I came across this article and wanted to know since blur is not the same as feathering how do you achieve this effect with inkscape? I googled for this feature but that did not yield an answer.

I think you're right. Blur and feathering are different. Blur (Gaussian) fuzzies the whole object while feathering only fuzzies the edges. I'm not sure if my method is the right way but if I want to blur the edge only (feather) then I will lay a stroke (duplicate object, remove fill, turn on stroke) on top of my object and only blur that.

Another method, and not the best, is to try an inset/outset halo from the effects pull down. I used to use that for making drop shadows before version 0.45.

Other than that I think you have a good question. I wouldn't mind learning what other ways one can go about this. Perhaps some others will chime in.

I use that method that you describe to create inner shadows, but it does not seem to have the effect of feathering. Does your example work when compared side by side with an example from xara's feathering?

Yeah, I suppose the inset/outset halo is not the way to go. Maybe a better way would be to do a duplicate on the original object and do a Path>Outset. That method will grow the outside which you can add blur to it.

I didn't blur the Inkscape copy as much as I did the Xara copy but you get the gist of it. Here's a quick-n-dirty example:

Using a Mask might be the solution

If its a circle (or elipse) its easy to mask it with a duplicate object thats white in the center but goes black towards the edges (its easy to do that with a radial gradient). If its a more complex object that can't be nicely masked with an ellipse just use more than one mask object and group them together before applying to the object.

Just so I understand correctly the xara example uses its feathering filter and the inkscape example uses the outset and the blur method?

Just so I understand correctly the xara example uses its feathering filter and the inkscape example uses the outset and the blur method?

Yes, that's correct. Sorry that I did such a poor job with it. Was pressed for time when I did that.

I didn't think of it before but perhaps you can apply a filter using 0.46. I don't use 0.46 on a daily basis so I'm just guessing there.

Your example was more than enough because I do not have xara so that I could compare the results. But what you did was provide me with a good starting point on which to work off of.