Which Media Player do you like to see bundled with Ubuntu? (For Audio Only)

[legolas_w]

There are tens of media player around the community which we can use in Ubuntu but we usually need to install them after the OS installation and some of them are not part of the repositories and we need to include some new repositories in order to be able to install the player.

Purpose of this poll is to see which media player people like to see as part of the distribution.



please select your favorite Audio media player.

[Tibuda]

please select your favorite Audio media player.
I don't think my favorite should be the Ubuntu default. Rhythmbox and Banshee are the best choices right now, but I use QuodLibet.

[Simian Man]

I like Rhythmbox best, but I think Banshee will surpass it pretty soon.

[SomeGuyDude]

Banshee.

I don't use it, but a distro like Ubuntu, it's a great suite that takes care of everything.

[Paul41]

Rhythmbox. I like Banshee but it refuses to work with DAAP for me which is a deal breaker.

[Dragonbite]

I like Rythmbox overall, but Banshee is a close second.

[gnomeuser]

Banshee is the natural choice. It is well designed, the development pace is fantastic and continues to bring us new valuable features.

As Banshee is a core set of libraries, it also contains several different frontends making it able to fit into our desktop scenerios, the netbook style deployments and in the future the base libraries will be able to form image viewers with the same powerful database capabilities.

Banshee is the future we should build on, it is sleek, powerful and we can rely on it not to go away. The ecosystem around it is vibrant with both paid developers and a multitude of volunteers who work around the clock. They handle bug reports well, which is crucial in determining a default application, we need to be able to rely on upstream to work on problems with us.

There are exciting features now, but in the near future more is already coming such as sharing your content with your contacts using Telepathy (work was done as a Google Summer of Code project). Banshee is only growing stronger.

Banshee without a doubt should be the default. The only but I see is actually Ubuntu's treatment of Banshee (http://davidnielsen.wordpress.com/2009/09/28/when-ubuntu-hates-upstream/). While there is a fantastic PPA that gives you the latest and hyperair is doing great work keeping it up to date, the version in Ubuntu has been suffering a crippling bug 100% CPU load bug for at least 6 months, for which a patch exists, but they have so far not applied it.

[whitefort]

Rhythmbox +1

[gnomeuser]

Rhythmbox. I like Banshee but it refuses to work with DAAP for me which is a deal breaker.

I believe DAAP is much better in the 1.5.x branch though I haven't tried it personally. If you have a Karmic box lying around to test with there is a banshee-daily ppa which serves the latest build (1.5.0 is the latest snapshot but that is months old by now and many bugfixes and improvements have gone in since then so i recommend using the git version, for which sadly there is only a karmic PPA).

If you can do that I would love to hear your findings on this matter. If it is still not working correctly then I will happily help you file bugs and make sure that the issue is brought to the attention of the banshee community.

If you are looking for serving DAAP that is not really part of Banshee but there is a plugin/3rd party app called Tangerine which does this. It is built on the same technology as Banshee. I don't know if this is going to be merged at some point in the future.

[hoppipolla]

For now, I'd like to see Banshee :)

In future though and especially if we end up on KDE, I'm all for Amarok! :)

[HappyFeet]

I really don't care which one they bundle. VLC is one of the first things I download for all my computers. Plus, vlc 1.0 has got some great new features.

[bruno9779]

SMplayer rocks.
I like its layout, the auto resume function, and the power of Mplayer.

I wonder why I am the only one voting for that

[RiceMonster]

SMplayer rocks.
I like its layout, the auto resume function, and the power of Mplayer.

I wonder why I am the only one voting for that

Probably 'cause it's for audio? I love Mplayer, but I only use it for video. I don't use SMplayer though. I usually use it with no gui or with KMplayer or GNOME-Mplayer, depending on if I'm in KDE or a GTK environment.

[hoppipolla]

SMplayer rocks.
I like its layout, the auto resume function, and the power of Mplayer.

I wonder why I am the only one voting for that

I love SMPlayer, but I would use it mainly for video :)

[SeanHodges]

Rhythmbox is not in the list :(

I vote Rhythmbox

[Crunchy the Headcrab]

After a long time hating Rhythmbox I am starting to like it a lot, so I'm going to go ahead and say none of the above.

