can read podcasts, categorize your feeds and tag individual news the way you want, and filter any article on topics of no interest.

Figure E

In Newsboat you get news announcements and nothing else. No distraction is possible.

Figure F

Newsboat is as spartan as it is powerful.

As Figures E and F show, it would be impossible to get distracted by anything while using Newsboat. Its real power is the ability to configure keyboard shortcuts to browse titles faster or run your own macros to go even faster. If that’s not enough, there is a query language to define meta-feeds, feed pre-processing capabilities, and, like with Liferea, integration with online RSS aggregators.

Try these RSS aggregators and let us know in the comments of the article how it goes.

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4 RSS Readers Every Linux User Should Try