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Just to wrap it all up, you should have mentioned how it's not about piracy, it's about losing control & a world which needs labels less and less.

It's about how Sweden is the only place with sustained physical sales - but labels prefer to ignore this because it's not via "their" music.

(not a bad write-up about the issue)

...there's just a whole lot of them. Also how "bland" it is is the point, a benefit. Sometimes you just want to fill the background with good enough music / etc. while doing something else (I suspect also not wanting something great - not wanting to be hooked too much); with scheduled short news service every hour a nice bonus (also one you don't have to actively follow, but still be certain that important news will reach you)

This blog post covers it quite nicely:

the vast majority of the radio listeners don't listen to music. They hear music instead. There's a difference. They put the kids on the SUV, and drive them to school, and turn on the radio in the meantime. Or, they're stuck in traffic, pissed off, and need to listen to "easy" music to pass the time. Or, they're sitting on their sofa, reading a magazine, and have the radio ON as a background.

Very few people actually drive somewhere in order to turn on the radio and listen to music. Or sit on their sofa, closing their eyes, and listen to just music. Normal people instead, are so busy with their lives, their problems, the quick pace of this civilization, that simply don't have the time to discover new music. Listening to unknown kind of melodies, or new kinds of sub-genres altogether, takes them out of their comfort zone. Listening to something like Dan Deacon instead of Lady Gaga, for example, while the kids shout at each other at the back of the car, makes it difficult to level your head. Not only you have your problems, but you have this new 'annoying' music playing instead of the music (or kind of music) you already know so well.

Basically, commercial radio works as a kind of a depressant for the masses. At first, it feels like music is exactly the opposite: an excitement that is, but in reality, in the large scheme of things, as far as FM radio is concerned, it's nothing but one of the ways that helps you kept in check. No, this is not a conspiracy theory, it's just how things work. Listeners want it that way too.

You won't really notice an impact of FM part on battery life if you're not using it; and anyway, it's generally quite a bit more frugal with battery than, say, mp3 playback.
Also, "go back"? Stop looking at the past through rose colored glasses - there was always a lot of shit on the radio.

Really, people value the non-interactivity, it's a benefit. Sometimes you just want to fill the background with good enough music / etc. while doing something else (I suspect also not wanting something great - not wanting to be hooked too much); with scheduled short news service every hour a nice bonus (also one you don't have to actively follow, but still be certain that important news will reach you)

This blog post covers it quite nicely:

the vast majority of the radio listeners don't listen to music. They hear music instead. There's a difference. They put the kids on the SUV, and drive them to school, and turn on the radio in the meantime. Or, they're stuck in traffic, pissed off, and need to listen to "easy" music to pass the time. Or, they're sitting on their sofa, reading a magazine, and have the radio ON as a background.

Very few people actually drive somewhere in order to turn on the radio and listen to music. Or sit on their sofa, closing their eyes, and listen to just music. Normal people instead, are so busy with their lives, their problems, the quick pace of this civilization, that simply don't have the time to discover new music. Listening to unknown kind of melodies, or new kinds of sub-genres altogether, takes them out of their comfort zone. Listening to something like Dan Deacon instead of Lady Gaga, for example, while the kids shout at each other at the back of the car, makes it difficult to level your head. Not only you have your problems, but you have this new 'annoying' music playing instead of the music (or kind of music) you already know so well.

Basically, commercial radio works as a kind of a depressant for the masses. At first, it feels like music is exactly the opposite: an excitement that is, but in reality, in the large scheme of things, as far as FM radio is concerned, it's nothing but one of the ways that helps you kept in check. No, this is not a conspiracy theory, it's just how things work. Listeners want it that way too.

That's also BTW why any possible benefits of DAB are probably irrelevant - people are happy with very few stations already. For anything more there are ways you mention.

Reasons why you shouldn't be recommending FCE or iMovie...

http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2009/04/11/stay-the-fuck-away-from-imoviefce/ [gnomefiles.org]
http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2009/10/16/regarding-apples-iframe-spec/ [gnomefiles.org]
http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2007/08/09/imovie-08-sucks/

Sony Vegas Platinum is $85, offers more than FCE, while managing to be actually technically competent.
Sony Vegas Pro - less than $500 for a software in the ballpark of FCP.

Reasons why you shouldn't be recommending FCE or iMovie...

http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2009/04/11/stay-the-fuck-away-from-imoviefce/ [gnomefiles.org]
http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2009/10/16/regarding-apples-iframe-spec/ [gnomefiles.org]
http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2007/08/09/imovie-08-sucks/

Sony Vegas Platinum is $85, offers more than FCE, while managing to be actually technically competent.
Sony Vegas Pro - less than $500 for a software in the ballpark of FCP.

