Web-based feed reading with rsslounge [LWN.net]

Web-based feed reading with rsslounge

Posted Aug 4, 2011 10:39 UTC (Thu) by fb (subscriber, #53265)
Parent article: Web-based feed reading with rsslounge

Dear Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier,

> [...] I found rsslounge, a GPLed and web-based feed reader that gives Google Reader a strong run for its money. [...] rsslounge requires PHP 5.2.4, MySQL, and a web server.

You really lost me right there.

Requires "PHP $VERSION, MySQL and a web-server", and you still think it gives Google Reader a run for its money? As far as I am concerned an RSS reader will give Google Reader a run for its money when it can match its convenience of use and add some other feature.

That is something that bothers me in FOSS software reviews, not taking the 'complexity factor' into account or dismissing most of it. Heck, *software developers* I know don't bother running their own web-servers.

[..]

Sorry for the grumpiness, but (what I perceive as) the lack of focus on usability of FOSS projects has been getting to me lately.

(Log in to post comments)

Web-based feed reading with rsslounge

Posted Aug 4, 2011 13:25 UTC (Thu) by foom (subscriber, #14868) [Link]

Oh come on. PHP, MySQL, and apache are just about the easiest servers to install on a modern OS (just install the packages and enable!). Heck, even OSX comes with them preinstalled, and trivial to enable. If software developers can't install/enable those things, they're no software developer.

But, even if you're not able to handle that yourself, you can rent a virtual server from numerous companies that has all that already setup and running!

Web-based feed reading with rsslounge

Posted Aug 4, 2011 13:54 UTC (Thu) by fb (subscriber, #53265) [Link]

> If software developers can't install/enable those things, they're no software developer.

> But, even if you're not able to handle that yourself, you can rent a virtual server from numerous companies that has all that already setup and running!

It is really not a question about being "able to handle" or "can't install" but about being _willing_ to spend time doing this. People could run their own email servers, but most won't. People could hand wash their dishes, but most just put them in the dish-washer.

My whole point is that most people also find running Apache+PHP+MySQL for RSS feeds too much of a hassle to bother.

Web-based feed reading with rsslounge

Posted Aug 5, 2011 1:37 UTC (Fri) by dmag (subscriber, #17775) [Link]

> My whole point is that most people also find running *Linux* too much of a hassle to bother.

Fixed that for you. Granted, not everyone running Linux is a hardcore geek. But LWN is about as hardcore as you're going to get this side of Dwarf Fortress.

The usual reviews require you to compile your own version from an experimental branch. So running a PHP app is so easy it feels like cheating. At least Ruby on Rails forces you to choose from 6 different runtimes and 8 different web containers.

> [It is] about being _willing_ to spend time doing this

First, installing a LAMP stack is a non-issue for me (and I suspect many LWN readers), since I already had it installed for other reasons.

Second everyone's values are different. I'm perfectly happy to spend 20 minutes setting up an RSS reader in exchange for various things (like not having my eyeballs sold, not having it suddenly turn into a social network, customization, speed, etc).