12 of the Best Free Linux News Aggregators
A news aggregator is software which collect news, weblog posts, and other information from the web so that they can be read in a single location for easy viewing. With the range of news sources available on the internet, news aggregators play an essential role in helping users to quickly locate breaking news.
For individuals that read lots of weblogs, a news aggregator makes keeping track of them effortless, and particularly useful if the weblogs are only updated occasionally.
There are a number of different file formats which information publishers use. The most frequently ones are RSS and Atom. RSS is an acronym for Really Simple Syndication. It is a defined standard based on XML with the specific purpose of delivering updates to web-based content.
Using this standard, webmasters provide headlines and fresh content in a succinct manner. Meanwhile, consumers use RSS readers and news aggregators to collect and monitor their favorite feeds in one centralized program or location.
Atom is a format which is similar to RSS in many respects, but offers a number of improvements.
To provide an insight into the quality of software that is available, we have compiled a list of 12 impressive news aggregators. We cover native Linux based clients sporting a graphical interface, as well as console based aggregators, together with Java and web based clients.
Please note that Google Reader has been discontinued.
So, let’s explore the twelve news aggregators software at hand. For each application we have compiled its own portal page, a full description with an in-depth analysis of its features, screenshots, together with links to relevant resources and reviews. Start keeping up with the news today.
| News Aggregators | |
|---|---|
| Liferea | Three-pane GNOME based news aggregator |
| Akregator | News feed reader for KDE |
| Thunderbird | Popular free, cross-platform e-mail, RSS and newsgroup client |
| Newsbeuter | Innovative RSS feed reader for the text console |
| Canto | Crank through feeds using a minimal, yet information packed interface |
| Snownews | Text mode RSS/RDF newsreader |
| BlogBridge | Blog, feed and RSS aggregator for 'info-junkies' |
| RSSOwl | Highly customizable with integrated newsfeed-search engine |
| ThinFeeder | Powerful and tiny RSS / Atom aggregator |
| Google Reader | Comprehensive feed reader with a very flexible labeling system |
| Bloglines | Replaces a desktop client |
| Sage | Firefox extension that reads RSS and Atom feeds |
| Return to our complete collection of Group Tests, identifying the finest Linux software. |