Reasons why you shouldn't be recommending FCE or iMovie...

http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2009/04/11/stay-the-fuck-away-from-imoviefce/ [gnomefiles.org]
http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2009/10/16/regarding-apples-iframe-spec/ [gnomefiles.org]
http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2007/08/09/imovie-08-sucks/

Sony Vegas Platinum is $85, offers more than FCE, while managing to be actually technically competent.
Sony Vegas Pro - less than $500 for a software in the ballpark of FCP.

iMovie can't even support it's own native formats properly (well, the formats themselves are fubared...), I wouldn't trust it with plugins or conversion.

http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2009/04/11/stay-the-fuck-away-from-imoviefce/
http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2009/10/16/regarding-apples-iframe-spec/

iMovie can't even support it's own native formats properly (well, the formats themselves are fubared...), I wouldn't trust it with plugins or conversion.

http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2009/04/11/stay-the-fuck-away-from-imoviefce/
http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2009/10/16/regarding-apples-iframe-spec/

iMovie is not worth recommending, it destroys your footage (FInal Cut Express does it, too). And latest version went too far with dumbing down.

Concisely presented details:
http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2009/04/11/stay-the-fuck-away-from-imoviefce/
http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2009/10/16/regarding-apples-iframe-spec/
http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2007/08/09/imovie-08-sucks/

At least FCP is sensible technically...but other powerfull software, like Sony Vegas, can be had for less than half the price (that doesn't even take into account the hardware), so...

iMovie is not worth recommending, it destroys your footage (FInal Cut Express does it, too). And latest version went too far with dumbing down.

Concisely presented details:
http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2009/04/11/stay-the-fuck-away-from-imoviefce/
http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2009/10/16/regarding-apples-iframe-spec/
http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2007/08/09/imovie-08-sucks/

At least FCP is sensible technically...but other powerfull software, like Sony Vegas, can be had for less than half the price (that doesn't even take into account the hardware), so...

iMovie is not worth recommending, it destroys your footage (FInal Cut Express does it, too). And latest version went too far with dumbing down.

Concisely presented details:
http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2009/04/11/stay-the-fuck-away-from-imoviefce/
http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2009/10/16/regarding-apples-iframe-spec/
http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2007/08/09/imovie-08-sucks/

At least FCP is sensible technically...but other powerfull software, like Sony Vegas, can be had for less than half the price (that doesn't even take into account the hardware), so...

FCE has inexcusable technical faults though.

Comparable overall software, but without those faults, can be easily found for less than half the price of FCE. This link sums the situation nicely:
http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2009/04/11/stay-the-fuck-away-from-imoviefce/

Regulating downloads is impossible. And if it's made possible, it will come with a GREAT PRICE to indie artists. Bono is not an indie artist, so he sees the world from his point of view, but there are more indie artists than major ones, so I fail to see why Bono should have his way. I actually wrote a blog post about all this, replying to Bono and explaining why he's wrong, on my own blog (I wrote it before I saw the Slashdot news post).

Well, I don't know if you agree with Eugenia's (of Gnomefiles/OSNews) taste in music, but here's her list.

There are hundreds of comments here and I'm not going to read them all so I apologise if I'm repeating something somebody else has said, but the Gnome tools for locking down a desktop are Sabayon (as I said above, not the distro) and Pessulus.

Sabayon is a desktop user profile manager and Pessulus is a Gnome lockdown tool. Sadly neither seems to have been updated in the last 3 years, maybe they did the job they were designed for, but I know people were using them.

Sabayon

Pessulus

The Warcraft II (Tides of Darkness) music from 1995 was the best music ever written for any video game. When the new Warcraft versions came out, I was really disappointed that the music did not have the depth and melody and uplifting of that version.

I looked at Youtube a few months ago, and there are A LOT of people who have the exact same opinion as well. I really wish someone could license that music and create a proper classical album out of it (the original was lower-quality electronically-created audio you see).

Check here for more info on how to download the music http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2008/05/17/warcraft-ii-music-part-2/ (from what I can gather, Blizzard released the music free of charge, legally).

Damn XML-based menus, that's what it is..

it helps:
http://www.gnomefiles.org/app.php/Desktop_Optimization

I wrote an article about the lack of fair use being a consumer right last week. In particular, I mentioned that even 90% Creative Commons licensed music is very restrictive for videographers -- which was a surprise to me when I found out. Unless you only use the CC-BY license (only 60 albums exist in that license), you can't "sync" audio and video legally for free for your own projects. And that's for the CC music we are talking about (and two of the Board of Directors of CC agreed with my conclusions). I don't even want to start thinking how bad it will become if RIAA starts suing the actual users on youtube who sync their HOME videos with their music. In other words, IMO, fair use should be expanded to become a consumer right, at least for personal pre-specified usage (I am not endorsing piracy here and I do believe that commercial vendors should continue licensing for professional usage).

