Weird, one of the first apps I bought on my Mac was NetNewsWire. That went freeware about 2 months ago. Today, NewsFire went freeware too and it was actually the second app I paid to use … I somehow really get the impression, that I should stop paying for software, simply because if I wait for a year, it will become freeware anyway ;-)
It’s definitely an interesting move by David Watanabe (esp. if you remember that another freeware app by the same author, Inquisitor, includes ads while he states in the announcement, that NewsFire is ads-free), but I guess after NetNewsWire left the shareware-path, many people who’ve written feed readers that were not freeware or open-source (and even up to some degree they too) were forced to rethink their business model. I’m also pretty curious, what this move means for the vaguely mentioned NewsFire 2.
Anyway, if you’re looking for a standalone free reader, NewsFire is absolutely worth a look. Is it better than - let’s say - NetNewsWire? This is something that you really have to decide on your own after trying at least these two ;-)
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