Comments on: Open your jukebox: Open-source alternatives for music management

Take an in-depth look at two of the most promising open-source jukeboxes: aTunes and Songbird. Their development follows different paths, with one emphasizing your existing collection, and another focusing on music discovery.

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by D.A.W. July 24, 2008 7:24 PM PDT: Amarok is the best player for Linux. It doesn't play video, only music. But it handles and organizes large music collections beautifully. It can handle iPods and any mp3 player that can mount as a hard drive. By far my favorite feature it that it has tabs for wikilyrics and wikipedia in the main window. It finds the lyrics of the song that's playing (if they're available) and brings up the wikipedia article on the artist in a mini browser.

They're working on a 2.0 version right now that will be ported to both Windows and OSX. It's still in alpha right now, though.; Like this Reply to this comment


by sknnyppy July 25, 2008 7:07 AM PDT: Quintessential Media Player/ QMP. Best sounding player for MP3, OOG, and other DRM free and lossless audio formats. I don't use the library because I have a tiered folder system in XP so I don't have to use power hungry librarys. There are also hundreds of skins and plug ins.; Like this Reply to this comment


by chadpry July 25, 2008 8:08 AM PDT: Songbird rules!; Like this Reply to this comment


by angrykeyboarder July 25, 2008 2:39 PM PDT: Once Songbird gets album art working it could very well become my fave Jukebox. One of the *many* things I like about it is that it's cross platform.

I spend a lot of time in both Linux and Windows and love that Firefox and Thunderbird are cross platform. I use them exclusively for webbrowsing and Email in both Operating Systems. It comes in very handy (especially with various syncing tools that are available for both..

With that said, my overall fave Jukebox software (regardless of OS) is Amarok. And thankfully a Windows version is in the works.

I tend to use multiple jukebox apps in both Linux and Windows. Since there are so many opt0oins out there I tend to use whatever tickles my fancy at the moment.

But my goal is to eventually decide on just one for both OSes. I suspect that will eventually end up being Amarok or Songbird.; Like this Reply to this comment


by CasperGoodwood July 25, 2008 4:15 PM PDT: Too bad that Songbird has absolutely pitiful QA. What is up there? They have a potentially great product, but someone at the helm is making bad decisions.; Like this Reply to this comment


by ClarkWells July 25, 2008 10:16 PM PDT: It's true D.A.W. Amarok is the best media player i have ever used. one of the things i was scared about when i transitioned from windows to linux was "what about itunes"? well, all i can say is that i have never been happier with a music player before. it handels my 25,000+ songs just fine.; Like this Reply to this comment


by killroyboy July 25, 2008 10:58 PM PDT: I recently switched from Linux (Ubuntu) to OS X and Banshee is the one application I really miss. It was just well done. A very clean (and simple) interface. I converted from Amarok to Banshee when I realized that I didn't use even half the cluttered features in Amarok.

I'm not an iTunes fan, but use it for the iPhone integration. If I could get Banshee to run on Mac, I'd jump ship in an instant.; Like this Reply to this comment


by 0zSpit July 26, 2008 4:24 PM PDT: there's nothing wrong with windows media player 11. why add another media player? if anything just install vlc. media players are a dime a dozen, they're all the same. vlc beats them all by it's ability to play back an iso file.; Like this Reply to this comment


by Azharuddin Raja July 29, 2008 12:08 AM PDT: good; Like this Reply to this comment


by loloawanot August 9, 2008 12:43 AM PDT: Like this Reply to this comment


by IKON44 October 29, 2008 5:14 AM PDT: VLC is far from the god of media players, but good if you don't have an flv player. :P
Basically itunes and VLC are different leagues all together if they were meant to be the same itunes would be black and gold as it were and VLC would be able to download those nasty RSS minors.
Still I believe you need a couple running to get some kind of enjoyement. Aac for the apple Winamp for the mp3 eh?

Best results from doing that so far. :)

Making itune alternatives is impossible. Steve jobs made apple as an artist and his lesser known who know works there follows SUIT as we say in the UK.; Like this Reply to this comment


by IKON44 October 29, 2008 5:15 AM PDT: If you need more info contact me.; Like this Reply to this comment

by ElBeh October 29, 2008 7:29 PM PDT

Uh, this is a review on Songbird 0.6, if the screenshot says anything. 0.7 had a huge UI overhaul and a bunch of other awesome improvements. Furthermore, Songbird 1.0 is slated to be released in a month, so there's really bad timing for this article.

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by MafiaPenguin June 16, 2009 4:27 PM PDT: it was written in July '08:
July 24, 2008 according to the top of the page.; Like this


by matth88 October 29, 2008 10:31 PM PDT: Another alternative is www.quuxplayer.com -- it is focused more on ease of use and simplicity rather than fiddling around with tags and files. Also it's free.; Like this Reply to this comment