JetBrains, maker of the must-have-never-code-without ReSharper, has dropped an RC version of Omea (Reader, does RSS and NNTP and some web, and PRO which does a whole lot more with email, etc).  Earlier, around the 1.0 preview, I blogged about my experiences with Omea.  I didn't like Omea Reader, it didn't pass my smoke test for an aggregator (load my OPML and don't puke when you're doing it, which is a fairly significant task) but not many aggregators do.  It was slow to open, often taking more than 30 seconds to open or close.  Indexing/searching seemed slow.

All that has changed.  I've been waffling back and forth between aggregators, I did SharpReader and NewsGator and some other new one with Outlook integration, FeedDemon, etc.  None of them do everything I want, so I'm always looking for something else.  Omea Reader 2.0 RC is awesome.  Blazing fast, opens and closes in two seconds or less.  Updates are quick, indexing is blazing, search is just as fast.  It imported my OPML without a hiccup, integrates with Firefox (you are using firefox aren't you?).

I've not used Pro 2.0 RC.  I used the original and it was a cute idea, integrating with Outlook and giving you most of what NEO tried to do (and didn't do a bad job pre-Office XP) and what it looks like Outlook continues to try to do (though not as well).  Things like workspaces (so I can put Thycotic consultants in one workspace and see all blog posts, email messages from/to them in one area) and views by Feeds, Contacts, Categories, etc.  Very nice way to keep all your information in one interface and not need 4 or 5 others.  It still isn't my UberNet application that has a pluggable rendering engine (like gecko), that lets me do research (like OnFolio or NetSnippets or OneNote or do I really need to keep listing these?), lets me get mail, news, rss and everything else (like IM) so I can click on Jonathan and see my IM traffic, his blogs, my emails to and from him, his contact info, everything.

My point?  I don't know, maybe I'll use Pro when it comes out, at least during the trial period to see how much nicer it is.  Pro was really nice, albeit a little slow on startup/shutdown.