Someone reviewed v on Jul 5, 2022

Pros: 555

Cons: 555

Bottom Line: 555

smaragdus reviewed v4.5 on Jun 20, 2013

FeedDemon has been discontinued but its developer released one last version which is free, contains no ads and has all the features of FeedDemon Pro. For more info:

http://nickbradbury.com/...on-is-here-and-its-free/

Betanoob reviewed v4.5 on Jun 19, 2013

This was good back in the day.

The new king is:

https://code.google.com/p/quite-rss/

darthbeads reviewed v4.1.0.0 on May 17, 2012

It's impossible to believe this garbage software is still being developed. I am, to be frank, stunned.

[Closed Fileforum and goes back to Feedly.]

mfarmilo reviewed v4.0.0.11 Pre-Release on Nov 20, 2010

An excellent newsreader. I've tried all sorts, and they all seem to have glitches or use huge amounts of ram. This one just gets on with it. Has tons of features that someone must use but I don't. The Google Reader integration seems clever, basically using Google in the background to do all the fetching etc. It always seemed to me that readers that work directly become very processor intensive whenever they're downloading.

Some people moan about the adware aspect of this reader, but it's just a square area in the corner that displays an ad that changes very rarely. Not the slightest bit distracting.

dhry reviewed v4.0.0.7 Pre-Release on Nov 8, 2010

Well, I've spent several months playing real games with real people, like Operation and Candy Land for example, and I haven't gotten into a childish fight on the internet for almost a year now (hooray!), but I *still* for some reason can't seem to comprehend the fact that an 11-letter-word is always going to be different than an 11-POINT-word, even if all 11 letters are single-point letters. There HAS to be something I'm missing. I'll keep looking, but in the meantime, this program continues to suck. As does feedly.com when compared to GreatNews. (squeezes bike horn a couple of times and pedals off on a unicycle)

Lare2 reviewed v3.5.0.0 Pre-Release on Sep 10, 2010

This use to be a great program. I paid for it back in the days, then they went freeware, and now payware again...... really ?

darthbeads reviewed v3.1.0.30 on Jun 11, 2010

FeedDemon was once, in my opinion, the "leader of the pack" for desktop RSS reader solutions. Like many here, I even coughed up 30 clams to register it when it (first) went Ad/Shareware. It's clear, however, that development has essentially stalled on this once excellent app, and the fact that it has swung back to Freeware then back again to Ad/Shareware is offensive and dishonest.

These days, I prefer using Feedly.com (a Firefox, Chrome and, now, Safari extension) for my RSS reading, and I love it.

PS - Bags and bags of FAIL for @dhry: "11-point" word =/= "11-letter" word. If this clown spent more time playing real games with real people, and less time getting into childish fights on the internet, he might just be able to comprehend the difference.

JeremyGNJ reviewed v3.0.0.39 Pre-Release on Sep 23, 2009

Ok after a few days of using version 3, I had considered paying the $10 to get rid of the ads.

Then I thought about it, and I determined that the only significant update to 3.0 compared to 2.7 (the last version without ads), is that it can sync with Google Reader...which I don't use. Other than that, its just visual clean-up and tweaks (i dont even think there's been a single change to the options menu)

So...back to 2.7, and they don't get my $10.

JeremyGNJ reviewed v3.0.0.38 Pre-Release on Sep 19, 2009

Decided to try the latest release. Was surprised to see that they added an option to buy a serial number to remove the ads!!!!!

This makes me happy!

However then I found out that all of us who spent $30 to buy FeedDemon in the past (before it was freeware) now get the shaft and have to spend another $10.

This makes me sad!

dhry reviewed v3.0.0.38 Pre-Release on Sep 19, 2009

Evidently either part or perhaps all of TomasF's brain has been freezer-burned by too much exposure to the icy, technologically-challenged frozen wastes of Scandinavia. I have a netbook, two desktops and a work laptop which all run Greatnews and all have up-to-date feeds. And, shock horror, I don't use Google Reader for any of it. Incidentally, Greatnews has never crashed for me in about two years of use, which gives it a one-nil lead over FD (blows party kazoo)

Ironically, Greatnews (despite its annoyingly stalled development) still seems to get marginally better and better by comparison with Feeddemon each time a new FD is released.

Final nail in TomasF's argument: play an 11-letter word against anyone with even moderate Scrabble skill and you'll get dominated before you've even had time to start chuckling. I'll keep checking back on this program since for some reason I still have faith they'll get the adware out of it and earn another rating star in the process. A bit more faith than the faith I have that TomasF will get some sort of clue before this decade is out..

(places final letter on Scrabble board and flicks over TomasF's tile rack with his index finger)

DaComboMan reviewed v3.0.0.36 Pre-Release on Sep 15, 2009

Excellent program!
Keeps getting better every time!

Thanks!

TomasF reviewed v3.0.0.34 Pre-Release on Sep 8, 2009

I absolutely agree with dhry. After all, who in this day and age would use *more than one* computer!?
And it's completely laughable to think that someone who follows enough feeds to use a dedicated reader would want to keep up to date on feeds on say, a work computer, home computer, and maybe a netbook on the road and still enjoy the benefits of a desktop app.
And I completely agree that the fact that the synchronization vehicle allows you to access your feeds from any other web enabled device should you not have any of your systems around should be held against it. It obviously lessens the value of the solution. You know, the same way Bloglines integration in Greatnews does...

Oh yeah, since most commenters on bn obviously aren't playing with a full deck; I'm being sarcastic. It's a word, look it up (11 scrabble points)

dhry reviewed v3.0.0.27 Pre-Release on Aug 20, 2009

And while we're on the topic of calling things ridiculous, I think it's pretty ridiculous to call out the fact of an RSS reader *not* synchronizing with ANOTHER RSS READER as being a dealbreaker. WTH? If you use Google Reader, use Google Reader. If you use FeedDemon, use FeedDemon. Anyway, still 2 stars on this one. GreatNews continues to reign supreme, despite the inability to synchronize with something that you don't actually need to use because you're using GreatNews instead yeah. (grabs two paper plates, puts a slice of pizza on one, another slice of pizza on the other, then carries them carefully to both of his TV trays so he can eat while watching two TVs at the same time)

alanpalmer reviewed v3.0.0.27 Pre-Release on Aug 19, 2009

I saw a couple of puffs for GreatNews so I took a look at its capabilities. The obvious thing missing is synchronisation. FeedDemon can synchronise your feeds, originally with NewsGator, now with Google Reader. That alone makes it the best Windows feed reader.

Morningdove reviewed v3.0.0.24 RC3 on Jul 19, 2009

Adware is simply unacceptable.

If adware is praised with five star reviews, rest assured, it will flourish.

Ultimately it is the user that determines the success of adware. There is no program that is so good an acceptable alternative cannot be found. (In this case, GreatNews).

If adware is not used it will cease to exist.

mfarmilo reviewed v3.0.0.24 RC3 on Jul 15, 2009

An excellent feed reader. Certainly one of the most, if not the most, stable and user-friendly readers I've tried. The program seems to have attracted a lot of bad reviews all of a sudden since going 'adware'. Even people saying it used to be their favourite reader but isn't any more because of this one change. Something that strikes me as ridiculous, since the only thing that's changed is a small area in one corner now displays an advert. On my machine it's VERY unobtrusive, and certainly doesn't reduce the functionality of the program 20%. Marking such an excellent program down 2 or 3 points for that one change seems to me INCREDIBLY small minded.

I give this FIVE stars in recognition of its excellence.

dhry reviewed v3.0.0.23 RC2 on Jun 5, 2009

Another reader HAS stepped up. GreatNews (www.curiostudio.com) has always been better than FeedDemon - even more so now that FD has ads (a dealbreaker for any software). You can't offer something for free then just switch it to adware - FD's author needs to get a clue pronto. This program just plummeted from 4 to 2 stars.

JeremyGNJ reviewed v3.0.0.15 Beta 3 on Apr 22, 2009

Still a great RSS reader, and well worth paying for if it didnt have ads.

But...the author still insists on sticking their ads right over the most valueable piece of real-estate in the application.....the tree-view. This makes the program nearly useless since it reduces the "at a glace" functionality of the application by about 20%.

