NetNewswire is Free - Oh Boo Hoo

Posted on January 12, 2008
Filed Under /dev/null/ | 232 views |

An open letter to the Mac RSS reader developers.

Just a couple of days ago Brent Simmons et al. released the most-excellent Mac RSS newsreader NetNewswire for free. Completely for free. All features free. If you’ve got a Mac you really should go download it whether you have any idea what the hell I’m talking about or not. Trust me on this.

Alas, while this is excellent news for cheap-ass Mac owners (if you really had a clue about RSS you’d have already paid for NNW back when it wasn’t free) the announcement has been met with wailings and woe by the other developers of Mac RSS readers (I pick on one here but there are copious others).

Quite frankly this defeatist, “woe is us for we are the doomed” attitude both irks and saddens me to no end. To them I say: quitters! Quiverers! Cowards! Are you Mac developers or are you made of that same stuff that enfattens the soft underbelly of the VB world? Man-up already.

This release of NNW is not a final deadly blow across the bow but rather a massive opportunity. Think about it this way: when was the last significant update to NNW? Yeah, I can’t remember either. And what’s significant about this update?

Yeah, nothing. Nothing at all. Sweet bupkis except that it’s free and contains new icons. New icons? Really? Smashing, that.

I’ve already paid for NNW, have gotten years of impeccable, invaluable use out of it, but NNW is not the be-all/end-all of RSS readers. In fact, it still lacks mightily.

It is my believe that this release signals the end of NNW, for all intents and purposes. I think this is the putting out to pasture, the gold watch at retirement, the handshake with the shove. I think this is opportunity.

To the RSS development community I pledge to you: provide me a commercial RSS reader on par feature-wise with NNW that also allows me to use Regex to filter RSS feed content by title and I will give you this fist full of dollars I clench in eager anticipation as I write this. Allow me to filter with Regex on the content of the individual feed items in a timely, lag-free fashion and by gods I’ll exchange these ones for tens and they are yours for the taking!

You heard me: add one little feature to your application and this intrepid RSS user will jump ship like a stainless steel rat in a galley fire.

It may very well be that simple for you. Seize the day.

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