I’ve historically used FeedDemon, an old RSS reader from the stone ages for Windows that does a good job but is generally a little resource heavy.
Today, I discovered this really cool RSS Reader for Windows desktops: “Mishra Reader” – a Free Metro-styled WPF RSS reader for Windows.
It has several benefits and a couple drawbacks:
- The “Metro” interface is smooth as glass. The Windows Presentation Foundation experience is really awesome and well done. It feels cooooool to use. I hope they make the jumpt to HTML5/Javascript in Windows 8!
- The application is really easy on the eyes in terms of reading. It’s not hard to consume the text.
- There are SysTray notifications that show up in the taskbar when you get new feeds in.
- It REQUIRES Google Reader accounts and can’t just consume OPML files. I don’t understand why people write software that mandates that you use a web service when OPML works just fine. Silly.
- Free!
Give it a try. I think this may be my newly adopted news reader!
- DOWNLOAD: Mishra Reader – Free Metro-styled WPF RSS Reader for Windows
http://mishrareader.codeplex.com/
(Incidentally, it’s co-developed by David Catuhe, a Microsoft employee that blogs at http://blogs.msdn.com/eternalcoding)