[Jose Catre-Vandis]

Audacious is not on the list either!

Audacious gets my vote, but with a working crossfader!

I am not one that likes to use tags as the defining word, preferring to work with directories and file names

[Paul41]

I believe DAAP is much better in the 1.5.x branch though I haven't tried it personally. If you have a Karmic box lying around to test with there is a banshee-daily ppa which serves the latest build (1.5.0 is the latest snapshot but that is months old by now and many bugfixes and improvements have gone in since then so i recommend using the git version, for which sadly there is only a karmic PPA).

If you can do that I would love to hear your findings on this matter. If it is still not working correctly then I will happily help you file bugs and make sure that the issue is brought to the attention of the banshee community.

If you are looking for serving DAAP that is not really part of Banshee but there is a plugin/3rd party app called Tangerine which does this. It is built on the same technology as Banshee. I don't know if this is going to be merged at some point in the future.

Unfortunately I don't have anything I can Karmic install on right now but I will be upgrading when it is released, so if they have fixed it that would be great. I would love to use Banshee.

I have a home server that serves up my music through Firefly which is my reason for needing DAAP. I went to file a bug many months ago and found one already in there that is slightly different from my problem because my firewall is set to allow DAAP but would still fix my problem (https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=555785). In the bug report at the time they said they don't see a need to work on it. Every once in a while I think about trying to get Banshee to work again but since Rhythmbox works I haven't taken the time.

[timestandstill]

Rhythmbox in Ubuntu is perfect! Why isn't it a poll option? I'm a Rhytmbox fan and love the way it has been implemented in Ubuntu. If I couldn't have Rhythmbox than I'd be content with Banshee or Exaile. Haven't tinkered with them in a while so I'm not sure which one I'd prefer...

[river226]

Overall you need something that people who aren't experts can get to work right away with any peripherals they have i.e. a ipod/mp3 player, so i say songbird

[Mornedhel]

This poll needs two more options : "Keep Rhythmbox" and "None of the above".

I don't use Rhythmbox and remove it on my new installations, but I still think it should be default.

I don't entirely trust Banshee because of Mono (and because the first time I ran it, a long time ago, it just segfaulted every time).

[timestandstill]

Overall you need something that people who aren't experts can get to work right away with any peripherals they have i.e. a ipod/mp3 player, so i say songbird

Rhythmbox > Songbird. Rhythmbox is much easier to use then songbird and also detects MP3/iPod right away.

[RiceMonster]

My biggest complaint with Rhythmbox and Banshee is they do not allow you to have multiple directories for your music library. Why? I have music on my onboard and external hd. Don't tell me to move them, because I'm not moving 70GB of music. Mpd doesn't allow you to use multiple directories either, but it supports symlinks. Doesn't work in Rhythmbox or Banshee.

[starcannon]

I'd like one that does not require me to install others to do different music player tasks.

I think Songbird has the best chance of bing 1 player to find them all. I currently use, Songbird(for Pandora), Banshee, and Rhythmbox. I'd like to only have one music/media player installed, instead of 3 for music, and yet 3 more for video.

[speedwell68]

Songbird. It is a nice player, has iPod support, it's cross platform and is very simple to use. It is the type of player that noobs would be very happy to use. Anyway I like it.:D

[Raffles10]

Is Xmms still developed ? I didn't think so.

+1 Audacious

[Little Bit]

We're using Audacious in the dance studio because it has a Winamp-like familiarity to Windows users and all the plugins we need, like adjusting the tempo for learning the dances. Maybe it's better for newbies.

Amy

[benerivo]

I really like audacious, but i mostly just use ncmpc (a mpd client). Neither would be bundled with ubuntu though as the are too minimalistic.

[Ric_NYC]

Anyone that doesn't need Mono.

[Twitch6000]

Banshee and Audacious get my vote.

[Mobil1]

I really don't care which one they bundle. VLC is one of the first things I download for all my computers. Plus, vlc 1.0 has got some great new features.


