this post was submitted on 13 Apr 2026
28 points (100.0% liked)

Free and Open Source Software

22237 readers
115 users here now

If it's free and open source and it's also software, it can be discussed here. Subcommunity of Technology.

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
Gaywallet@beehaw.org
alyaza@beehaw.org
28
Looking for a desktop RSS feed reader for Linux (piefed.social)
submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by CptHacke@piefed.social to c/foss@beehaw.org
16 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I used to adore the Feedbro extension for Firefox - until I learned that browser extensions are a privacy concern and stopped using them. Unfortunately, I've been unable to find anything similar for the Linux desktop. I just can't seem to find the 'sweet spot' with all the readers I've tried. Some are bloated with features and complicated configurations that I will never use. Others are too simplistic. Still others haven't seen an update in years. I feel like this is an impossible quest.

The readers I have tried (and discarded):

  • Liferea
  • RSS Guard
  • News Flash
  • Feeds
  • Feed Deck
  • Feed Flow
  • Akregator
  • Thunderbird
  • Raven Reader

Here are the features I need:

  • FOSS (obviously)
  • Import/export OPML
  • Scale the size of the UI and all text elements
  • RSS feed discovery
  • Fetch full articles
  • Configure update interval
  • Privacy-conscious
  • Desktop only (I am currently unable to self-host)

Things that would be nice, but I can live without if I have to:

  • Dark mode
  • An uncluttered, two-column display

That's about it. Now tell me that I am asking too much and there's no hope for me. :D

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] minfapper@piefed.social 3 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Or miniflux if it is. It's efficient, fast, and I like the interface better.

[–] CptHacke@piefed.social 6 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Is this something that a complete newbie would be able to do?

[–] nykula@piefed.social 7 points 2 days ago (2 children)

For FreshRSS, if you want to run the development version on localhost:

  1. apt update && apt install build-essential git

  2. Install Docker: https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/ubuntu/

  3. Clone FreshRSS repository, run make start and finish the installation: https://freshrss.github.io/FreshRSS/en/developers/02_First_steps.html

[–] CptHacke@piefed.social 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

That seems simple enough. I'll give it a shot. Much appreciated!

[–] minfapper@piefed.social 2 points 1 day ago

Installation for MiniFlux is similar, once you have docker installed you run the long ass docker command from their documentation:

https://miniflux.app/docs/docker.html

I personally prefer the approach they mention in the Docker Compose section of that page though, for long term maintenance.