Back to version 2.7....hoping that another reader will step up.

keir reviewed v2.8.0.9 RC2 on Jan 7, 2009

The ads are pretty discreet, I'm still happy with it for now. Whether the ads will always be so discreet, time will tell.

(posted this in the forum first, confused by annoying new site layout which I assume will go away after CES)

alanpalmer reviewed v2.8.0.8 RC1 on Dec 15, 2008

Without a doubt the best RSS reader around. But ... ads.

aloishammer reviewed v2.8.0.8 RC1 on Dec 15, 2008

The new ads mean that I'm going to have to go looking for a different reader. Again. After I'd already found about the best reader available for Windows.

digitalking reviewed v2.8.0.8 RC1 on Dec 12, 2008

http://nick.typepad.com/...12/hit-the-deck-ta.html
It’s been almost a year since we made FeedDemon, NetNewsWire and NewsGator Inbox free, and it has been very gratifying to gain so many new customers. But as you can imagine, we continue to look for ways to generate revenue from our software............One of the ideas, of course, was to include advertising in our applications, but that idea never sit well with us. As I’ve written before, I’ve seen too many cases where advertising led to compromising customers’ privacy, and that wasn’t a path any of us wanted to ever go down.............The Deck is focused on ads for creative web professionals, and they’re picky about the ads they accept. Just as important, the ads can be embedded in our applications without sharing any customer data.
.......Every single ad is tastefully done, and since they’re static images, there’s no flashy animation trying to get your attention.

kbsoftware reviewed v2.8.0.8 RC1 on Dec 11, 2008

It's a really good feed reader unfortunately it is ad supported, and when I installed FeedDemon it also installed FeedStation something I did not want, I always hate software that tries to push onto it's users other programs.

JeremyGNJ reviewed v2.8.0.8 RC1 on Dec 11, 2008

Yes, banner ads in the new version.

Farewell to the previous king of RSS Readers.

fubo reviewed v2.8.0.8 RC1 on Dec 11, 2008

What's that in 2.8.0.8? ADS!!! Want to go back to previous version...

Diam0nd reviewed v2.8.0.5 Beta 2 on Nov 12, 2008

Great RSS reader. #2 in my book, I still prefer KlipFolio since it allows me to read RSS feeds without opening them (only the headings).

alanpalmer reviewed v2.8.0.4 Beta 1 on Nov 7, 2008

Without doubt the best and most polished feed reader around for Windows. The addition of tags is a great advance for many users.

Diam0nd reviewed v2.7.0.0 Final on May 15, 2008

Now that it's free, I don't really see an alternative to it, except maybe for KlipFolio

Diam0nd reviewed v2.6.1.4 RC2 on Apr 24, 2008

Best reader around. I do NOT like the fact that it installs FeedStation without asking me though.

davana reviewed v2.6.1.3 RC1 on Apr 16, 2008

Best there is! Even better now because its free!

Diam0nd reviewed v2.6.1.3 RC1 on Apr 16, 2008

Love it. Fast. Sleek. Extremely customizable.

digitalking reviewed v2.6.1.2 Beta 3 on Apr 7, 2008

Fastest around, since Omea Reader is no longer developed. The offline option really speeds things up, even faster than GreatNews or FeedReader. What is with this portable application obsession? No admin rights?

nerrad reviewed v2.6.1.2 Beta 3 on Apr 5, 2008

I want to be given a choice on whether to install FeedStation. I don't like having to uninstall the unwanted program afterwards. It's rude of an installer not to offer you a choice when it installs a seperate piece of unneeded/unwanted software. FeedDemon is slooow updating if you don't create a NewsGator account. What if I don't want one? I have to sacrifice speed? I'm sory, but I don't see how this even comes close to GreatNews. It seems we have a bunch of bandwagon fans since FeedDemon went freeware.

stisev reviewed v2.6.1.2 Beta 3 on Apr 5, 2008

Diam0nd,
We agree on most software, but when it comes to this one, I don't agree.

Portability is an incredibly major feature for any program and I'm really surprised they haven't given the user the option.

Diam0nd reviewed v2.6.1.2 Beta 3 on Apr 4, 2008

stisev: I swear to god one just HAS to be a moron for rating a program one because of it not having a portable version. People are funny-ass creatures.

Best reader around, especially now that it's FREE!!!

davana reviewed v2.6.1.2 Beta 3 on Apr 4, 2008

Portable would be nice but it's not needed with Newsgator. FD is still the best. Nothing comes close. Not even that buggy Great News.

stisev reviewed v2.6.1.1 Beta 2 on Apr 2, 2008

1 STAR until the authors of FeedDemon can swallow their arrogance and finally give the user the option of making FeedDemon truly portable (option to save files in /data folder and reg settings in .ini file).

Until then, GreatNews is #1

alanpalmer reviewed v2.6.1.1 Beta 2 on Apr 1, 2008

@ dhry:

Does GreatNews synch your feeds across machines like FD (courtesy of NewsGator)?

The best RSS reader by a long way. And great support!

Diam0nd reviewed v2.6.1.1 Beta 2 on Mar 31, 2008

Now thats its free, its definately #1

-DarkPhoeniX- reviewed v2.6.0.21 on Jan 18, 2008

Best desktop reader I've used, and I was a paying customer...

@stisev: Why does Nick Bradbury "HAVE TO" make FD portable? Yes, portable software can be useful, but that's hardly a deal-breaker. As for saving application data in the \AppData folder, um, isn't that where it's supposed to save it? Vista doesn't let apps write data to the installation folder by default, and like it or not, some people are going to be installing this on Vista.

I do agree with you about not being given an option on whether or not to install FeedStation, little things can cause lots of annoyance...

guti reviewed v2.6.0.21 on Jan 15, 2008

The only con of FeedDemon was its price... So now, it is really perfect.

Diam0nd reviewed v2.6.0.21 on Jan 15, 2008

Best feed reader around! To those people who said that the only con of FD was it not being free: in ya face! ;D

ninjeratu reviewed v2.6.0.21 on Jan 15, 2008

Best. Feedreader. Ever.
I still don't trust NewsGator, but free is free.

Just uninstall FeedStation if it bothers you and won't use the syndicated feeds from NewsGator.

The only real alternative (to me) is Feedreader, which is portable too. But this reader is still, by far, the best.

stisev reviewed v2.6.0.20 on Jan 10, 2008

It's free now, but STILL 1 star until the company gets its act together makes this program portable, without saving crap in the /Appdata directory AND installing FeedStation without the user's consent and any way not to install it.

alanpalmer reviewed v2.6.0.20 on Jan 10, 2008

It always was the best, but now it's FREE!

Diam0nd reviewed v2.6.0.20 on Jan 10, 2008

Best reader! :D

Yes, they are indeed free now!!! Official blog link: http://blogs.newsgator.c...01/newsgator-consu.html

sorlag reviewed v2.6.0.20 on Jan 9, 2008

NewsGator just announced that NetNewsWire 3.1, FeedDemon 2.6, and NewsGator Go! for Windows Mobile will be free.

Published on on10.net from microsoft.

Diam0nd reviewed v2.6.0.16 RC4a on Dec 21, 2007

Great reader!

alanpalmer reviewed v2.6.0.15 RC on Dec 12, 2007

This is now RC4 in case anyone's wondering. :)

As good as ever.

Diam0nd reviewed v2.6.0.13 RC3a on Dec 3, 2007

Best reader around, imho.

http://forum.newsgator.com/Topic34026-66-1.aspx

guti reviewed v2.6.0.11 RC2a on Nov 21, 2007

That release feels much more faster than 2.5.
Anyway, the best feed reader available for Windows, althought a bit expensive.

Diam0nd reviewed v2.6.0.11 RC2a on Nov 21, 2007

Great!

Added: "Reset to Defaults" added to Options|Confirmations
Changed: Redesigned "Panic Button" dialog
Changed: First post in newspaper is no longer auto-focused except when navigating pages
Fixed: Drag-and-dropping a feed into a different folder correctly updates subscriptions but doesn't move feed in subscription tree until view changed
Fixed: Group headers too short in feed error report
Fixed: Unsubscribing from a feed grays it out rather than removes it
Fixed: "Panic Button" dialog appears on top of other dialogs (such as the "Subscriptions Changed" dialog)
Fixed: Slow updating of unmodified feeds in un-synched folders

http://forum.newsgator.com/Topic33636-66-1.aspx

Diam0nd reviewed v2.6.0.9 RC1 on Nov 13, 2007

Top-notch!