Totally agree! I really like VLC player with video disabled and the customizable skin -CompactBlack. Good sound, nice eq effects and very compact. Shows on the monitor about the size of a pencil and always restarts where you placed it last, even on reboot. Neat!!:)

[dragos240]

Mplayer! I don't need anything else. Moreover, Mplayer comes with codecs unlike gstreamer powered audio players. I love Mplayer <3.

[gnomeuser]

Mplayer! I don't need anything else. Moreover, Mplayer comes with codecs unlike gstreamer powered audio players. I love Mplayer <3.

And.. if it was to be shipped by default those codecs would have to be ripped out for legal reasons.. do we really need to go over that one again.

Anyone voting for a player because it comes with codec support need to consider that Ubuntu cannot, for legal reasons, ship such code. It would be patent infringement even directing users to the codecs would be contributory patent infringement. That is why the codecs are in a separate repo from the main Ubuntu repo and why they are not enabled unless you specifically install them on your own or acknowledge upon playing such a file that you are in a country where the patent does not apply or that you have a valid license for the patent.

[Viva]

Rhythmbox is more than enough for me.

[dragos240]

And.. if it was to be shipped by default those codecs would have to be ripped out for legal reasons.. do we really need to go over that one again.

Anyone voting for a player because it comes with codec support need to consider that Ubuntu cannot, for legal reasons, ship such code. It would be patent infringement even directing users to the codecs would be contributory patent infringement. That is why the codecs are in a separate repo from the main Ubuntu repo and why they are not enabled unless you specifically install them on your own or acknowledge upon playing such a file that you are in a country where the patent does not apply or that you have a valid license for the patent.

Well, that and that is very simple, and why have something more complex, is my point.

[LookTJ]

SMplayer it uses less resources than vlc.

[misfitpierce]

I like rhythmbox because it does almost everything and is ultra light... Songbird is heavy and uses quite some resources but is nice but def should not be default...

If it was to get replaced... Banshee for sure!

[korin43]

We already bundle mono, so +1 for Banshee. Rhythmbox just feels old. Songbird doesn't fit into Gnome as well. I'd say Amarok is probably the best audio player on the list, but bundling all of KDE for one program seems excessive.

[kalana]

Rhythmbox, I hope developers will pay more attention on to it and make it more attractive and that's what it needs. Banshee of course it not going to be a good answer coz all the problems the community have with mono. I'm afraid that GNOME will make its core apps using mono and then everybody who dislike mono will have to drop GNOME too. I don't think Ubuntu will depend on mono for any of their core apps making it harder for a new user to move away from mono. It's like wht MS does by bundling IE with their OS.

Kal

P.S. Exaile look promising, but needs much more improvements in memory handling.

[Chame_Wizard]

VLC Media player.:lolflag:

[Sand & Mercury]

I <3 Rhythmbox. It's fast, relatively lightweight, stable, and does exactly what I need without the BS.

[ctrlmd]

Banshee :popcorn:

[hessiess]

outher: cmus.

[Borjs85]

(Sorry for my english, I'm assuming that I'm having a lot of mistakes)
Rhythmbox can't display embbeded cover art. For me that's important. I'm using Ubuntu since 2 years ago, and before I was using iTunes.

I have not any directory with the jpg file, and it's annoying that the default player can't do this.
Banshee needs to improve several things. MTP support it's worse than Rhythmbox's (althoght you can disable MTP extension and handle it like an Mass Storage Device), but it manage embedded cover art and everything it's better organized (using Rhythmbox in a 9" netbook it's some kind of torture).

Songbird it's great. Awesome device management (since it has the FolderSync extension and Ubuntu can mount any mtp device just like an Mass Storage Device) and very useful extensions (excelent lyrics support, mashtape, cover flow, etc), but in Ubuntu all app are GTK based. Songbird would seem like a patch.

I think Banshee must be the default option. It's easy, more beautiful and LOOKS more pulished. But there's something that must be implemented: the .is_audio_player file it's very important to handle music devices. There must be a complement for the default option that creates it, or easyly accesed documentation that explain how to make it. For noobs it's no easy to find out how to make it.

