In January 2007 I published the GNOME Audio Player Shootout, a simple comparison of the options available to GNOME users for handling their day-to-day playback needs. It proved to be so popular that in December of 2008 I did a followup, excluding some abandoned players and adding some new ones. Though it hasn’t been quite two years yet, I thought it was time for another look at the state of audio players in the GNOME ecosystem.
This time around, I’ve got a heavy focus on new players, as there have been a number of new arrivals since my last shootout that show a lot of promise. This article will cover (in no particular order):
- Rhythmbox (0.12.8)
- Exaile (3.2.0)
- Banshee (1.7.4)
- Quod Libet (2.2.1)
- Guayadeque (0.2.6-svn1186)
- DeaDBeeF (0.4.1)
- aTunes (2.0.1)
- xnoise (0.1.10)
- GMusicBrowser (1.1.5-git)
- Aqualung (0.9~beta11)
All testing was done using an up-to-date Ubuntu Lucid x64 with all necessary repositories added, including some PPAs for the last versions of these players. Considered but not reviewed were Decibel Audio Player (hasn’t changed appreciably since last time), Gejengel (so unstable as to be unusable), and Bluemindo (still too simple to be useful).
Please note that this article necessarily incorporates some of my own biases. I am an avowed foobar2000 fan and you will notice that I tend to favor the utility-minded players over the media centers and iTunes clones. This article should still be useful, even if your own inclinations are different from mine.
