Over the past couple of weeks, I've been extensively using a two blog publishing tools - Qumana and Microsoft's Windows Live Writer. In many ways, they are pretty similar and, overall, do a solid job. That said, I like them in different ways. Qumana stands out because it provides a "database" of previous posts so it's easy to edit your work to add updates, trackbacks and additional links. Qumana also offers the AdGenta advertising network, which would be a useful service if Qumana can improve the quality of advertisers on the network. As much as I'd like to use AdGenta more, I'm often frustrated by the lack of relevant advertisers. I mean, can you really provide a link to BizRate.com for everything and anything? As well, Wordpress.com recently decided to stop accepting AdGenta ads. Microsoft's Live Writer is pretty good. Don't expect a lot of bells and whistles but I've been impressed. In particular, I like how easy multiple blogs can be set up, and how drafts can be saved and quickly retrieved. I expect more features will be added as the beta evolves but so far, so good. Finally, I've been fooling around with Larry Borsato's Breezer, which is a nice, no-frills tool (this post is being written using it). It could definitely use some more bells and whistles but it's a good start, it's free and it works with all kinds of blogs.
Update: Here's a Qumana vs. Live Writer comparison done by Qumana's Tris Hussey.