[DougieFresh4U]

I voted amarok, but I actually use amarok 1.4

[Dragonbite]

I voted amarok, but I actually use amarok 1.4

Ya almost need to break out Amarok 1.x and 2.x, except are they still developing/supporting 1.x for a while or is it legacy that people still use?

[RiceMonster]

Ya almost need to break out Amarok 1.x and 2.x, except are they still developing/supporting 1.x for a while or is it legacy that people still use?

I think it's legacy at this point. I may be wrong though.

[directhex]

Banshee without a doubt should be the default. The only but I see is actually Ubuntu's treatment of Banshee (http://davidnielsen.wordpress.com/2009/09/28/when-ubuntu-hates-upstream/). While there is a fantastic PPA that gives you the latest and hyperair is doing great work keeping it up to date, the version in Ubuntu has been suffering a crippling bug 100% CPU load bug for at least 6 months, for which a patch exists, but they have so far not applied it.

Does Hyperair know about it? He's now more or less in charge of the package in Debian/Ubuntu

[aktiwers]

SMplayer rocks.
I like its layout, the auto resume function, and the power of Mplayer.

I wonder why I am the only one voting for that

I use that too.. and VLC

[doorknob60]

Exaile. My favorite GTK based audio player, easily. Amarok should of course be with Kubuntu (I assume that hasn't changed).

[Странник]

Isn't vlc for video files?

[LookTJ]

Isn't vlc for video files?
for both video and audio, even streaming.

[koleoptero]

Exaile. My favorite GTK based audio player, easily. Amarok should of course be with Kubuntu (I assume that hasn't changed).

+1

I see exaile doesn't receive any love here. I wonder why...:-k

[chriskin]

Banshee.

I don't use it, but a distro like Ubuntu, it's a great suite that takes care of everything.

banshee drinks my cpu like it's water , more than 50% use just for playing songs - with rhythmbox i stay at 3%, exaile uses even less but the new version has some bugs

[directhex]

banshee drinks my cpu like it's water , more than 50% use just for playing songs - with rhythmbox i stay at 3%, exaile uses even less but the new version has some bugs

Did you turn on BPM detection? Your number seems pretty extraordinary, especially given the context of http://gquigs.blogspot.com/2009/08/music-player-review-cpu-performance.html

[chriskin]

Did you turn on BPM detection? Your number seems pretty extraordinary, especially given the context of http://gquigs.blogspot.com/2009/08/music-player-review-cpu-performance.html

should i turn it off?

[Marflus]

Also, did you read the recent post about a bug causing high CPU usage in Banshee? ;)

I'm not quite understanding why Rhythmbox isn't included in the poll. Sure, the OP may not like it themselves, but it's the current default and for that reason alone should be the first option onto the poll, surely?

I use Rhythmbox and have no plans to change any time soon...

[chriskin]

Also, did you read the recent post about a bug causing high CPU usage in Banshee? ;)

I'm not quite understanding why Rhythmbox isn't included in the poll. Sure, the OP may not like it themselves, but it's the current default and for that reason alone should be the first option onto the poll, surely?

I use Rhythmbox and have no plans to change any time soon...

the bug was about cover art wasn't it? not enabled here

as for why rhythmbox is not included, probably he wanted to know what we want to take the part of rhythmbox if rhythmbox was to be changed

even though i can't find the reason why one would change rhythmbox
what people need is an app to play their music without eating their cpus, rhythmbox does that quite well

[gnomeuser]

Also, did you read the recent post about a bug causing high CPU usage in Banshee? ;)


I believe that would be referring to my post here (http://davidnielsen.wordpress.com/2009/09/28/when-ubuntu-hates-upstream/) which is about Ubuntu spending 6 months and counting to apply a simple little patch.

This is a 1.4.3 bug, for the comparison of we should not use that but instead use a recent git snapshot (1.5.0 is simply to dated now to be any good indication of Banshees current state). I don't know what is keeping 1.5.1 and the upcoming 1.6 but release management (but not development) seems to have taken a hit we were suppose to release 1.6 last month.. probably the case that our lead developers were stolen away for other projects by Novell, they are scrambling to put out their Moblin spin and I know that Aaron at least is on that team.