What's new (official forums) and another dl link: http://forum.newsgator.com/Topic33240-66-1.aspx

Diam0nd reviewed v2.6.0.8 Beta 3 on Nov 9, 2007

zridling: well put!

But still, this really IS the #1 reader out there ;/

zridling reviewed v2.6.0.8 Beta 3 on Nov 9, 2007

FeedDemon is pure class and all, but is anyone paying for a feed reader anymore? There are so many good free ones, including Google's, that it seems similar to paying for an email app. Also, I'm seeing fewer RSS feeds on sites and blogs anymore, which is weird, since the option used to be automatic. Go figure.

Diam0nd reviewed v2.6.0.7 Beta 2a on Nov 3, 2007

Works like a charm for me!

alanpalmer reviewed v2.6.0.6 Beta 2 on Nov 1, 2007

The best RSS aggregator around, no argument.

Ragle Gumm reviewed v2.6.0.6 Beta 2 on Nov 1, 2007

It is a nice program ... and I used it for quite some time. But now I switched to Google Reader. For me this does enough.

Diam0nd reviewed v2.5.0.10 on Jun 3, 2007

Number uno RSS tool.

Diam0nd reviewed v2.5.0.8 RC3 on May 15, 2007

Simply love it!
As usual, change log: http://www.bradsoft.com/feeddemon/beta/

Diam0nd reviewed v2.5.0.7 RC2 on May 10, 2007

Teh best!
Changelog: http://www.bradsoft.com/feeddemon/beta/

Diam0nd reviewed v2.5.0.6 RC1 on May 3, 2007

Best rss reader!

stisev reviewed v2.5.0.4 Beta 3a on Apr 14, 2007

guti,

Yea, I foun that after posting here but the registry and other settings are still stored in the registry. Also, I wish scrolling was a little faster in FD, but still acceptable.

At any rate, I've converted to GreatNews because it's a) free b) portable (stores ALL settings in the folder) c) "Holy mother of god" fast (fastest RSS reader ever)

Still, FeedDemon is my next choice in RSS readers

Diam0nd reviewed v2.5.0.4 Beta 3a on Apr 13, 2007

LOVE IT! Period.

guti reviewed v2.5.0.4 Beta 3a on Apr 13, 2007

stisev, for sure you can change it.
Simply go to File -> Manage cache -> Change.

stisev reviewed v2.5.0.2 Beta 2 on Apr 8, 2007

The best news reader I've found.

It loses 1 star because it doesn't give you the option of storing settings and data in its own directory.

Come on, Bradbury Software! Please let us chose where to save the settings, feed data, everything!

Also, offer a binary (.ZIPED or RARed) version without a crappy installer!

Diam0nd reviewed v2.5.0.2 Beta 2 on Apr 4, 2007

Great reader!

nirav_patel@fastmail.fm reviewed v2.5.0.2 Beta 2 on Apr 4, 2007

good software but interface is a bit complicated.

I prefer rssowl though.

yagood reviewed v2.5.0.2 Beta 2 on Apr 3, 2007

JetBrains Omea Reader 2.2 is my choice after trying virtually every major RSS reader.

stisev reviewed v2.5.0.1 Beta 1 on Mar 23, 2007

If Diam0nd and I both recommend it, then chances are it's the best in its class :)

alanpalmer reviewed v2.5.0.1 Beta 1 on Mar 22, 2007

Yay!

The best newsreader, bar none. It's not as if $30 is going to break anyone; if you want a really good product you should expect to pay for it. I can't understand why so many people expect to be able to get everything free. I bet they don't go to work for nothing.

ninjeratu reviewed v2.5.0.1 Beta 1 on Mar 22, 2007

Diam0nd - You're the retard.

It IS too expensive because all the features can be found in freeware. Free > $30 any day. NewsGator tries to cash in on the FeedDemon success. Even though the interface is good and responsive it's hardly worth $30. It was THE best reader before the author crapped on his users and sold FeedDemon to NewsGator. Now it's just some commercial junk they will add bloat to in the name of "features" and "progress". Did I mention NewsGator?
It's got all the features and all the bells. But price is stupid and .. well .. NewsGator.

Diam0nd reviewed v2.5.0.1 Beta 1 on Mar 21, 2007

1. stopbuggingme - retarded.

2. ninjeratu - retarded. Please show me a proggy that is as good as FD is, thats to start with. Secondly, nobody says its cheap, and I do agree that price is MAD expensive. BUT the FD still IS superior to ALL other readers I've tried, and believe me I've tried many, including Open source ones, shareware and free ones too.

2. BEST reader around. I've tried em all ;/

P.S. Please visit FeedDemon Beta Site for more info: http://www.bradsoft.com/feeddemon/beta/

stisev reviewed v2.1.0.10 on Dec 12, 2006

My favorite RSS Reader (tried many).

Only compliant is that it isn't compatible with GZIP compression.

Try loading BinSearch.info's RSS feeds and see for yourself!

stopbuggingme reviewed v2.1.0.10 on Nov 19, 2006

It very good but too expensive. It should be free and I would rate it 5 instead of 1.

alanpalmer reviewed v2.1.0.10 on Nov 14, 2006

Hooray! Without a doubt the best aggregator around.

Diam0nd reviewed v2.1.0.10 on Nov 14, 2006

At last! :D

Diam0nd reviewed v2.1 RC3 Build 2.1.0.9 on Nov 13, 2006

Thumbs UP

Diam0nd reviewed v2.1 RC2 Build 2.1.0.8 on Nov 6, 2006

Keeps getting better and better. Unbelivable!

k3of4 reviewed v2.1 RC1 Build 2.1.0.7 on Nov 1, 2006

Still the best.

froop reviewed v2.1 RC1 Build 2.1.0.7 on Nov 1, 2006

I tried all the alternatives out there but none of them ever really did the job. I found this and ended up buying it which was just about a first for me.

It's fantastic and it just keeps getting better with each new version.

Highly recommended.

Diam0nd reviewed v2.1 RC1 Build 2.1.0.7 on Nov 1, 2006

Simply the best!

Changes in FeedDemon 2.1 RC1
Added: Flags are now synchronized
Added: Hitting 'V' while an item is selected in the newspaper now opens that item's link
Added: 'J' and 'K' are now secondary shortcuts for next/previous item in the newspaper
Added: 'E' shortcut in the newspaper to open item's link in external browser
Added: Confirmation dialogs (mark feed read, unsubscribe, etc.) now include a "Don't ask me this again" checkbox
Changed: When "Mark feed read when feed changes" is enabled, only posts that were unread when that feed was selected will be marked read (previously, all posts were marked read, even if those posts were retrieved by an update which occurred after the feed was displayed).
Changed: The arrow key shortcuts in the newspaper now require that Ctrl is also held down
Changed: The newspaper shortcut to add to a news bin has been changed from 'N' to 'B'
Changed: Subscription and web search merged into single search box
Changed: "Mark current page read when I change pages" has returned
Changed: Hitting Enter while an item is selected in the newspaper now shows a newspaper showing only that item. Note that when the "Blue Vista" or "Expando" styles are selected, Enter will expand/collapse the item.
Changed: The ability to embed the Mozilla control has been dropped. Sorry to have to do this, but the Mozilla Control is no longer being developed, and it doesn't support the features added to newspapers in this version.
Fixed: Separators on filter menu draw incorrectly on Japanese Windows
Fixed: Web search results show in external browser when "Open external links in default browser" is enabled
Fixed: Item not marked read in news item list after hitting 'R' in the newspaper
Fixed: Connection test doesn't correctly check NewsGator login
Fixed: Using keyboard shortcuts to navigate a newspaper containing long articles scrolls the newspaper to the middle of the article rather than the top
Fixed: FeedStation shows inaccurate download count in tooltip after deleting active download (76137)
Fixed: Subscription list isn't anti-aliasing correctly when font size set to 120dpi (61071)

Fixed: When a folder is selected, Ctrl+D skips feeds in root subscriptions folder (76266)
Fixed: Subscribing to a feed that uses a temporary redirect subscribes to the redirected feed
Fixed: Blank newspaper title for empty folders
Fixed: Synchronization failures due to not detecting active connection (73823)
Fixed: Crash at startup when restoring window (2.1.0.7)
Fixed: Ugly borders in "Blue Vista" style when using IE6 (2.1.0.7)

http://www.bradsoft.com/.../readme/readme21rc1.asp

darthbeads reviewed v2.1 Beta 3a Build 2.1.0.4 on Oct 27, 2006

Hands down the best RSS reader.

