NetNewsWire from Ranchero Software

NetNewsWire from Ranchero Software

System Requirements: 

MacOS 10.2 or greater

Safari 1.0

What is it? 

NetNewsWire is a MacOS program that runs on your computer enabling you to subscribe and read syndicated web content. In addition, an advanced version allows integrated posting to a variety of weblog content management systems. NetNewsWire really shines in it's simple handling of subscriptions.

Why do I like it? 

Site subscriptions are as easy as clicking a toolbar button and typing a website's URL. NetNewsWire's support of RSS autodiscovery means that it can pull the RSS feed URL out of the source code of the primary web page.

NetNewsWire uses a familiar "three-paned" interface: list of subscriptions on the left, headlines at the top right, and content at the bottom right. If you've used an email program written in the last five years, you can use this program with ease.

Subscription groups give me the ultimate control over my reading experience. Don't have time to read all of the site in your subscription list? No problem! Organize your subscriptions by category, placing them into folders with easy to remember names. Then, when you are short on time, click the folder for "Must Reads" and NetNewsWire will show you only the headlines in that group. With the space bar, you can quickly skip from new story to new story to new story.

AppleScript is supported in depth in NetNewsWire. That makes it easy for my blogging tool (Radio from UserLand) to work together to find new content. I can use Radio's strength in manipulating XML to pull a list of recently updated weblogs from weblogs.com and create a subscription and group automatically.

Why do I use it? 

I like to support small developers. They work hard for the money they charge and Brent's been worth every penny. My $40 purchase got me a great program, access to a beta testing group and a free upgrade to version 2.0.

Brent's not political and places a high value and business focus on his users. He's obviously a talented developer and could do many things with the program that made him happy. Instead, he's spent the time and effort listening to his users and as a result, received a happy customer and a staunch supporter.

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