As a side note, many of the Mac versions looked very good, but I’m stuck with Windows. :)

On the topic of discussion, I don’t know why I left out Thunderbird, but I left out Firefox because I’ve only known about its “Live Bookmarks” function, which is definitely clever, but not an RSS reader in a particularly useful sense. I never knew about the Sage extension, though, Richard — I’ll definitely have to play with that.

I’ve provided an update that suggests that Thunderbird users just use its RSS functions. Thunderbird adoption rates are sufficiently low right now that I strongly suspect that anybody using it is of a technical skill level that makes them already familiar with RSS. Frankly, I think most Windows users would be best off switching their e-mail to Thunderbird and getting an aggregator while they’re at it, but that’s a different discussion altogether. :)

Firefox and Thurnderbird both live at http://www.mozilla.com/

The only bad Mozilla project is one that hasn’t been made yet.

1) There’s a free version of NetNewsWire that is more than enough for most people. (It’s at the bottom of the NetNewsWire page, linked to above.)

2) You don’t necessarily need to use a separate program. Aside from the web-based readers like Bloglines, you can get extensions for Firefox that will add newsreading capabilities, or use the email client Thunderbird.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – RSS is fundamental to the future of the business web.  Now Waldo has posted an excellent “RSS for Dummies.”

……