Diam0nd reviewed v2.1 Beta 3a Build 2.1.0.4 on Oct 27, 2006

Great stuff! And btw, RssBandit doesnt even come close!

alanpalmer reviewed v2.1 Beta 3a Build 2.1.0.4 on Oct 26, 2006

This is Beta 3, not 3a.

EDIT: Nick has now brought out Beta 3a, but it's Build 2.1.0.5.

morganp reviewed v2.1 Beta 3a Build 2.1.0.4 on Oct 26, 2006

The new keyboard shortcuts are superb. It adds a whole new level of usability to the application for me. 2.1 is going to be an excellent release.

twocandles reviewed v2.1 Beta 2a Build 2.1.0.3 on Oct 19, 2006

Really nice. Great newspaper view. But there's a free alternative to it: RssBandit. FeedDemon lacks a method of adding new view styles (or at least i didn'f find it), so you have to stick to the 5 styles it comes with, and it's not freeware. Except from that, great rss reader (and I've tried a lot of them).

Diam0nd reviewed v2.1 Beta 2a Build 2.1.0.3 on Oct 19, 2006

Kick-ass!

Diam0nd reviewed v2.1 Beta 2 on Oct 18, 2006

Great stuff! LOVE it. Best reader around. And the only one that makes reading similar to a REAL newspaper.

guti reviewed v2.1 Beta 2 on Oct 17, 2006

Still the best!
No real free alternatives.

Diam0nd reviewed v2.1 Beta 1 on Oct 3, 2006

Agreed. THE BEST rss reader. Ever.

alanpalmer reviewed v2.1 Beta 1 on Sep 29, 2006

And so it goes on ... The best just got better.

zridling reviewed v2.0.0.22 on May 8, 2006

Wow, the new 'Feed View' is a flat view of every feed. Nice touch.

PS: Thanks deadmonkey!

deadmonkey reviewed v2.0.0.20 on Mar 30, 2006

zridling: See, it all worked out well in the end :)

As for FD2 all I have to say is WOW. It is a quality program that saves me a lot of time. One feature I really like is the thumbnails of MediaRSS items. It works great on Flickr, Yahoo! Image Search and Google Videos and I am sure more and more sites will add support in the next few months.

Great bit of software from a great company. I was very impressed that they listened to their customers and changed their mind on the subscription model rather than just killing off the original userbase for a new userbase who didn't care about the subscription.

zridling reviewed v2.0.0.20 on Mar 30, 2006

Well, I'm here to eat a big plate of crow. Although I found a date bug, big deal. As Adam Stiles notes about his favorite feature:

"Unread Feed View. A little button on the side bar makes it easy to toggle between Folder View (old style view which shows all your feeds as icons, even ones that don’t have unread items) and Unread Feed View, which only shows icons for feeds with unread items."

You still have to buy a subscription if you want the online services, but at least you can run it independent of newsgator's silliness, and hell, the program is updated all the time anyway. But most of all, I was happy the price has not risen in over two years. That's unusual. Here's what NewsGator's Greg Reinacker wrote on his blog:

"And finally, as of these releases we've made good on our promise to abolish the subscription model as you used to know it. Now, you can buy FeedDemon or NewsGator Inbox (and soon NetNewsWire) for $29.95, and you'll get a free year subscription which includes value-added services such as synchronization (and lots more to come). At the end of that year, you can choose to renew your subscription if you wish for $19.95. But if you choose not to renew, your software will continue to work forever — just without the online-specific features."

Was that so hard?

deadmonkey reviewed v2.0.0.18 RC1 on Mar 22, 2006

Hey zridling. I understand you are angry however you are not paying to read free feeds, you are paying to use a piece of software (FeedDemon). It just so happens that rather than the "normal" pay a fixed price for one version system you pay a subscription charge for rental of that software for a set amount of time. Now most companies release a new version of their product every 1 to 2 years, so even if you had paid $30-40 for FeedDemon now in 1 to 2 years you would pay again for the new version. Granted you do have the benefits of being able to say no to the upgrade which, as far as I am aware, you are lacking this with FeedDemon now (unless you can perpetualy keep the last version available in your subscription? I don't know to be honest, I will have to check).

One thing I am interested to know though, you bought FD when it was at version 1.5 you said yes? If FD had not gone subscription based is there enough in FD2 to get you to pay again to upgrade? If there is then claim your free 2 year subscription and don't renew it in 2 years time. If you don't like FD2 then stick with 1.5 and don't worry yourself about the subscription service.

I admit I was a bit unsure about the subscription when it was announced so I connected Nick about it and he explained basically what I just explained above. I played around with FD2 and loved the new features. While I never thought I would ever use syncing I do every day now between work and home. I don't use all the extra bits of software I now get for free such as NetNewsWire (on my mac), Outlook RSS thingy or the web interface but they are there for if I ever want them, and I sure as hell never paid anybody for them 2 years ago when i bought FD.

I don't think Nick sold out. I just think he saw that RSS was going to become very big and very competative and being a one man company would mean he couldn't easily compete. So he decided to join a bigger team. Makes sense to me. Not everyone was going to love the subscription idea but that was one negative against a whole load of positives.

Like it or hate it FD is a great rss aggregator and FD2 is shaping up very nicely. I am yet to find another aggregator which allows such customisation and while there are many great free rss aggregators I am happy to pay $40 every 2 years (at least now I am, I can always change my mind) to keep using what I prefer.

update: Just check and once your subscription expires you can continue to use the last version of FeedDemon that was available during your subscription forever however any subscription based services, such as syncing, will not work. So basically for $40 you get two years NewsGator subscription (whether you use it or not is upto you) and the latest version of FeedDemon available when your subscription expires. If you ask me that is a pretty good deal. Hope this makes you see that the subscription service isn't as bad as you first thought. If you want to just buy FD you can, just buy a subscription but don't renew it, then if you want a new version of FD when it is out you can subscribe again to get it. The way I see it is that the subscription is kind of like software insurance for new releases, you are entitled to any new version released during your membership :)

zridling reviewed v2.0.0.18 RC1 on Mar 22, 2006

Thanks deadmonkey for letting me know about the subscription status; I bought FD when it first came out, v.1.0, and within only a few months it was pushed to v.1.5.

Still, no one's ever explained to me: why the heck would I pay for something — a "subscription" to RSS feeds — that are free to all? That's a scam only Barnum and Bailey would love! You're not paying for content, but mere access to [free] content, ON TOP OF THE PROGRAM ITSELF. That's nuts, and it takes a complicated argument to justify such a business model against numerous free RSS readers. I'm not denying it's an excellent feedreader, but I stopped using 1.5, because soon after I purchased it, the developer sold out and my license was promptly voided by Newsgator. And yes, I was part of the crowd that went nuts after Nick took our money and refused to refund it, even a week after his move voided the license. Even Nick was confused over why we would be mad: You paid for it, but if you want to keep using it, now you'll have to prepay two years in advance, ha ha!... which caused another uproar among registered users. CASE IN POINT: What if Mozilla charged you two years in advance to surf with web with Firefox? Would you still buy it or would you strongly consider alternatives?

I'm happy to support developers and pay what they see as the value of their work for a version, but to double-dip and add a subscription model on top of the application price seems silly to me. I only need to get ripped off once to learn. I'll pass on this app until it's fully independent of the paid subscription requirements.

deadmonkey reviewed v2.0.0.15 Beta 4 on Mar 17, 2006

zridling: yes you still need to subscribe. However you never paid for FeedDemon 2 so go back to FeedDemon 1.5 (which is what you paid for) and stop complaining about this new version. You don't like the business plan, thats fine, you have said you piece now stop trolling. If you don't like the subscription model you don't have to subscribe. If you did subscribe then you would get FeedDemon 2 free for 2 years, you could then cancel before you are charged. Also the precharge is something that almost every business, at least in the UK, does when you enter a subsription service contract.

