For as long as I can remember I have used NetNewsWire as my RSS newsreader of choice. In fact, when my iBook was away for repair a couple of years ago I temporarily used a Lombard running Mac OS 9 to keep up with email and such. The Mac OS X-only application I missed most was NetNewsWire.

This revelation was significant on several levels. For one, NetNewsWire is a breed of application that didn’t even exist a few years ago. And it was developed not by a gargantuan concern like Microsoft or a “dotcom” funded with millions of venture capital dollars, but a single fellow whose wife helps run his software company.

I’ve never been compelled to go for the full-blown version of NetNewsWire, though. The free Lite version does everything I think I need.

But when I read that Brent has a special deal to purchase NNW for just 19.95 until version 2.1 ships, I decided to spring for it and show my support for a product that I really appreciate and enjoy (even if Brent did sell it to NewsGator, he’s still the primary developer).

Just minutes after I submitted my payment via Kagi for NetNewsWire’s full version I happened to come across a link to a new newsreader from Adriaan Tijsseling, author of Ecto, the blog posting application I purchased within hours of trying it. “What the heck?” I thought. “Might as well take it for a spin.”

Endo is the name of this application and it is very cool. Quite different from NNW in many ways, but uniquely so. The growl-based alert notifications are nicely done, and the rainbow of colors to delineate subscriptions in the list of sources is visually appealing and intuitive. Endo features a quick and simple setup assistant that easily imported my subscriptions from NNW, and within minutes from first launch I was reading my news subscriptions with it. Endo requires a minimum of Mac OS X 10.4. Endo has cool features Tiger users have come to expect like the ability to create smart groups and locate content with Spotlight.

So now I am torn. I really do enjoy the features of both applications. I don’t know that I will be able to switch away without missing NetNewsWire, but Endo is a very attractive implementation, especially for a first version. I expect that like I use Firefox and Safari to browse the web I will use both Endo and NetNewsWire for newsreading. You can take Endo for a free test drive for 21 days. If you decide you like it the price is just 17.95.