The sweet sound of a Songbird 1.0
Ok, maybe it’s still clearing its throat.
I’m a huge fan of open source tools. What I’ve found is that with most open source software it’s written by people who use it. The “get it done by committee”–very different from the corporate world which is more “get it done my way”–seems, in general, to offer a great deal more flexibility with their design. Seriously, Firefox and the Mozilla suite with all their addons would never have come out of the bug filled offices of Microsoft…though they now have addons available for IE.
Anyway, Songbird 1.0 was officially launched last week. Now, I’m the type who enjoys having music playing while I work. I’ve been using iTunes for a few years now but it just didn’t seem right. I looked at a couple other music players but they just didn’t seem to offer the features iTunes does.
I’ve been a Firefox user for years. I love the browser and love the way I can tailor it to have what I need to be as productive as possible. A lot of the addons I have allow me to perform numerous actions with fewer keystrokes/mouse clicks.
So, enter Songbird. Ok, I’ve got to say it’s not been perfect. I’ve encountered a few bugs…but I expected that. But it works well. It does have a lot of the “feel” of iTunes. Many of the functions and the layout have been…errr…copied.
It’s the addons which gets me excited. I have no doubt that the handful of bugs I encountered (slow response more than anything) will be ironed out in the not too distant future. But with the addons, I’ll be able to tailor the player more to my needs. Already, I love the Last.fm addon. With iTunes, in order to scobble* tracks I play, I have the Last.fm client installed also. It has to open every time I open iTunes in order to work. With the addon in Songbird, that’s no longer an issue.
But it’s still early days. I know there will be all kinds of new addons being created in the next couple of years–just like when I left IE for Firefox–and I’ll be able to leave iTunes completely.
Oh, and I do love the option to have lyrics pop up with each track.
If anyone out there is clever enough to create this is reading, how about an addon which has Songbird use my Last.fm scobble count so I can use that in my play list creation. Well, I think it would be cool.
Now, if only Thunderbird worked better than Outlook.
*Each time you play a track which get’s picked up by Last.FM’s AudioScobbler database and tracks what you listen to. Here, check out my Stats.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Related posts
Leave your response!