SubscribeGNOME Audio Player Shootout Revisited
It’s been close to two years since I wrote GNOME Audio Player Shootout, a visual and textual comparison of some the best available audio players for the GNOME desktop.
As is usually the case in the world of free software, a lot has happened since then (and yet, in a strange way, things have stayed exactly the same). I decided to revisit some of those players and see how they’ve progressed. Some of them listed last time haven’t seen any appreciable development, and have been left off.
I realize that I am totally ignoring the daemon-based players (read: Music Player Daemon, XMMS2); this is by design, since those players open up a whole new can of worms. Suffice it to say that if you’ve decided on and XMMS2 or MPD-based player and successfully configured it, you probably don’t need any advice on choosing software.
The following programs will be covered in this review (development versions):
- BMPx (0.40.14)
- Rhythmbox (0.11.6)
- Exaile (2.99.1-svn)
- Banshee (1.4.1)
- Quod Libet (2.0)
- Decibel (1.00)
- Songbird (1.0)
- Listen (0.6~svn1044)
All of the testing was done on a fresh install (and update) of Ubuntu 8.10 in VirtualBox, using a small representative sample of my music collection (some modern, some classical, in Vorbis, MP3, and FLAC).
Significant free software updates
After ignoring it for some time now, I’ve updated quite a few of my free software pages in the last couple of days. A brief overview of the changes.
- Web Browsers
- Added Safari, because I would be remiss if I didn’t
- Instant Messagers
- Removed Exodus, because the project appears to be dead
- Changed Gaim to Pidgin
- RSS Readers
- Removed Feed ‘n Read, because it’s just not that great a program
- (S)FTP/SCP Clients
- Removed jFTP, because it’s useless
- Download Managers
- Added Orbit Downloader
- Archivers and Compressors
- Added PeaZip
- Added ALZip
- Virtual Disc Utilities
- Added Slysoft’s Virtual CloneDrive
- CD Burning
- Added cdrtfe (cdrtools frontend)
- Image Utilities
- Added FastStone Image Viewer
- Video Players
- Added Miro video player (formerly Democracy Player)
- Video Utilities
- Added avi.NET
- Added DVDShrink
- Added DVD Decrypter
- Audio Utilities
- Changed GX::Transcoder to reflect project splits
- Added VioLet Composer
- Added DVD Decrypter
- HTML Editing and Web Design
- Removed Nvu because it’s dead
- Added Kompozer because it’s the successor
- Text Editors and/or IDE
- Added Notepad2
- Added Aptana
- Miscellaneous P2P Programs
- Added Phex (Gnutella)
- Added Shareaza
- Personal Finance
- Added Gnucash, available for Win32 as of v2.2.0
- Computer and OS Utilities
- Removed GParted Live CD, because you can use a *parted with any live CD
- Added Process Explorer
- Emulators
- Added PCSX, another emulator for PS1 (FOSS)
- Added PCSX2, an emulator for PS2 (FOSS)
- Added 1964, an emulator for Nintendo64 (FOSS)
- Added Mupen64, an emulator for Nintendo64 (FOSS)
- Added nullDC, an emulator for Dreamcast
- Added VisualBoy Advance, an emulator for Gameboy & Gameboy Advance
- Added Databases
- Added MySQL
- Added PostgreSQL
- Added Firebird
- Added SQLyog
- Added Toad for MySQL
- Added MySQL GUI Tools
cdrtfe: a powerful cdrtools frontend
Previously, I reviewed InfraRecorder, a relatively young project that seeks to add a bit of spit and polish to the venerable cdrtools command line programs. At the time, noted that while the interface was lovely, there were a few flaws, notably the hassle of add-on mp3 support, the lack of FLAC support, and limited flexibility.
Another frontend, cdrtfe (cdrtools frontend), was a freeware project that fairly recently opened its source, and I’ve been using it ever since. It hasn’t got the best interface in the world, but it’s one of the most powerful little programs I’ve seen in a long time.
Please note that the version of cdrtfe that I use is 1.3pre1 which is not the stable 1.2x series. Any bugs which I describe should not be ascribed to the stable series, but considered bugs in development until proved otherwise.
GNOME audio player shootout
It might be of interest to read this article’s follow-up, GNOME Audio Player Shootout Revisited
The search for the perfect audio player on the Linux desktop seems to be on par with finding the Holy Grail. The problem is that everyone has features they have to have, especially if they’re migrating over from Windows. Gone are the days when XMMS, a simple WinAmp clone, sufficed for just about everyone in Linux. In the past two years, we’ve seen more whizbang audio players and media managers than I could easily count, and all of them racing desperately to (a) tie into media devices like iPods and (b) tie into social network constructs like podcasts, listen.fm, and whathaveyou.
Historically, my player of choice has been Amarok, which arguably leads the way in all these features, as well as having a stunning interface. For some people, however, it’s too bulky. Others dislike the fact that it’s a KDE application, meaning those who use an different desktop like GNOME—I include myself in this group—have a great application that doesn’t really match or integrate.
Slowly but surely, though, the GNOME/Gtk+ players are catching up. I’ve experimented in the past, only to find them inconsistent. There was no single player that provided everything; rather, each had a few strong points and a few weak points. Many are based on Python, which make them slower than a native application like Amarok. Others had clunky interfaces—I have yet to find one that provides a tree-based library viewer like Amarok. I also have yet to find one that can hook into a database like MySQL or PostgreSQL instead of using a slower SQLite (which is arguably fine for small media libraries, but not so quick once it gets up to 250GB….)
What follows is a brief look at the major players in the GNOME player market, though limited in scope to audio players, and not general media players which can play audio.
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