Nice to see fixes for a few annoying little bugs in B3. Can't wait for the final :)

McCrap reviewed v2.0.0.14 Beta 2 on Feb 24, 2006

Simply the best

Enough said!

Caleb reviewed v2.0.0.14 Beta 2 on Feb 22, 2006

This is actually the best g** d***ed feed reader that you could find for Windows!

CyberHobo reviewed v2.0.0.13 Beta 2 on Feb 16, 2006

I give a 5 rating specifically to version 1.5. I'm not sure about the release of 2.0 and remain silent until it's official release.

ibod reviewed v2.0.0.12 Beta 2 on Feb 15, 2006

2 years free subscription (so they will be charging you for stuff you can get for free) after that!

deadmonkey reviewed v2.0.0.12 Beta 2 on Feb 15, 2006

to zridling (above): FeedDemon never *required* a NewsGator subscription. They *planned* to do this but his users complained so they scrapped the idea before it ever got started.

to ibod (above also): Yes you have to pay. Sorry but thats life, if you want to use another program thats fine, but I am yet to find a free application that does all of the things that this program does. Your needs are different to mine so perhaps a freeware client is good enough, to me I am yet to find one.

FeedDemon is like Sky+ (kind of like Tivo). It changes the way you use something. Sky+ (Tivo) changed the way I watched tv, it made recording/timeshifting shows easy. FeedDemon makes getting a lot of information much easier than if I were to check hundreds of different sites a day, it indexes it for me so that I can easy mark it to view later and highlights other items I might be interested in based on key words I give it (known as watches in FeedDemon). In the past few months I have come to depend more and more on FeedDemon as my life is busier but I still like to read about new things online, RSS makes this easier and I find that FeedDemon is the best tool for me to enable me to use RSS. To be honest I am not too fussed about the whole NewsGator thing as I don't use the sync feature however I have gotten a version I wouldn't have otherwise got for free and I have the added bonus of using features such as syncing if I ever want to (the web interface does come in handy when I am not at home I must admit).As for having to pay every 2 years? Well Nick is a businessman, I am pretty sure he would be releasing a new version at least every two years anyway so I don't see it as a huge problem. Anyway if I find I don't like it I still have version 1 and now version 2 to fall back on as neither *require* a NewsGator subscription to function (unless you want the NewsGator sync features) and, like I said, I got version 2 for free as I only ever paid for version 1 :o)

Great all round product, yes there are free ones as well but I don't find they have as many nice features as FeedDemon. Just my opinion, if you don't like it just say why but don't attack the person who made it, you are not being forced to use it are you?

darthbeads reviewed v2.0.0.12 Beta 2 on Feb 15, 2006

Thanks for the 'browser position' tip! I'm much happier with this now, and not as irritiated that I registered.

mrgrieves reviewed v2.0 Beta 1 on Jan 21, 2006

Go to View / Browser Position and set the browser to be on the right and it's back pretty much to how it was in v1.6.

And to those whining about the NewsGator business - it was an idea that the author posted asking for comments. As the feedback was negative, the subscription model was not adopted.

So, full marks to Nick for listening to his audience. And for release v2.0 as a free upgrade!

In all honesty, I don't use RSS as much as I should so I use Opera, but FeedDemon certainly is a top piece of software.

darthbeads reviewed v2.0 Beta 1 on Jan 18, 2006

I frankly can't stand the new GreatNews-type interface. I coughed up for FeedDaemon (pre-NewsGator, thankyouverymuch) for the wonderful Outlook-style vertical feed display. I still think it is the most intuitive way to read and organize feeds.

deadmonkey reviewed v2.0 Beta 1 on Jan 18, 2006

I have been very happy with FeedDemon since the day I bought it (Jan 2004). I was a little unsure when they joined NewsGator however I have seen nothing but excellent new ideas and great support from NewsGator so I can't complain. Nick, the developer, always stated that FeedDemon 2.0 would be a paid update but now I am getting it for free which is cool (as is everyone else who bought 1.0). I don't see how Nick and NewsGator is ripping everyone off? When everyone bought FeedDemon 1 they knew they were not getting FeedDemon 2 as well but now they are and everyone still complains? I don't really understand that.

For me though I love it. Great new features, faster, better design for the UI and support for things such as mediarss really do make this program great.

The NewsGator setup is great now also as I can check my feeds at work, in a cyber cafe, on my mobile phone and everything is synced perfectly. If I mark it read on my phone its marked read at work and home, etc. Same if I mark something to read later, etc. Syncing is awesome with FeedDemon and NewsGator.

I have also found that a username and password is easier to remember than the old serial system they had before.

Great product. If you don't like it thats fine but GreatNews is a pretty poor comparision IMHO, it doesn't have half the features FeedDemon 2 has and the developer is a known spammer on many forums. Maybe its just me but I wouldn't want to use software from someone who can't accept criticism without launching into a personal attack on the person (I found this out the hard way). It is a shame as GreatNews is a nice program, just not as nice as FeedDemon ;)

zridling reviewed v2.0 Beta 1 on Jan 18, 2006

What a ripoff. Save your money and use GreatNews, unless you'd pay even to see free websites. Buyer beware.

bradsjm reviewed v2.0 Beta 1 on Jan 17, 2006

FeedDemon is a solid and reliable application and at one time was a solid leader. If you use NewsGator then FeedDemon is the perfect companion. However, there are now other great applications (see comments) that provide excellent functionality without the subscription model of NewsGator. My personal recommendation is OmeaReader.

zridling reviewed v1.6 RC2 on Nov 5, 2005

dm, so you think I should PAY newsgator to "subscribe" to RSS feeds for me when all it takes is one click of a button. Almost a dozen different aggregators/feed readers now do offline and online synching. Nick Bradbury sold out to corporate interests and then promptly told licensees to pay up. I wasn't given newsgator my credit card in advance of a 2-year subscription.

I will never ever "subscribe" to software or its services. I know that's a gray line I'm drawing, but Feedemon is a ripoff with newsgator. I use both RSS Bandit and GreatNews. GreatNews is incredible.

ninjeratu reviewed v1.6 RC2 on Nov 4, 2005

I like FeedDemon. I really do. I think it's the best news reader with the most polished look and the functions that works for me.

But when Nick sold the reader to Newsgator .. well .. I still _want_ to love it, but I can't.

Greed and shortsighted profit-thinking and a big corporations disregard of OLD customers has turned this program into a sad heap of bits that is still a great reader - but something I would never, ever support with my money.
There ARE free alternatives that look and feel almost the same and you need to have something special to make you PAY for it. FeedDemon had that, but not after Nick sold it and Newsgator took over.

I suggest that anywho who think this is rubbish to expand all reviews and read what zridling wrote in July.

deadmonkey reviewed v1.6 RC2 on Nov 4, 2005

zridling: How does RSS being free have anything to do with an rss aggregator not being free?

FeedDemon does a lot that other clients don't do and that is what I am paying for. If you don't like it thats fine, explain why and move on but coming up with stupid posts like "Why would someone buy this when RSS is free" is, well, stupid!

I love the speed and stability of FeedDemon. I don't feel ripped off with the NewsGator acquisition. I have gotten more from it than I would have with just FeedDemon so I am happy.

Well worth trying out, RSS does make getting information easier. Saves a lot of time at work as the information comes to me rather than me having to search the net for it.

CyberHobo reviewed v1.6 RC2 on Nov 3, 2005

I'm happy with FeedDemon. I'm delighted I can change the color background (I like a dark background when I'm reading text). I know it bends some people when you got to throw out some jingle-jangle ($$$)for a fine product.

b0b0b0b reviewed v1.6 RC1 on Oct 17, 2005

I wanted to address some of the FUD-- if you paid the registration for Bradsoft's FeedDemon, then newsgator honors that by giving you a 2 yr business level subscription to the newsgator FeedDemon.

I think it's totally fair and Nick certainly should be rewarded for his efforts. FeedDemon is excellent.

yagood reviewed v1.6 RC1 on Oct 12, 2005

There is nothing better than GreatNews reader if we talk about RSS.

zridling reviewed v1.6 Beta 4 on Sep 3, 2005

No one here nor from newsgator has answered my question: WHY would anyone PAY a corporation for the privilege of subscribing to free RSS feeds?