I'm not quite understanding why Rhythmbox isn't included in the poll. Sure, the OP may not like it themselves, but it's the current default and for that reason alone should be the first option onto the poll, surely?

I use Rhythmbox and have no plans to change any time soon...

Because the realization recently has been that Rhythmbox is dying. The rb team is not providing us with modern features nor a development model we can rely on. We need to be able to rely on features to keep coming, we need to know that there is a team to handle bugs. We need to know that upstream is cooperative and easy to work with, that they will listen to concerns and actively work with us on them. Their choice of implementation language isn't helping to keep the bug count low and the development pace smooth, this is more important than you'd think. Looking at Banshee since it's recent redesign it has gotten a vibrant community of developers outside of the original one guy. The code needs to be clean, readable and in a language that helps development as much as possible for something like that to happen. Even some of the RB developers admit that their design is flawed and unsuited for further development meaning it either will need a complete overhaul or that it will stagnate as it is doing currently.

Amongst other thing RB still doesn't do device synchronization which is a vital feature these days. Basic functionality is missing and a new approach is definitely warranted.

[Exodist]

I use Banshee and I never see anything above 2 or 3% at most using it.


@Gnomeuser, +10 yo..

[Keyper7]

Exaile used to be more popular... what happened?

Anyways, I vote for Banshee. Feature parity/superiority with Rhythmbox seems like a matter of (short) time and the development speed is impressive.

Plus, the Mono flamewar needs some fuel. The forums are boring lately. :)

[chriskin]

Exaile used to be more popular... what happened?

Anyways, I vote for Banshee. Feature parity/superiority with Rhythmbox seems like a matter of (short) time and the development speed is impressive.

Plus, the Mono flamewar needs some fuel. The forums are boring lately. :)

probably people understood that screaming against mono will not change anything :P

[Bölvaður]

Rhythmbox and Banshee are the best choices right now,


yes where is rhythmbox in the poll?!?

Im angry like a baboon on crack:-x

[Dragonbite]

yes where is rhythmbox in the poll?!?

Im angry like a baboon on crack:-x

Since Rythmbox is the current default (with possible issues with their development team) then it would not really lend to anything interesting in the poll or threads.

Plus I think it is similar to "what media player do you want to replace Rythmbox as the default player" though that thread was already started somewhere else.

I like the icon for Listen better than Rythmbox's or the others.

[directhex]

Also, standard poll size limit on VBulletin is 10 ;)

[Simian Man]

I really, really, really wish that Banshee would use libgpod for ipod management instead of their ipodsharp library. Their are a number of show (https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=564185) stopper (https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=555329) bugs (https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=539668) that keep me from using it. libgpod, however, works flawlessly and I really don't understand why the Banshee team would decide to reinvent the wheel rather than use a good library that all the other players are using.

[SeanHodges]

Since Rythmbox is the current default (with possible issues with their development team) then it would not really lend to anything interesting in the poll or threads.

I disagree. I think it is the most important option to include, otherwise you have no idea what percentage of the survey are happy with the current default. Without it, the rest of the results have little basis to compare against.


Plus I think it is similar to "what media player do you want to replace Rythmbox as the default player" though that thread was already started somewhere else.

Your assumption is probably right, though people are voting based on the subject title rather than reading between the lines.

I think a better approach would have been to focus on audio-only media players, and given people the opportunity to vote for the default player, or a combined A/V player, as well:

Which Media Player do you like to see bundled with Ubuntu? (For Audio Only)

[ ] Rhythmbox (current default)
[ ] Songbird
[ ] Amarok
[ ] Banshee
[ ] Exaile
[ ] Audacity
[ ] XMMS
[ ] Gnome Media Player
[ ] I prefer a combined audio/video player (please specify below)
[ ] Other (please specify below)

Still, an interesting thread to glance at the popularity trend for the non-default media players right now, none-the-less.

[WorfSOM]

Songbird.

[fazavon]

I don't care what the use, as long as it can handle all 32k + library that I have with out being a F%^&%$ Pain..

Is that asking to much?


//j

[random turnip]

VLC and Rhythmbox are pretty much all i use.

