What is Liferea ?
Liferea is a simple FeedReader clone for GNOME. It is a reader for RSS/RDF feeds which also supports CDF channels, Atom/Echo/PIE feeds and OCS directories. Liferea is an abbreviation for Linux Feed Reader. It's available for all versions of the Ubuntu family.
Installation
Go to Applications - Accessories - Terminal update the apt cache with
sudo apt-get update
Install the program with
sudo apt-get install liferea
Alternatively you can get Liferea via Synaptic or via the Applications-Add/Remove menu. Once complete a menu shortcut will be generated (Applications - Internet - Feed Reader).
Running from start-up
Go to System-Preferences-Sessions. Click on the Add button. Enter the following
- Name - RSS feeds
- Command - liferea --mainwindow-state=hidden
This will start up Liferea just as an icon in the taskbar.
When running in the background a number will appear on the icon showing there are new feed 'titles' that have been downloaded. To view these just click on the icon.
Adding a feed
The easiest way is the drag and drop method. With both Liferea and the webpage visible, locate the RSS feed icon and drag it to the Liferea feeds list. An example webpage that works this way is http://news.bbc.co.uk/ where the RSS icon is next to News Feeds in the top right-hand corner of the page. A second way is to click on the 'New Subscription' button and enter the name manually. If the RSS link is wrong the message 'New subscription not available' will be displayed in the bottom message bar. The link can be checked with http://feedvalidator.org/
Removing a feed
To delete a single feed just right-click on the feed (for example Slashdot) and select 'Delete'. It's also possible to delete the feed by highlighting it and pressing the Del key.
Updating feeds
To update a single feed just right-click on the feed (for example Slashdot) and select 'Update'. To update all feeds just click on the 'Update All' button.
Useful Links
http://liferea.sourceforge.net/ - home page, documentation,
http://feedvalidator.org/ - check a feed address.
There are also manpages which can be accessed via terminal with man liferea