FeedDemon is the equivalent of paying for bottled water. If you need someone else to put water in a bottle for you, then you probably need to pay newsgator to monitor your feeds.

FeedDemon = crippleware and fraudulent licensing revocation toward Bradsoft customers.

thockam reviewed v1.6 Beta 4 on Sep 2, 2005

TopStyle is apparently owned by the same corportion now - there are other CSS Editors out there worth looking at with a cheaper price tag in some instances:

Free: http://www.price-media.demon.co.uk/cascade.html

$20: http://www.blumentals.net/rapidcss/

more expensive: http://www.westciv.com/style_master/index.html

going down the same path for the sake of comfort is how we got stuck with Windows in the first place...

Zulithe reviewed v1.6 Beta 4 on Sep 2, 2005

While technically a decent program, I agree that it isn't worth the money considering all the free alternatives. There are even websites now (start.com, google.com/ig) where you can manage RSS feeds. A program like this has limited use. Meanwhile, the developer of Feedview seems to be spending more time on this than his xhtml/css editor called TopStyle which is a FAR superior and more useful product. I'm at a loss as well...

thockam reviewed v1.6 Beta 3a on Aug 29, 2005

everyone thought that China buying Unocal would be good for the bottom line but it was only going to be really good for a short period of time and then reality would set in...

similar to selling out for the money with FeedDemon (and TopStyle?) - it's good for the money but sometimes things don't turn out for the best in the long run....

a bit much on ethics I know but sometimes it just needs to be said: when did money turn into trust, loyalty, friendship and honor? never...

zridling reviewed v1.6 Beta 3a on Aug 28, 2005

ddebidin, you haven't been keeping up with events surrounding FeedDemon, eh? FeedDemon is part of newgator now. Can someone explain to me why you would want to PAY a corporation so that you could subscribe to free RSS feeds? There are at least five different RSS aggregators that will sync your feeds for you for free. I don't get it.

ddebidin reviewed v1.6 Beta 3a on Aug 27, 2005

There are far better professional software such as newsgater that integrates with an e-mail client such as outlook and now browsers have support for rss feeds whcih makes this software redundant.

zridling reviewed v1.6 Beta 3 on Aug 27, 2005

Yo, what thockam said.

thockam reviewed v1.6 Beta 3 on Aug 25, 2005

point: it would have been far better if you had open sourced your v1.5 prior to moving on to v1.6. All persons who had paid already would have option for free upgrade or go with the open source version.

used to be I liked using your software and you had a real connection (professional and personal). Now, I just uninstall your stuff (topstyle too) and say: "hmmm, just another example of someone who does not have self discipline or loyalty"

What next? In fact, I don't really care...you know longer signify in my arena...

guti reviewed v1.6 Beta 2 on Jul 24, 2005

For me it was the best feed reader, and still continues to be.

But the pay per subscription model, after been sold to newsgator, does not like to me.

ibod reviewed v1.6 Beta 2 on Jul 24, 2005

amen brother.
Sold down the tube, just like homesite was before it.

zridling reviewed v1.6 Beta 2 on Jul 24, 2005

[deadmonkey]: "...3 months ago everyone (well everyone who used the FD forums) were begging Nick to support NewsGator..."

Well, that's not true. Only Newsgator subscribers who were using FeedDemon wanted it. As a registered FeedDemon user, the point is I paid for something which is now ruined, and I feel screwed. I asked for a refund, but of course, now that Nick has gone corporate, I was promptly told to go to hell. And here you are you're singing from the same page.

Here's the reality: FeedDemon is dead. Period. RSS readers like RSS Bandit, GreatNews, and Blogbridge have not only risen to the occasion, but guess what — will sync your feeds to any server [un]like NewsGator — ONLY FOR FREE! So what does that make FeedDemon? Deadware. Only a bonified rube would pay for NewsGator. And those crazy enough to pay for an RSS feed — which is free — are the same ones who think we ought to pay for email by the message. Do you "pay" for FileForum's RSS feed, too, or is it really too much effort to click the XML button at the bottom of the page? (Man, I'm exhausted just scrolling that far.)

As for Nick Bradbury giving FeedDemon users a "free" 2-year Newsgator subscription, that's bunk, too. Why did Newsgator want my credit card and say they are "pre-charging" it two years in advance when the subscription ends? And when I wouldn't give it up, this beta choked, crashed, and burned. Good ol' Nick told us we were getting a free subscription. Problem is, I don't WANT any subscription or subscriptionware. Newsgator has taken something really simple and made it so complicated that not even Nick himself can figure out how to make it work. I'm not making this up — check the Newsgator forum for the thousands of angry posts.

Nick Bradbury killed his golden goose to get all the eggs and now his software is trashed along with his integrity. (Don't forget TopStyle Pro was sold off as well, and hasn't see an update for a long time, if it's not killed off by Newsgator soon.) When you're a sellout, it's always worth it to betray your paying customers, and as one all I got out of the whole sad scene was sucker punched and robbed. Thanks for nothing, and just to retaliate, I won't be buying any Girl Scout cookies this year either — I'll tell them "Newsgator Nick" stole my cookie money!

deadmonkey reviewed v1.6 Beta 2 on Jul 23, 2005

Update: zridling: If you like all those other programs then why did you buy FD in the first place? Also if you don't like what Nick has done with FeedDemon why not stick with 1.5? Before NewsGator and Nick teamed up Nick was going to be working on 2.0 which you would have had to pay for like most software, the only difference is that 2.0 will now be a NewsGator product. Don't like it? Go use another program like you are telling us to do. Also looks like your idea about TopStyle being forgotten doesn't really hold now that a new beta for TopStyle is out ;)

----------

I like the new version of FD. I was a little unsure about the whole NewsGator thing but it seems to be going ok so far.

FeedDemon will still work without a NewsGator subscription but will require a free NewsGator account which I am fine with (easier to remember a username than a serial!).

You can see it from a negative point of view which is what most people seem to do on here (and I understand why) but I have been looking at it from a positive point of view. Firstly I was thinking of buying the Outlook plugin from NewsGator for use at work and now I get it as a bonus for buying FeedDemon! Secondly FeedDemon 2.0 would have meant more money as only minor updates for FD were free (which is the way it has always been) but now when FD 2.0 gets released I will get it as part of my 2 years NewsGator subscription :) Who knows I might even get FD 3.0 ;)

I really like FD and I am looking forward to the future it has with NewsGator. I don't feel cheated as a customer at all and I think everyone who is saying it is now crap don't really have any reason to say that as 1.6 only adds to the features of 1.5. If you don't like the sync stuff don't use it.

One thing that I find _really_ funny is that 3 months ago everyone (well everyone who used the FD forums) were begging Nick to support NewsGator and Bloglines and when he takes it one step further and solves all of the sync requests everyone wants they all b**** at him calling him a sell out. It doesn't make any sense! Say NewsGator were not a part of this and Nick made his own web based system which synced with FD and required a subscription (which he gives to current users for 2 years) would you all still complain? Doubt it.

ArabianNight reviewed v1.6 Beta 2 on Jul 23, 2005

only a dummy would pay for a newsreader.

Diam0nd reviewed v1.6 Beta 2 on Jul 23, 2005

TomasF you are a cheap i-sell-my-ass-for-a-buck bas****. You sold a good prog and now you making a bloatware outta it? Now we all have to subscribe for a pay-service? Go to hell man.

This program was one of the best and WAS rising to the top. Now, its a highway to hell.

dougk49 reviewed v1.6 Beta 2 on Jul 22, 2005

Actually, it may still be unreleased, but it's still better (for me) than the beta 1! At least it doesn't keep regurgitating old articles.

TomasF reviewed v1.6 Beta 2 on Jul 22, 2005

"FeedDemon 1.6 Beta 2 NOT released!

Somehow BetaNews found a copy of FeedDemon 1.6 Beta 2 on my site and linked to it.

