In today's video I chat about using Newsboat RSS reader with the Lynx command-line browser.
Bread on Penguins' channel: https://www.youtube.com/@BreadOnPenguins
A minimalist workflow:
My desktop setup is built around i3, and everything I do is handled by simple scripts and terminal tools. There’s no taskbar, no desktop icons, and no visual clutter. My email runs in aerc, my RSS feeds in Newsboat, and my web browsing in Lynx. Everything is fast, predictable, and distraction-free.
When I open Newsboat, it immediately loads my RSS subscriptions, a mix of Linux blogs, news sites, and personal journals from friends. It’s not the neatest list in the world (I really should organise it one day), but it gives me exactly what I want, information without noise.
Unlike some feed readers that throw everything into one endless list, Newsboat groups feeds cleanly by source. That matters because some sites post dozens of articles a day while others might only update once a month. Separating them lets the quieter voices, personal blogs or smaller projects, actually be seen.
Organising information:
Newsboat’s tagging system is one of its best features. I’ve got tags for friends, games, news sources, politics, podcasts, and more. One of my favourite feeds is “TheyWorkForYou”, an RSS service that updates whenever UK MPs speak in Parliament. I highly recommend it for anyone in the UK. It’s an easy way to see what your representatives are actually doing, and I think it’s good for democracy to stay informed like that.
Some of my other feeds include Boiling Steam, GamingOnLinux, FreeGamer, and a handful of personal blogs like Ghosty’s and Drew’s. Newsboat makes it easy to jump between them depending on what I’m in the mood for, Linux, games, or just something thoughtful to read with coffee.
Why I browse with Lynx:
When I want to read a full article from an RSS feed, I usually open it directly in Lynx. It’s a text-based browser that runs right inside the terminal. For most of the content I care about, blogs, reviews, essays, or news articles, Lynx is perfect. It loads instantly, displays cleanly, and keeps me focused on the text instead of ads, autoplay videos, or pop-ups.
Sure, modern websites are built like web apps now, but that’s exactly why Lynx is such a breath of fresh air. It strips the web back to what it was meant to be: information, text, and ideas. For sites that really need a full browser (say, something JavaScript-heavy), I’ve got Firefox set as an alternative, but honestly, that’s rare these days.
I experimented with Dillo too, another lightweight option, but Lynx fits more naturally into Newsboat. I can just press a key to open any article right where I am, no switching windows or leaving the terminal. Page Up, Page Down, and I’m reading. It’s fast, simple, and reliable.
The beauty of plain text:
All of this ties into what I’ve been loving about working in the terminal again: everything is plain text. Config files, notes, RSS lists, scripts, it’s all just text. That makes it transparent, portable, and easy to automate.
For example, Newsboat’s feeds are stored in a single plain text file. If I want to back them up or edit them, I just open the file in Vim. If I want to tweak the configuration, it’s one small text file with a couple of commented-out lines for the browsers I’ve tried.
That’s also the philosophy behind how I manage my dotfiles and scripts. I used to use GNU Stow for symlinks, but I’ve replaced it with a few simple bash scripts of my own. Same with address books, why use a complex app when a CSV or tab-separated file does the job perfectly?
The more I build my own little tools, the more I enjoy the workflow. It’s like rediscovering the old Unix philosophy: simple tools that do one job well.
Where it’s all going:
I’ve been spending more time writing lately, both on my blog and in text posts across platforms like the Fediverse and PeerTube. You can find everything at chriswales.wales, which links to all my current projects, podcasts, and social channels.
If you’re curious about minimalist computing, or want to see what life looks like when you move away from 'apps' and back into 'tools', I’ll be writing more about this approach, from plain-text note-taking to terminal calendars and to-do lists.
And if you’re just starting to tinker with RSS, I can’t recommend Newsboat enough. Pair it with Lynx, and you’ve got a distraction-free reading environment that’s faster, cleaner, and infinitely more satisfying than the modern web.
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