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RSS Part 7: QuiteRSS

QuiteRSS is a GUI RSS client that looks promising. It is built on the Qt platform (which probably inspired the name) and includes an embedded WebKit browser.

Impressions

I installed the latest version of QuiteRSS using my package manager:

$ sudo pacman -S quiterss

Unfortunately, the user interface often produces many artifacts on my system. For example, opening a menu causes the menu to be displayed with a lot of static/lines to the point that it is unreadable. When this happens, I have to close the menu and try again until it works. I suspect that this is a problem with my system. I like my system to be as lightweight and fast as possible, so I use the i3 window manager with minimal system services. I bet that QuiteRSS looks fine in a Qt system such as Plasma, but I cannot imagine using such a heavy system again. (Even Xfce feels heavy now!)

When first running the program, it loads the QuiteRSS feed by default. This feed can be deleted (or moved into a folder), so it is not a problem.

I was able to import my OPML file without issue. The hierarchy of folders loaded fine! There were two things that I fixed manually:

  • The folders are not sorted; the user configures the order. After loading the OPML file, the folders were in a pretty random order, so I sorted them manually using drag-and-drop.
  • Feeds are displayed within the folders. Nice! Since they are not displayed in Thunderbird, I have to create a folder per feed. Those folders are imported into QuiteRSS, so I manually removed them.

Note that these are both necessary only because the feeds are imported from my OPML file that was exported from Thunderbird. In the case of starting with QuiteRSS, one would configure the folders and feeds appropriately from the beginning.

Feed titles default to the those specified in the feeds, but users can set a better name when desired. This is the best way to design it, IMHO.

The performance of checking all feeds is reasonable. When items are deleted, they go to a “Deleted” category in the “Categories” pane. One can easily limit searching to titles, making it easy to find a deleted item. Deleted items can be removed manually, or they can be removed as part of the “clean up” process. The clean up process can be configured to run when the program is closed, which is enabled by default. This is a great design!

When displaying an item, clicking on the item title opens the item link in the embedded browser by default. I was able to configure it to use my external browser instead in the configuration, however. When I open an item in my external browser, the focus is automatically switched back to QuiteRSS. I love this feature! (I have to manually switch my focus back to Thunderbird, which is a nuisance.)

Item links can be copied via a right click. Podcast enclosures are displayed using a link titled “Link to audio” and URLs can be copied via a right click. Other links are made easily accessible, which is great!

Item descriptions look fine. Japanese is displayed without issue, tables look good, and images are displayed by default. The default fonts (on my system) looked pretty bad, as they defaulted to Droid fonts for some reason. In particular, the Japanese was not displayed consistently. This issue was easily fixed by configuring the fonts.

While images are displayed by default, there are a lot of great options available! Image loading can be easily toggled using a global setting, but image loading can also be enabled/disabled per feed. This is a really nice feature, as it allows to you turn off image loading only in feeds that load large images! AdBlock is on by default, and JavaScript can be enabled/disabled per feed.

QuiteRSS has special support for authenticated feeds. The username and password can be specified in the feed settings, but the program options includes a password manager, which gives a nice overview of credentials.

I added the feed that Thunderbird refuses to load due to validation issues, and QuiteRSS handles it without any problems. It usually displays the author email address as a link, but in this (invalid feed) case it simply displays the names. Nice!

QuiteRSS has support for periodic checking, and there are a number of ways to be notified of available news, including system notifications, an icon in the system tray, and sound. All of these can be configured, and I was able to turn off all notifications.

QuiteRSS stores its configuration and data according to the XDG specs: configuration is stored in ~/.config/QuiteRss and the database is stored in ~/.cache/QuiteRss. I really like this, as I prefer to not have applications add to the clutter of hidden directories in my home directory. The size of the database is very reasonable, making backup easy.

Speaking of backup, I saw a menu item titled “Create Backup…” You select a directory to store the backup in, and it creates two files (with a .bak extension) in the directory. One file is a backup of the application settings, and the other is a backup of the database. Very nice!

My Client Requirements

How does QuiteRSS measure up to my client requirements?

QuiteRSS meets my essential requirements. It is fast as well as intuitive to use, with good keyboard shortcuts. It works with all of my feeds, even the invalid feed that Thunderbird refuses to load.

QuiteRSS is a native application and performs very well. The only problem I have with it is the user interface glitches that are probably an issue with my system. I like the utilitarian user interface, which is quite a bit better than that of Thunderbird even though QuiteRSS has many more options. The usability of QuiteRSS is impressive.

QuiteRSS allows me to use my fonts of choice, with good support for multiple languages. HTML content is displayed fine, including images and tables. Image loading and JavaScript can be enabled/disabled per feed, and AdBlock is on by default, which is great!

QuiteRSS allows me to organize feeds hierarchically, allowing me to optimize the order that I process them. The hierarchy is implemented much better than in Thunderbird, and the trash functionality is better as well. It can check feeds manually as well as periodically, and it has great options to control (and turn off) notifications.

Overall, QuiteRSS is the best RSS client I have ever seen. If I can resolve the graphics problems on my system, I will definitely consider using it as my main RSS client. (My current laptop is old and has many issues, so it will not be too long before I need a new one. Perhaps it will just work fine on the new system due to using a different graphics controller…)