Ive been a long time user of Google Reader. It worked great for me until a few weeks ago, when I started noticing it becoming slower. Also, I realized that many of the feeds that I frequently read were updated less frequently that I wanted. And it will only keep unread posts for up to 30 days. Anyway, my biggest issue with Reader is that its a web based RSS aggregator. Which means that it can be accessed from anywhere. Which really means that I may spend precious time reading feeds while I should be doing more useful stuff (like working...).

So I decided to find a good client-based RSS reader. After a little bit of research I started using Thunderbird, which is the aggregator from the Mozilla Foundation (the same guys that created Firefox). And I have to say that I didnt like it at all. Not only its full of counter intuitive options (why do I have to create a new folder for each feed if I want to see them separately? and why when I add a new feed the default option is to place posts in the same folder as the currently selected feed?), but its really slow. To a point that it was painful to read more than a few dozen posts straight.

After a little bit more research I ended up finding Akregator, which is made by the same team that built the KDE Desktop Environment for Linux. And so far I really like it! Its very fast, it allows to open the actual website in a separate tab (as opposed to only the post) and it has great keyboard shortcuts (Alt+, Alt- to switch between unread feeds, + and - to move between posts. No more tab back and forth to switch feeds like in Thunderbird). My only complaint is that it doesnt have an Undo Delete option.

So I settled with Akregator and I installed it on my home computer. Since then, I am getting 30 minutes to an hour extra of work done every day! The only thing that Im going to miss are the Google Reader stats...