I’ve never much cared for
I’ve never much cared for Userland Manila. While it certainly has more features than something like Blogger, I’ve never liked the interface. I find Blogger much more usable. I’m also mortified by how similar Manila sites frequently look — a three-column layout with a slab header across the top. From looking at the Manila interface, I’m sure you could jump through a lot of hoops to change the Manila templates to something less clone-like, but it appears that most people don’t do that (which leads me to believe changing those forms in Manila isn’t simple or people who use Manila aren’t the type who are interested in that). One of the beauties of Blogger sites, especially those not hosted on Blogspot, is that they are so much more distinct and uniquely designed. I think Blogger doesn’t lock users into a template as tightly as Manila.
In any event, Userland is releasing new software, Radio Userland 8. And despite my lack of enthusiasm for Manila, I’ve read articles (such as this and that) that have piqued my curiosity. So this afternoon (while I was watching the Philadelphia Eagles pound the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, unfortunately), I downloaded Radio Userland to see if it lives up to the hype.