Blogging software

My last blog was powered by “Radio”:http://radio.userland.com. It was a great introduction to the blogging world.

Apart from being easy to use (single client download, no server setup necessary) it was a very elegant all in one blog poster and blog aggregator. Many bloggers I know still don’t use aggregators and miss out on the joys of inter blog communication. Blogging isn’t an excuse to stand on a box and shout loudly – it’s a two way thing (two ears, one mouth). If you’re blogging and not using an aggregator, please explore what you’re missing.

My new blog is powered by “MoveableType”:http://www.moveabletype.org/ and “SiteMesh”:http://www.opensymphony.com/sitemesh/ (“Mike’s”:http://blogs.atlassian.com/rebelutionary/ suggestion). MT powers the content and SiteMesh powers the presentation – orthogonal components at their best!

I am still experimenting with aggregators, but so far “Newz Crawler”:http://www.newzcrawler.com/ seems to be me favourite as it has an intuitive interface allowing me to (quickly!) read blogs, websites and newsgroups all in one place – even offline. Here you go, a “screenshot”:http://joe.truemesh.com/images/newzcrawler.gif.

So if I loved Radio so much and wanted its babies, why did I switch? Here’s the advantages the new setup has:

• Ability to post new entries from anywhere via a web-interface instead of a fat client sitting on one machine only.
  
• Decoupling the presentation from content allows me to add new content sources (static pages, forums, wikis, …) without having to duplicate the presentation.
  
• More control.
  
• Eating my own dogfood (SiteMesh).

Saying that I’d still recommend Radio to any blogging newbie.

Update Jan 2009: I’ve now switched to WordPress.com, so I don’t have to manage my own servers.