Commafeed: An Open Source Google Reader Clone | Hacker News Reader

Commafeed: An Open Source Google Reader Clone

github.com

66 pointsjosegonzalez24 comments

Here's my take on Reader replacements. I want a web app, with a mobile web version. I don't want an app, mostly because I frequently open articles in tabs. I also want a hosted option, or a dead-simple way to run it without setting up my own server, virtual(ized) or otherwise.

Feedly is not a web app. It's a browser extension.

I wanted to use Newsblur before Reader was discontinued, but it never made sense to me -- way too complicated. Also, no mobile web. I like their business model, though.

The Old Reader works well enough for me to suggest it to my girlfriend and mom, but I don't like all the space the navigation bars take up and I don't need/want the social/sharing features. Also not open source. I do like the responsive/mobile layout.

FeedHQ is an interesting change from the Reader-clones, and I like the mobile version. Still hasn't added an oldest-first option though, and sometimes miss being able skim through articles Reader-like instead of viewing either titles or single articles. Other plusses: open source, python, no social (yet?).

Commafeed was a little rough when I first saw it, but overall I like it the best so far. The OpenShift instructions look very doable (just have to try them). Needs: mobile view, optimization. (Both on the Github issues list already.)

Sounds like you might like my reader: https://github.com/swanson/stringer. No social features by design and if you've got a heroku account you can have it deployed in under 5 min.

Now this does look quite nice. I'm a Reeder user and the current plan for me is to transition to Feedbin once Google Reader shuts down.

The Reeder developer has mentioned that he plans to add more services to the application but I don't know based on what. If Stringer is compatible at some point with Reeder you've got yourself a happy customer.

If things weren't so unclear concerning the APIs etc that the Reeder developer wants to use I would have started working on a patch right now myself. The Feedbin API is documented here: https://github.com/feedbin/feedbin-api#readme so that could be a good reference point.

I agree 100%. I've started to clone the Fever API (a very strange beast...) so that you could use ReederApp - but I think the FeedBin API is much better so I will probably add that as well. Someone has also started a "standard" feed API format: https://github.com/redwallhp/SOFA - would be nice if some of the client apps would support this.

Will Stringer get a two column/three pane view (e.g., similar to Mail.app, NetNewsWire) any time soon?

Not likely. Through you are welcome to fork and hack it all you want. :)

How about a skinning/theming system? Would make this far simpler and less fork-y.

I just got around to trying Stringer. Great job. I've said this before, but right now, this is my favorite!

First, I can confirm the install on Heroku was indeed only a 5-minute job for me — an intermediate-advanced OS X/Linux command-line user, but not (yet) a developer, and not a previous Heroku user.

I need to use it for a few days to make sure, but at first glance I love the simple interface. It's like Google Reader's full-screen mode, but with a decently narrow reading column. The font size and line-height aren't my absolute favorite, but since I'm self-hosting I can just change the CSS! (I will have to learn how to update the stylesheets and still be able to keep updated to the current version. Maybe a good time to learn git?) Mobile web works OK and hopefully will get better: https://github.com/swanson/stringer/issues/7

What about http://www.rivered.io? It's not really the same as Google Reader because it is just a River of News instead, but I think that's worth a try, as everyone is very stuck in their ways with Google Reader and I think there's more to RSS than that one paradigm.

(I made it)

Looks nice but I'll stick to self-hosted readers now.

I've tried river-of-news style readers, but it doesn't fit how I use RSS. I only subscribe to feeds when I want to read, or at least have the option to read, all the posts, and I want to read the posts oldest to newest.

I expect the same things from my RSS Reader. I also liked the Old Reader but had the same problems as you do. I also hated that there was no login option if you don't have a Google or a Facebook account, but there's one now. Having said that, I think the best one out there is feedbin right now. The thing is that most of the new RSS Readers, for whatever reason, do not support folders. I hate that. Having able to tag your feeds is cool, but that's no replacement to having folders. If feedbin had folder support, I'd pay twice as much than they currently want.

