Comparing Linux media players
SOUNDS
We compare some popular Linux media players, including Banshee, Rhythmbox, Amarok, and Songbird.
Media player applications have come a long way and are now a primary source of entertainment for many computer users. Linux has several enchanting media player offerings with many advanced features and a plethora of add-ons to spice up your listening sessions.
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News
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FSF Outs the World Wide Web Consortium over DRM Proposal
Richard Stallman calls for the W3C to remain independent of vendor interests.
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Debian 7.0 Debuts
The new release supports nine architectures, 73 human languages, and zero non-Free components.
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Alpha Version of Fedora 19 Released
Fedora developers release the first alpha version of Fedora 19, known as Schrödinger’s Cat, for general testing. The final release is expected in July 2013.
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ack 2.0 Released
ack is a grep-like, command-line tool that has been optimized for programmers to search large trees of source code.
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SUSE Studio 1.3 Released
New features in SUSE Studio 1.3 include enhanced cloud integration, VM platform support, and lifecycle management.
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Xen To Become Linux Foundation Collaborative Project
The Linux Foundation recently announced that the Xen Project is becoming a Linux Foundation Collaborative Project.
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RunRev Releases Open Source Version of LiveCode
Open source version of LiveCode is now available for developing apps, games, and utilities for all major platforms.
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OpenDaylight Project Formed
OpenDaylight is an open source software-defined networking project committed to furthering adoption of SDN and accelerating innovation in a vendor-neutral and open environment.
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Gnome 3.8 Released
The new Gnome release includes privacy and sharing settings, allowing more user control over access to personal information.
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Mozilla and Samsung Collaborate on New Browser Engine
Mozilla is collaborating with Samsung on a new web browser engine called Servo.
Amarok and the others
Every linux media player (except Amarok) is trying to clone iTunes. In fact, most GTK+/GNOME based programs, look at Ubuntu for example, is aping Apple shamelessly. Now, this is not to say that Apple's products are not "user friendly" but blindly copying the interface tells the customers that Linux community has no fresh ideas to offer!
Why didn't Apple ape Microsoft's interface pixel to pixel? After all, Windows is the most dominant OS around, isn't it?
Anyway, this is the reason, I am a KDE user, not because I hate GNOME/GTK+ stuff but because there is no freshness in them. Amarok, for all its warts, is the best linux media player out there because it breaks from the blind aping theory. The interface is unique yet responsive, glitzy enough and functional enough! Ditto with KDE4 and plasma.
Somehow, the media (print and online) that writes about Linux is being sold out on the race to reach the joe average's desktop rather than doing something unique that causes users to come to Linux.
Unfortunately, Ubuntu, is taking the cake in plagiarism and most of us seem to help them along just fine in doing so!
Coming back to the article, Rhythmbox, Banshee and Songbird look and work exactly alike -- like iTunes, I mean. That is nothing to write home about.