Brief: A lightweight open-source RSS reader for desktop Linux with all the essential features.
Personally, I utilize services like Feedly to keep up with the latest happenings across the globe. But, it is a web-based service offering some optional premium features that I may never require.
So, I looked at some feed reader apps available for Linux and QuiteRSS seemed like an impressive solution as an alternative to web-based services.
In this article, I’m going to share a few key highlights about QuiteRSS along with my experience with it.
QuiteRSS: A simple RSS reader for Linux desktop
QuiteRSS is a quite useful open-source feed reader that is absolutely free and easy to use. Yes, all you need to do is just grab the ULR of the feed and add it.
It has most of the essential features that you would expect from a standard desktop-based RSS reader. This includes offline reading. You can download articles of your choice in a click and read it later even if you are not connected to the internet.
Don’t worry about adding RSS feeds one by one in QuiteRSS. The Good thing is that you can import feed list in OPML file format and add a bunch of RSS sources without making lots of efforts.
You can ‘add star’ to articles or add labels to them for organizing it better.
As you can already notice from the screenshot above that it offers a minimal user experience, let me also mention some of the other features that you get with it.
Features of QuiteRSS
Embedded BrowserFeed and news filtersUser labelsUser filtersTheme options (Dark/others)Ability to customize fonts and colorsSystem tray icon supportProxy configuration (optional)Feed import wizardAutomatic update feed on startupMark/Unmark Import/Export feeds (OPML files)Pop up notification on updatesSound notification supportQuick news filterQuick search featureCross-platformPortable version (Windows)
In a nutshell, starting with filtering the feed to cleaning it up, you get all the useful abilities. You can also configure a proxy if that’s what you need.
The embedded browser is really helpful to prevent switching back and forth to check out any linked resources in the feed stories.
Considering it as a feature-rich cross-platform feed reader, every feature listed should come in handy.
Installing QuiteRSS on Linux
QuiteRSS is available in the universe repository of Ubuntu and you can install it using the following command:
sudo apt install quiterss
You might not get the latest version all the time from Ubuntu’s repositories. For that, you can easily add the official PPA in Ubuntu-based distributions:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:quiterss/quiterss
sudo apt update
sudo apt install quiterss
It is also available to install on Fedora using the default repository. In addition to that, you can use Pacman command to install QuiteRSS on Arch Linux or get it from AUR.
You can refer the official installation instructions to get started. If you’re curious, you can also check out their GitHub page.
My experience with QuiteRSS
It is a simple feed reader with a clean user experience. You do not get a rich formatting for the RSS feed you follow but it is good enough for readable experience.
I find the ability to add labels quite useful to be able to filter out the stories I’ve read and enjoyed. For some reason, whenever I minimize the application or switch the workspace, the application closes automatically. It does appear in the system tray, but I do want it to stay active unless I manually minimize it or close it.
So, I have to re-launch every time I move from it. If you face this issue, you might want to head on to their GitHub page to raise a new issue (unless they are already working on a reported issue).
The ability to switch themes (especially having a dark theme) is fantastic. You can also customize the fonts and colors to tweak the experience of your feed. Overall, it is a great feed reader to have on Linux.
If you use QuiteRSS extensively or like the idea of this open source software, please consider making a donation to the project on the developer’s website.
Have you tried it already? What do you think about QuiteRSS? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
