June 10, 2010
Two safari extensions have obviated my need for NetNewsWire: greader-bgtabs and Google Reader Styles.
My flow for reading articles when I'm on the desktop is like this. I open NetNewsWire and use keyboard shortcuts to open all the new articles in Safari in the background. Then, I go to Safari and read the articles.
Some people are happy simply reading the articles inside NetNewsWire, either in the integrated browser or in the stylized view pane. That's cool. And, if that's how you like it, then NNW will work well for you. Since I'm only using NNW as a launcher, it's superfluous to have it running all the time.
My issues with the Google Reader website are, 1) it looks pants, and 2) when you press 'v' to open items, they open in the foreground. The two extensions I'm using alleviate both issues. Now, the Google Reader website looks good and pages open in background tabs.
I'm all for only using those applications that you really need. And, until recently, NNW was the best option for a good feed reading workflow.