In addition to that a quick search for ipod on Gnome Files turns up Banshee , Rhythmbox , Listen and Yamipod>{not open source} , all of these look like nice options for iPod and music library management under linux but Banshee and Listen really stand out. No DRM of course but there is an entry on codeweavers' site for iTunes though i've no idea how compatible it is at this stage.http://www.codeweavers.com/compatibility/bro wse/name?app_id=134

This might help, infact you might want to search Gnomefiles for other DVD and video encoding apps.

http://www.gnomefiles.org/app.php/gDVDshrink

I can't speak for scalability, but I have used this application in the past for my DVD collection (which is nothing compared to your book collection):

Alexandria: http://gnomefiles.org/app.php?soft_id=110

(the homepage seems to be down, the above link is for gnomefiles)

I also noticed this:

BibShelf: http://gnomefiles.org/app.php?soft_id=329

Good luck.

I can't speak for scalability, but I have used this application in the past for my DVD collection (which is nothing compared to your book collection):

Alexandria: http://gnomefiles.org/app.php?soft_id=110

(the homepage seems to be down, the above link is for gnomefiles)

I also noticed this:

BibShelf: http://gnomefiles.org/app.php?soft_id=329

Good luck.

> In fact, there is KDE-Apps for independent apps built with the KDE/QT
> framework, while there is no such place to aggregate gnome apps.

Sure there is: http://www.gnomefiles.org/

If you don't believe me, take a look at how many more posts there are in KDE-Look than in Gnome-Look.

KDE-look has been around for as long as I can remember. Gnome-look is around a year old, IIRC. Give it time to gather the numbers that kde-look has gathered and then you have a valid comparison.

In fact, there is KDE-Apps for independent apps built with the KDE/QT framework, while there is no such place to aggregate gnome apps.

http://www.gnomefiles.org/

The place is hoppin'.

Revelation for linux/gnome.

Lots more you can find on http://tucows.com/ or your favourite software download site..

I have close to a hundred logins stored (encrypted) and gave up trying to remember them all a long time ago.. its really not an issue with such a program. Just make sure to keep a backup somewhere or you are screwed when your pc dies.. ;)

I'm not really interested in winamp in particular, however, AVS and Milkdrop are very nice indeed, it would be great to have these vis systems available on the linux players.
As for video playback, XMMS certainly used to do it, I don't know the current status of the SMPEG plugin but it was good at the time. really though, who would want to play videos in a winamp style interface? if you need help finding alternatives head over to this page, totem's nice.

On Linux, I use muine and tomboy regularly. F-Spot is one of the best rated apps on gnomefiles. I can't think of a single java desktop app for Linux...

-Mark

First of all, some xcompmgr support would be nice. Gnome has a few BIG problems with using that program, which is unfortunate because using it on my computer speeds up the sluggish Gnome.

Another thing would be better wireless support. Unlike KDE, there is no app that can do what Kismet can. The network app. lets you connect wirelessly, but no part Gnome lets you scan. In this department many good programs have appeared that would fix this problem. I like- Wifi Radarand this applet

They only need to be incorporated (or packaged with a Gnome distro for the love of diety).

Many people think that Gnome's biggest problem is RAM usage, and they might be right. 256mb feels VERY different than 512mb on the same machine. I personally believe that this problem was made worse in the last release, not made better. I think that 2.12 has intentions on fixing this, so I care more about Gnome 2's interface problems.

Interestingly, the summary neglected to mention Beagle, the one Mono application I actually plan on using and that has created some momentum for getting the Mono into various distros.

If Mono proves to be snappier than, say, Java, there might be some hope for it but the spectre of living under the mercy of MSFT is not easy to dodge. It's still there, however much people tried to not talk or think about it.

On a b/w limited server? Nitpick: at gnomefiles it says "aims to be a professional ..." Also warns this is a beta, and offers the Sourceforge forum as help. For a "pro-level" digital audio app I would expect to be able to pay money for help, GPL or no. Having run thru a mini zoo of daw apps in the past 15 years, we always come back to Digidesign. As an earlier post said, the tight coupling of h/w + s/w means it always works as advertised.

The list of dependencies for Wired is also a bit worrying, but with supreme confidence the ToDo file is empty. The source is available at Sourceforge so I'll try to buld it, and report back if there's anything interesting...

AFAIK Kino http://www.gnomefiles.org/app.php?soft_id=213 is one I think you will want to use in Firewire video capture. It is lean GTK/GNOME app and is matured for very long time, and afaik, they are targeting to support fully Ogg Theora/Vorbis, so, it will provide completely free video capture.

Nice to see Mozilla apps being available there for users to rate it (yes, I prefer their GTK+/XFT builds too :). Thunderbird has my 10/10, and Firefox too! (downloading Sunbird right now, haven't tried it before).

Sourceforge has a nice categorization scheme, I wish they'd copied that instead of inventing their own. I suggested this to Eugenia but I guess its too late to do anything after the site is already active.

On another note, notice that helix player is the most popular app in the list. Also note that it has a high rating. For those who haven't checked it out, this is a "reformed" app from Real and not the spyware/bloatware shit that they have for windows. They also have a no fuss download page where you get straight links to the rpm/tarball etc.

Gnomefiles.org looks nice and intuitive. I like the RSS feed, the layout and the simple interface of the site. I've wanted to go in this direction for some time and I think I might just have to try gnome out now. Any suggestions for someone getting started with Gnome?