Unfortunately, this wasn't the final beta 2 build - it was just a private build I made for a few testers. As such, it's definitely not stable..."

http://nick.typepad.com/...07/feeddemon_16_be.html

Just to follow up:
--begin quote--
Reviewer: Diam0nd Jul 23, 2005
Version: 1.6 Beta 2

TomasF you are a cheap i-sell-my-ass-for-a-buck bas****. You sold a good prog and now you making a bloatware outta it? Now we all have to subscribe for a pay-service? Go to hell man.
--end quote--

I think this goes to show - don't take drugs, kids. Now, I don't know what this guys on, but a combination of LSD and minimal intelligence seems credible. What I posted was a quote... notice the funny-looking little " in the beginning and end? With the reference to the authors blog? Goood, now repeat after me: "A quotation is a fragment of a human expression that is being referred to by somebody else" Ooooh, there's another one! This time from wikipedia!

So I didn't create FeedDemon, and I didn't sell it. But thanks for the namecalling just the same. Now to take some of the other interesting points. Do you even know what bloatware is? The so-called beta 2 installer is 100KB larger than the 1.5 installer. and that's a beta build. Which makes it a monstrous almost half of Firefox.

I can't help wonder if this guy is representative of most of the people here, just worse at hiding it. Anyway, for what it's worth I think Nick made a bad move. I'm not sure I'll continue to use FeedDemon, and I'm already evaluating my alternatives for Topstyle Pro, which is sad for someone who registered Homesite with Nick back in 1996. But this is nothing to go jumping off a bridge over or start namecalling and acting like baboons for. No wait, idiot namcallers like Diam0nd here can go jump off a bridge, it's ok. We'll manage. Get a grip, people

TomasF reviewed v1.6 Beta 1 on Jul 18, 2005

This guy is deluded.
||
\/

Try it yourself, or better - wait for the next beta - due out later this week. The current beta has several activation issues and some other early beta bugs (as stressed clearly in the release notes).

newsgutor reviewed v1.6 Beta 1 on Jul 18, 2005

Dear my friend, Feeddemon is dead after it was bought by newsgator. It is a nwsgator online subscription server based appendage.
We consumer need to show some point. Not just simply let those corporations does whatever they want. They have the captial, They can buy feeddmon. For me it’s like I bought feeddemon I bought the house and I own the house. I am the landlord. Suddently after newsgator bought the house, feeddemon goes activated by paid newsgator online account instead of the key number I bought. I became a tenant not a landlord in my own house–feeddemon. Cause the upgrade policy is that I can have all the feeddemon minor upgrade untill 2.0 version. Now, everytime I reinstall feeddemon I need a paid-online newsgator account to activate it. It’s a monthly bill also.
Hi my friend,I want to tell you something about nick’s promising is a lie:
feeddemon won’t work after your subscribtion runs out.
To prove this point, I already did a experiment. I used my credit card to updgrade my account to business standard. Then I installd feeddemon 1.6beta fine when I activated it with my business standard account.
Then I canceled my subscribition in the trail period, tried to reinstall my whole system including windows and feeddemon 1.6beta. Again feeddemon needed me to put my account to active it. But this time it wasn’t activated. Cause my account wasn’t a paid account anymore.
So nick is lieing about once you own feeddemon, you own it forever.
If you don’t reinstall your windows, off course feeddemon will be fine even after your subscription runs out. But who can guarantee you won’t need to reinstall your windows. For exemple, you system is scrwed up by virus and then you need to reinstall your whole system, then again you won’t be able to activate without a paid newsgator account. Since newsgator server can’t tell the diffrence between ex-paid customer and never-paid customer.
So I can't protect my investment on the feeddemon againast all oods!
Answering me, my dear listening frind.

I spend two hours to reinstall my system and just want to prove nick’s promise and protect myself own and the rest hardcore feeddemon’s fan’s invesment on a piece of software we used to like so much.
The fact is that:
Why you put yourself into this unpredicatable pain.
Feeddemon already died as a stand alone news reader. Cause it’s gonna be newsgator paid service’s add-on. Newsgator is not a software company. They sell the service. Ridiculously the service is about that you need to pay to see your feeds even when feeds is everywhere these days.
They bought feeddemon. They ain’t plan to sell the feeddemon software but to kill feeddemon market. It’s like if you wanna use feeddemon after this you are gonna paid for newsgator’s feeds subscibing service. If you won’t paid for it, you won’t see your feeds synchronized anymore.
This is exactly pain in the ass. They rent the software to you to let you see the feeds you paid for but you can read somewhere else for free?
Is this logical?
So if you don’t want to rent the software for ever and never own it, it’s time to leave feeddemon now. It’s soon or later. Cause they don’t even use serial number to activate product anymore. You need to use your paid online newsgator account to activate it. So nick’s post about rethinking is a lie. You don’t have a paid account, you won’t able to activate feeddemon after you subscribition expires. Cause you don’t have a paid newsgator account anymore. If your computer screws up one day, you need to reinstall your whole system including feeddemon but you won’t be able to activate it in that period of time without a paid newsgator online account.
What you gonna do then? Or other situations similar like this.
It’s time to screw up feeddemon as a stand alone newsgator for now. Cause its core is rotten now. It’s not a software anymore. It’s a door in the desktop environment you need to pay to pass to see the feeds free everywhere else just like newsgator outlook edition is not a software anymore but a door in the outlook environment you need to pay to pass to see the feeds free everywhere else.
This is newsgator’s plan: kill you free pass in the desktop via feeddemon to news and rss and free pass in the outlook environment via outlook newsgator addon. Instead they build up two doors for you to rent to pass. At the end, news and rss is not free anymore. You need to pay to see it.
Feeddemon is dead as a software. It’s a server based appendage like newsgator outlook version, it’s like you need to pay to receive hotmail via outlook. But outlook still allow you to receive other email service like yahoo, feeddemon is newsgator server based only and won’t allow you to use any other service other than newsgator.monopoly.
It’s time for some other news aggregators to take over the empty space left by feeddemon and newgator in desktop and outlook news aggregator market.
Here they rise:Greatnews,intraVnews ,blogbot,rssowl,Awasu,Attensa!
Check out greatnews man(http://www.curiostudio.com/).
There’s 4 major reasons why I love it:
1. It synchronizes with bloglins. Folder hierarchy is synchronized between Bloglines and Greatnews as well. you feel really comfortable to organize your feeds. You know how it sucks for feeddemon to synchronize with bloglines. Cause feeddemon only imports opml from bloglines without Folder hierarchy at all. So it’s a very hard for me to find a specfic feed and to organize those feeds. In all the desktop news clients, Greatnews’s synchronization with bloglines leaves rest news aggregators in dust. It’s like use outlook express to receive hotmail. Once you receive all the news from bloglines server in greatnews, all the news will be flagged read on bloglines online edition.If you love bloglines, you feel at home.
2. It’s extremely small. It only takes 800kb or so to install. You can even install it on a usb flash drive or even a floppy disk. So you take it everywhere to connect to Pc to use it. How cool is that?! It’s like you have yourself own mini newsgator server which can gurantee you won’t read the same news twice.
3. It runs with only a tiny memory and cpu engaged. So you won’t even notice it when it updates news in the background.
Above all it’s free.
There are still some sweet points about greatnews I can tell you below just in case you can put a relevant review in your website to let more people to be aware of a sweet piece of software, to less their pain of losing feeddemon.Here we go:
* 100% Unicode support. Displays international languages on the same page. Use any languages anywhere in GreatNews, including Search, Label and News watch. Like I read japanese news to do a research, greatnews displays all these south asian news so well including japanese, Chinese, whatevernese. Feeddemon can’t do this . As far as I know, feeddemon can’t support hebrew news,japanese news, and chinese news well.
** Full text search with keyword highlights. It’s very productive when you consider get things done.
* Integrated internet browser, with popup blocking. Working closely with default browser like Firefox. A kill point to please firefox fan.
* “Channel Organizer” helps organize channel subscriptions in one place. Use “Find Channel” to locate your subscriptions quickly. Again a great get things done tool.
* With Import/Export wizard, you can import/export all channel subscriptions in a single step.
* Export rss articles to rss 2.0 format. You can also customize the export by selecting channel/group/label, and/or applying filters.
*you can use ’search channel’ to keep eyes on special subject like ‘Ipod’, Like using feeddemon’s search channel and newsgator’s smart feeds. The difference is that smart feeds isn’t free but greatnews is.

It’s a such a sweet software. Even it’s roughly half an year old with its debut in 02/18/2005. Very promising. We won’t miss feeddemon that much.

