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16-Year-Old RSS Reader App NetNewsWire Returns To Founder Brent Simmons, Who Promises To Keep It Free and Open Source and Release v5.0 Soon (medium.com)

Black Pixel, which acquired popular Mac RSS reader app NetNewsWire in 2011, announced this week that the brand name is returning to the founder Brent Simmons. From the announcement: Since acquiring NetNewsWire from Newsgator in 2011, we've invested a great deal in the continued development and support of the product suite including the addition of a free sync service. Unfortunately, the ongoing cost of support and feature development for these products require more dedicated resources than we are able to provide. With that in mind, today we are removing all versions of the app from sale. We'll continue to run the sync service for another 60 days, then take it offline at the end of October. Brent Simmons, who founded the app, shared what he plans to do with the brand name: [...] I want to thank them [Black Pixel] for a second thing: their incredible generosity in bringing it back to me. When I asked them about it, they told me they'd already been discussing it. There was never a need to convince them: they thought it was the right thing to do before I even said a word.

[...] You probably know that I've been working on a free and open source reader named Evergreen. Evergreen 1.0 will be renamed NetNewsWire 5.0 -- in other words, I've been working on NetNewsWire 5.0 all this time without knowing it! It will remain free and open source, and it will remain my side project. (By day I'm a Marketing Human at The Omni Group, and I love my job.) Black Pixel will stop selling their versions of the app, and will turn off the syncing system and end customer support -- all of which is detailed in their announcement. (Important note: I will not get any customer data from them, nor will I be doing support for Black Pixel's NetNewsWire.)

I want one thing: to make the very best versions of NetNewsWire ever made. And, along the way, I'd love to have your help. Nothing to Download Yet I don't actually have an app bearing the name NetNewsWire ready to download yet. I will have test versions ready soon, though. It's still going to be a while before the final version of 5.0 ships.
The Mac community has been thrilled about the announcement. Daniel Jalkut, founder of blogging tool MarsEdit, said, "I appreciate Black Pixel's decision to return NetNewsWire to Brent Simmons. It was the right move strategically, but also very humanistic." Federico Viticci, a prolific blogger on Apple ecosystem, said, "Congrats Brent Simmons on bringing NetNewsWire home. The Mac can use a modern RSS reader that can stand the test of time." John Gruber, a columnist on Apple ecosystem, said, "Black Pixel did a great job taking over NetNewsWire, but times change, and companies change. Handing the NetNewsWire name back to Brent was a classy move, but completely unsurprising to me, knowing George and the other folks at Black Pixel."

18 comments

  1. Sadly, I've seen less and less RSS support by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Many local news sites that I like have discontinued it totally. Probably a lot fewer people are using it, and the trend of "Americanizing" content away from text towards video isn't helping.

    1. Re:Sadly, I've seen less and less RSS support by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And a lot of the text is quoted tweets. SAD!

    2. Re:Sadly, I've seen less and less RSS support by OrangeTide · · Score: 4, Interesting

      If a website doesn't support RSS, then I they don't make my daily reading list. It doesn't mean I don't use websites that lack RSS, but I don't use them every day.

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    3. Re:Sadly, I've seen less and less RSS support by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2

      If a website doesn't support RSS, then I they don't make my daily reading list. It doesn't mean I don't use websites that lack RSS, but I don't use them every day.

      Yeah, it's a shame how many really good news sources have now dropped RSS. This is especially evident in media sites. I used to be able to use RSS to follow my favorite podcasts, but just in the past few weeks, major podcast publishers have done something that breaks that support. They want to push you to iTunes or Google Play or some other garbage.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    4. Re:Sadly, I've seen less and less RSS support by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

      The simple answer is money. It's hard to inject advertisements and track browsers into an RSS feed. They really want you to point your browser at their site so that Google and others can track you and make a few pennies per view.

      I've started doing the Patreon thing for a few Podcasts. I don't mind kicking over a few bucks a month for stuff I enjoy. Maybe I'm a hippie at heart, but voluntary payment feels better to me than the psychological warfare that modern internet capitalism has turned into.

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    5. Re:Sadly, I've seen less and less RSS support by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      I've started doing the Patreon thing for a few Podcasts.

      Sure, I support the podcasts I listen to on Patreon. The problem is, all the ones that use the Podcast One service to distribute their podcasts now has broken RSS. I don't know what they hell they did, but when I try to subscribe, it actually makes my RSS application crash in some cases.

      This Podcast One is the devil. You can't even download the episodes individually from the website any more.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
  2. Wow, that's a big presence on the front page by drinkypoo · · Score: 2, Insightful

    That's a lot of text to put on the front page for an application that about five people worldwide care about.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    1. Re:Wow, that's a big presence on the front page by that+this+is+not+und · · Score: 1

      Hey! Apple really does care about the Mac. They aren't ready to port Xcode to linux and shut it down just yet!

    2. Re:Wow, that's a big presence on the front page by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Go drink poo, asshole.

  3. AAPL Services Revenue by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ..how long before this gets in its way and gets its "air supply" is cut-off?
    https://www.wired.com/1999/01/asphyxiate-netscape-never/

    1. Re:AAPL Services Revenue by fyonn · · Score: 1

      what are you talking about?

    2. Re:AAPL Services Revenue by rojash · · Score: 1

      SD is about clowns who gots friend clowns who upvote their clown articles. Given up on posting any new ones here...worse than FB if you axe me.

    3. Re:AAPL Services Revenue by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      AAPL has to keep money coming in as people get slower about upgrading their hardware. Their plan is to increase revenue from Services, which includes services like News and Podcasts today and everything else tomorrow. Maybe they do their own commercial service that consumes RSS/ATOM and blasts it out using an app that doesn't need no stinkin' competition? Maybe I'm just paranoid and there is some other future where they're able to keep pulling in trucks of money so earnings per share and price to earnings multiples on their stock don't fall to levels that cause a valuation crisis.

      On second thought, nah let's go with the clowns who upvote their clowns theory rofl.

  4. Re:16-year-olds are HOT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why was this modded down? Imbeciles.

  5. Hah! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A day late & a dollar short.

  6. NOBODY CARES! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just sayin'.

  7. This article has a really catchy headline. by nukenerd · · Score: 1

    NC