The last service I had paid to use was feedwrangler. The UI is OK, but it still had no folder support. Instead, the system had something called "Smart Streams" (or something like that), which is basically like folders, except it's not. I don't understand why would anyone go into trouble of coding that filter rather than just adding folder support (or better yet, do both!). Both of the features basically serve the same purpose.

I actually loved Commafeeds design once I saw it last night on reddit. Their design is simple, they have folder support, they have instapaper support. The only problem is, I know this is gonna sound weird, but it's free. I've learned not to trust the longevity of free online products the hard way. If I invest in using this product and they shut down a year later, that'd be a huge bummer (they also have no export option right now). So while I'm cautiously using Commafeed right now, I'm still patiently waiting for what digg has to offer.

A few additions to the above comment.

• I forgot to mention FeedBin. I like it a lot: it's fast in both UI and fetching feeds, mobile web, and the developer is responsive. I don't like the 3-column interface, however, since I don't really read by category or folders. With the mobile web version the 3-column UI makes it slow to skim through all the feeds. If you like There was also some problems with scrolling using the arrows keys (I think it would move to a new post instead). Not open-source/self-hostable is another negative. (It does use Github, but only for issue tracking.)

• InoReader At first I thought this was a Feedly-esque browser extension because all the links I found were to the Chrome store. I finally tried it, and it is a fast Google Reader clone, kind of like CommaFeed. It's visually a little busy, but the UI is fast with less sedimentation[1] than most. All the social features can be turned off with a single option. Mobile web looks OK. Main downsides: No obvious business model and not open-source/self-hostable.

[1]: http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/201x/2012/01/22/Confusing-...

I've been mainly using FeedHQ, and I was watching CommaFeed for a mobile version and thinking about Inoreader and how important open-source is in my decision ... but since installing Stringer today I may not need to look further. For my first thoughts on Stringer see this comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5734970

This is great, as I'm sure I'm one of many planning to set up a self-hosted RSS reader prior to Google Reader's final closure.

I'd be interested in a feature comparison of CommaFeed with Fever [1] (apart from price). Can anyone comment? Particularly interested in being able to access my feed from multiple devices (desktop, mobile, iPad etc).

[1] http://feedafever.com

> Can anyone comment? Particularly interested in being able to access my feed from multiple devices (desktop, mobile, iPad etc).

Well, I can't speak for CommaFeed, but I'm using Fever on multiple devices. Very happy with it.

I modified the CSS a bit to increase fonts and hide the sidebar, but besides that, it works very well for me on the desktop. Just like Google Reader used to.

For Android, I use Meltdown. For IOS, I use Ashes. Both work very well for what I need.

I've been using Commafeed for a while now to replace Reader, and it's working like a charm.

For my needs it's an excellent fit - I don't have a huge list of RSS feeds, perhaps a dozen that update with any regularity, and a completely run of the mill workflow - check RSS once or twice a day, from my desktop. It completely replicates what I'd come to rely on from Reader.

Except, of course, when a traffic spike brings it down. :(

I like this a lot, but it'll be tough for me to switch without a mobile app like Reeder that supports my own self-hosted CommaFeed. The site/demo itself is crawling for me though.

would love to see reeder integrating this. I asked them, feel free to do so to: https://twitter.com/reederapp

Looks great! Any plans for a mobile layout?

The feedback button lists a mobile layout as a planned feature.

For my purposes this is 100% the perfect replacement for reader.

Looks like it: https://github.com/Athou/commafeed/issues/54

I don't use desktop Reader anymore, I'm looking for an Android home screen widget for reading RSS that works as well as Google Reader's. I like its design, shape/size, and the fact that it pre-downloads the text of articles so I can read while offline in the subway. Any ideas?

Reader's demise has really been great for those of us preferring open source feed readers ;-)

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