The developers makes such a blowing software to offer it to the world free. I think as a strong believer in good software and unbeliever in subscription-based software, we should offer a little help to these generous and talented dudes.I’m a hugh fan of your The Great Software List. We can spread the words. Just like in the explorer, we spread firefox. In the Rss world, we should spread software like greatnews against newsgator evil software subscribtion model.
Greatnews is a very strong desktop newsreader. Even On the server side, it has a strong bloglins synchronization api even when you say this api is not perfect, but at least it’s free and still improved. It can compete newsgator in two categories: on the desktop news aggregator environment, and on the server api category which is a very strong api supported by bloglines. It’s like you can use outlook express to receive hotmail without going hotmail plus.
Such a promising and helpful software shouldn’t die without our support. If that’s the plan, we will have no place to turn to but evil subscribtion like newsgator since they already bought the so-called best desktop news agregator feeddeon. I always remembr that day as a sad day and a betray when nick gave up hard-core feeddemon fans like me to surrender to newsgator corporate money promising future. Since then, the destiny child of desktop news aggregator market died!

I am not doing any favor for any other newsgators. It’s newsgator itself kill their market. Nick broke his hardcore fans’s heart. I was feeling homeless in Rss World Once I test feeddemon 1.6 beta. I once own my house, now I rent it. I am homeless. I want to own my house. That’s why I start looking.

The way we leave a disapointed business is the way we customer show those greedy corporation our point. Their intension is maximumizing their profit. Like newsgator, instead of selling software, they rent them. They are the landdord, we aren’t. They are very smart to explain how cheap the new subcription model is. It sounds like they are charity. We aren’t idiot. We all know that it requires more money to buy a house rather than rent a house in a short term. But in the long run, we lose money when we keep renting house. Landdord is always the winner.

Microsoft charge you when you receive your hotmail via outlook, but you still can choose not to,cause there are some very other nice email service you can use with outlook. Newsgator don’t even give you a choice. This is a big ignorance to customer’s needs. Imagine one day microsoft start activate windows with a pre-paid microsoft passport account. I tell you what. I am gonna be the first one to jump on apple’s ship. But microsoft are smart enought not to destroy themself like that. Obviously newsgator can’t see the point. They are too eager to maxmumizing their profit as a pretending-to-be-kind landlord. Too greedy to not hurt customer’s heart.

Leave them let them feel pain. If they see us gone and lose the money they’re supposed to make. They maybe appoligize for their mistake and correct it. Untill that day, it’s time to say bye-bye.

Newsgator listen, don't try to put your hands in my pocket forever. A monthly bill? I am not loving it.

ibod reviewed v1.6 Beta 1 on Jul 14, 2005

what he says
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zridling reviewed v1.6 Beta 1 on Jul 14, 2005

Nick Bradbury sold out to Newsgator and the result so far has been horrific for registered FeedDemon users. When you upgrade, Newsgator pre-charges your credit card two years in advance of the current subscription! Newsgator's business model is unsustainable now that several RSS readers offer FREE server synching (such as BlogBridge, et al.). Now his last two updates won't even install. Not only do we not have FeedDemon anymore, its creator can't even make it work with Newsgator. Look elsewhere folks, this is a textbook example of how greed ruins something great. Check out Newsgator's FeedDemon forum for the whole debacle.

zridling reviewed v1.5 on Feb 10, 2005

Strong Podcasting features along with interface tweaks make FeedDemon indispensable to my daily life!

Noogle reviewed v1.5 RC3 on Jan 27, 2005

This app has one SERIOUS shortcoming - the ability to view all the items of a category in a list, not a newspaper (ala Saucereader). The only way to do this is to go by the individual feeds, which can be retroactive if you read a huge variety of feeds every day.

Saucereader actually mathces this app (and is equally memeory hungry), though the ability here to organise feed items to specific bins for later reference is useful.

deadmonkey reviewed v1.5 Beta 4 on Dec 23, 2004

I have been using FeedDemon for a year now and love it. It is not only the best RSS aggregator but it is one of my most used applications. The development is very open and it is nice to see the developer get genuinly excited about new features such as PodCasting support.

Memory usage is very dependant on how the user uses the application. If the user has loads of channels in a group and uses the newspaper style it will use a lot of RAM as that is a HUGE amount of data. However if the user breaks channels and groups down to smaller chunks the memory usage will be much lower.

30MB of RAM these days is pretty standard for "web" applications.

All in all an excellent application. Always very stable and does the job well. With the new features in 1.5 such as Podcast support with FeedStation it has been excellent value for money. Also an excellent community of users and outstanding support this program is a must to all users who want to bring the internet to them.

apalmer reviewed v1.5 Beta 2 on Oct 31, 2004

I've tried several aggregators, both Web-based and stanalone apps. FeedDemon is without doubt the best.

zridling reviewed v1.5 Beta 2 on Oct 26, 2004

An elegant, powerful solution for RSS feeds, and best of all, it's customizable. It only takes up 2.4Mb of memory on my system, however, and has never been a memory hog.

foobah reviewed v1.5 Beta 2 on Oct 26, 2004

If only FD would allow the folders/groups in bloglines to be downloaded / respected this could rock. Instead, I'm sticking with bloglines/w browser, even on my home pc for now.

Pizda reviewed v1.5 Beta 1a on Oct 15, 2004

Good app. Eats RAM for lunch. If memory is not an issue this is the best RSS reader out there. On my laptop however, memory is scarce, and this proggie (when active) eats on average of 30MB of RAM. On a machine with 256 RAM, that's a hefty amount. I still use it on my desktop PC with 1GB of RAM, but for my laptop, I have to seek out an alternative.

deadmonkey reviewed v1.5 Beta 1 on Sep 29, 2004

Thunderbird's RSS support is ok for the casual user however FeedDemon is the tool if you want to _use_ RSS not just read a few feeds.

FeedDemon is an excellent program from an excellent developer. Each release only gets better.

THZGryphon reviewed v1.5 Beta 1 on Sep 29, 2004

This is a great program. Very clean, shows the feeds with great formatting. Never had any problems.

mosimea, did you even try the program? Not sure what any of your review had to do with the quality of the program as it is offered.

mosimea reviewed v1.5 Beta 1 on Sep 29, 2004

Can't see firing up a separate app when the RSS integration in Thunderbird works great. Nice to sit down with the morning coffee, fire up Thunderbird and check email and updated feeds from my fav sites.

Oh, and it's free too.

zridling reviewed v1.5 Beta 1 on Sep 29, 2004

Limit yourself to free software and the software you use will always be third-rate quality. FeedDemon is consistently updated in response to users' wishes and needs and it's super fast. If you want quality, don't be cheapskate and spend $30. You'll thank yourself later.

kmleow reviewed v1.11.3 on Sep 11, 2004

This software is good but if you were to compare this with RSS Bandit (which is free), I think FeedDemon is a loser. $29.95 is way too expensive.

isaacg reviewed v1.10 RC5a on Jun 9, 2004

Good software, but the interface is rather awkward for managing lots of feeds. I'd suggest RSS Bandit or Sauce Reader over this, especially since they are free.

Ragle Gumm reviewed v1.0 on Dec 24, 2003

Awesome!!! One of the few programs that are a "must have".

Itan2003 reviewed v1.0 RC4 on Nov 19, 2003

Verry good software! Great!

Kemal69 reviewed v1.0 RC1 on Oct 20, 2003

Who knew RSS feeds could be so easy to read and use. Hats off!

ark2000 reviewed v1.0 RC1 on Oct 19, 2003

I hate Nick, I just bought Samsung 191t and I thought I'm all set, but nooooo this guy had to create this great piece of software and now my monitor is not wide enough. Now I have a reason to work my a** off to get the 23inch Sony monster. That's my only complaint about this software.

Invulnerabile reviewed v1.0 RC1 on Oct 18, 2003

Shareware? LOL

apalmer reviewed v1.0 Beta 2A on Jul 20, 2003

Easily the best aggregator around, with loads of user-friendly features. Be warned that there is no help file yet, so if RSS is a closed book to you you might do best to drop by Nick's newsgroup at news://news.bradsoft.com/feeddemonbeta before running it.

fusewerx reviewed v1.0 Beta 2A on Jul 7, 2003

Holy cow, Nick has done it again. Easily the best looking RSS aggregator around, and finally a replacement for my Avant Browser "News" group that I open six or seven times a day.