[gnomeuser]

I really, really, really wish that Banshee would use libgpod for ipod management instead of their ipodsharp library. Their are a number of show (https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=564185) stopper (https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=555329) bugs (https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=539668) that keep me from using it. libgpod, however, works flawlessly and I really don't understand why the Banshee team would decide to reinvent the wheel rather than use a good library that all the other players are using.

Because podsleuth enhances on what libgpod offers and uses the same database for model information. Aside that it's managed code which is generally preferable. It's not always that reusing code is the best thing, sometimes license or implementation constraints make it attractive to rewrite the code. Say if using the existing library from your project involves you requiring to run code in an unsafe mode or the API is horrible.. then it's suddenly looking like a good investment to do it right. This Ars Technica article (http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2007/10/podsleuth-to-bring-better-ipod-support-to-linux.ars) while a bit dated is still valid in explaining some of the reasons why Aaron created podsleuth.

Regardless with the world moving to udev/DeviceKit-disks it gets even worse (https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=586508). I might be a rampant Banshee fanboy but let it be known that I am an honest Banshee fanboy. Till Alex manages to get his port in a working state we are not going to be able to do iPods at all anymore. Alex is a smart man though, I have no doubt this will be taken care of quickly. Hopefully we won't face such radical changes underneath Podsleuth again anytime soon, it really is painful for everyone involved so I hope they got it very right this time.

[Simian Man]

Because podsleuth enhances on what libgpod offers and uses the same database for model information. Aside that it's managed code which is generally preferable. It's not always that reusing code is the best thing, sometimes license or implementation constraints make it attractive to rewrite the code. Say if using the existing library from your project involves you requiring to run code in an unsafe mode or the API is horrible.. then it's suddenly looking like a good investment to do it right. This Ars Technica article (http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2007/10/podsleuth-to-bring-better-ipod-support-to-linux.ars) while a bit dated is still valid in explaining some of the reasons why Aaron created podsleuth.

Regardless with the world moving to udev/DeviceKit-disks it gets even worse (https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=586508). I might be a rampant Banshee fanboy but let it be known that I am an honest Banshee fanboy. Till Alex manages to get his port in a working state we are not going to be able to do iPods at all anymore. Alex is a smart man though, I have no doubt this will be taken care of quickly. Hopefully we won't face such radical changes underneath Podsleuth again anytime soon, it really is painful for everyone involved so I hope they got it very right this time.

Thanks for the info gnomeuser, you are as informative as ever :).

I hope they get this right pretty soon, because Banshee is awesome in every other way. If I wasn't foolish enough to buy an iPod, I'd already be using it...

[gnomeuser]

Thanks for the info gnomeuser, you are as informative as ever :).

I hope they get this right pretty soon, because Banshee is awesome in every other way. If I wasn't foolish enough to buy an iPod, I'd already be using it...

I think one reason the iPod never works right regardless of what you do is that Apple make it so mind meltingly futile to work on supporting their devices. The second you have everything working they launch a new model with a completely redundant crypto hash you have to break and which you know only exists to make your life a living hell and allow Apple to make your users blame you for their doings.

I think this is why only a very few people actually bother to do this work, really the second everything is like a fresh slice of paradise.. Apple bends you over and shoves unmentionable objects where the sun doesn't shine.. failing making it technically futile to chase the support dragon, they issue DMCA take down orders to peaceful reverse engineering efforts.. I call this being forced into the autoerotic asphyxiation by turtleneck business model. Either you don't support their devices and lose customers or they sue.. every step of the way they will make life hard for you in an attempt to force you into the no support category. The house always wins and nobody dares to call it monopoly abuse.

Honestly short of launching their upcoming products with Steve Jobs speaking in a creepy movie nazi accent I fail to see how they could demonstrate more evil with fewer means.

Apple are evil.. stop giving them money people.

aaahhh that felt so good to get off my chest.

[Dragonbite]

I think one reason the iPod never works right regardless of what you do is that Apple make it so mind meltingly futile to work on supporting their devices.

Glad to see I'm not the only one dis-enamoured by Apple.

Anyway, what does this mean for older iPods, are they still supported?

