Last Updated on April 28, 2023
A news aggregator is software which collect news, weblog posts, and other information from the web so that they can be read in a single location for easy viewing. With the range of news sources available on the internet, news aggregators play a useful role in helping users to quickly locate breaking news.
There are a number of different file formats which information publishers use. Popular formats are RSS and Atom. RSS is an acronym for Really Simple Syndication. It’s a defined standard based on XML with the specific purpose of delivering updates to web-based content. In other words, RSS is a Web content syndication format.
For individuals that read lots of weblogs, a news aggregator makes keeping track of them effortless, and particularly useful if the weblogs are only updated occasionally. If you follow specific writers, publications and channels, an RSS reader app helps you see all new content that interests you in a central source.
NewsFlash is a program designed to complement an already existing web-based RSS reader account.
NewsFlash combines all the advantages of web based services like syncing across all your devices with everything you expect from a modern desktop program: Desktop notifications, fast search and filtering, tagging, handy keyboard shortcuts and having access to all your articles as long as you like.
Installation
There’s no official packages for any Linux distribution. Instead, you can either use a cross-platform package, or get under the bonnet and compile the source code. There is a package in the Arch User Repository for Arch and Arch-based distros.
The easiest way to install NewsFlash on Ubuntu is using either snap or Flatpak.
snap
$ sudo snap install newsflash
Run the program from the Dash or from a terminal by typing:
$ newsflash
Flatpak
If you’re never used Flatpaks before, you’ll first need to install the flatpak package. At a shell type:
$ sudo apt install flatpak
Add the flathub repository which hosts the flatpak package
$ flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
Now we’re ready to install NewsFlash.
$ flatpak install flathub com.gitlab.newsflash
Run NewsFlash with the command:
$ flatpak run com.gitlab.newsflash
Next page: Page 2 – In Operation
Pages in this article:
Page 1 – Introduction / Installation
Page 2 – In Operation
Page 3 – Summary