I have an iPod Shuffle (the square kind) from a few years ago and it used to be picked up in Banshee pretty well. I just want to make sure if I update Banshee when I update to Karmic, it will still work.

I haven't synced my music with it with my current system (same playlist as I set up a few years ago in another installation) so I don't know if it is 100% working currently, just that I can see it when I plug it in.

[directhex]

iPod stuff is likely broken in Banshee on Karmic, due to the removal of HAL. Not 100% sure on that though, I use an Android phone as my music player

[Groucho Marxist]

Banshee or Songbird

[koleoptero]

I don't care what the use, as long as it can handle all 32k + library that I have with out being a F%^&%$ Pain..

Is that asking to much?


//j

After trying out every single audio player out there, I've come to the conclusion that for a collection that llarge, you can't have everything, unless you have a ten million dollar computer.

[directhex]

After trying out every single audio player out there, I've come to the conclusion that for a collection that llarge, you can't have everything, unless you have a ten million dollar computer.

Try Banshee. It's been specifically designed to deal with large (5, 6, 7 figure) libraries, at the expense of a little lag on smaller (4 figure) libraries.

[Jose Catre-Vandis]

Try Banshee. It's been specifically designed to deal with large (5, 6, 7 figure) libraries, at the expense of a little lag on smaller (4 figure) libraries.

MPD can similarly handle large libraries :)

As another suggestion

At the command line use MOC

[SuperSonic4]

VLC (it's also a video player too)

For audio only Amarok would be nice but I believe Kubuntu has it and the KDE/Qt libs would be excessive for ubuntu

[khelben1979]

My vote goes to Songplayer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songbird_%28software%29) because of all the radio stations which comes within it as default. Rhythmbox got 4.. *cough*

What's negative with Songplayer is that it takes up big resources, but I can live with having it up when I need it and then just closing it down.

I experience Songbird as attractive. Sometimes it can mess up my web browser which effects YouTube and I don't know why, hmm..? I usually just close it down before looking at video clips.

[Dragonbite]

I've just been playing some holiday music and used both Banshee and Rythmbox and I think my opinion is changing.

Now I don't have a large collection, at least not compared to true audiophiles!
Banshee
Pro
When you "X" (close) it, it continues to play in the system tray and doesn't take space in your task bar.
Includes coverart in the pop-up window of what is currently playing.
Has the option to play video (even though I haven't used it yet).
Con:
I don't have much use for the Recomendations panel
When it imported an album that has multiple artists it places in the album list each iteration of album and artist. So if there are 12 different artists in an album (regardless of how many songs each has), it lists 12 albums (album-artist1, album-artist2, etc.)
Interface seems a little more cluttered.


Rythmbox
Pro:
Simple but full interface. Doesn't overwhelm but has the features I want (album / artist browsing list, etc.)
Albums are listed only once (see mention about Banshee and listing albums once for every artist on the album)
Virtualization, it's kinda nice. (Banshee's just lists the song information and cuts off long names)
Just found the plug-in to have Rythmbox minimize to the system tray, so that is no longer a Banshee advantage!

Con:
Hasn't done too well with getting the album cover art
Party mode with virtualization leaves the top controls along the top of the screen. I would prefer if the "party mode" can cover the whole fullscreen, and maybe the controls show up (semi-transparent) when the mouse is moved like a lot of picture and slideshow programs do now
Interface doesn't look "glossy" (hey, if you are showing this to somebody used to WMP or iTunes they'll think less of it).
Haven't found a "get all cover art" for all of the albums which makes it easy (not sure if it is Banshee or Amarok that has that).

[Machiavelli]

Banshee, no doubt.

[Shpongle]

Rhythmbox +1 this

[Dragonbite]

Rythmbox, because in Banshee it will also connect with iPod Touch and iPhones. Guess development is not quite dead with the project?

source ; http://www.webupd8.org/2010/02/confirmed-ubuntu-1004-supports-iphone.html

[SeanHodges]

Rhythmbox

[MaxIBoy]

Audacious or VLC. Probably Audacious, because the compact UI is amazing. (Or an equivalent skin for VLC.)