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XMMS 1.0.0 Released
Olle Hällnäs wrote in to tell us that XMMS (the premiere GUI MP3 player for Linux these days) has released v1.1.0. Currently they only have rpms and source on the Web site, but I'm sure debs will follow.
I've attached a feature list if you read more.
- CD Plugin now supports CDDB, and CD Index.
- mpg123 plugin now handles compressed id3 frames.
- OSS plugin got a much better and faster resampling routine.
- Setting for adjusting master volume instead of pcm volume.
- New shortkey, ctrl-n for "No Playlist Advance"
- XMMS can now be made "sticky"
- The Equalizer and Playlist don't show up in GNOME/KDE's task list anymore.
- Reload skin shortkey (F5)
- Option to set the speed of the mousewheel.
- Playlist files are now tried to be recognized by content in addition to suffix.
- Added Fullscreen support for visualization plugins. (in libxmms)
- Added DGA support to fullscreen.
- Added xmms-config command.
- XMMS now handles winamp's .wsz skin files.
I agree!
I use XMMS, and I think it has a pretty nice UI, but it's complete lunacy that they felt the need to implement window management in an MP3 player!
Developers, if you want k-rad eleet title bars, use a k-rad eleet window manager. If you want to write a window manager, write a window manager. But don't force this inconsistency (in both appearance and functionality) on everybody who just wants to run an MP3 player. You aren't writing an ``MP3 Desktop'', you're just writing a damned app.
gkrellm does the same thing, and it's equally crazy.
For those of you who bought this killer plugin, the new version breaks it. Of course all you have to do is:
/usr/lib/libxmms.so.1.0.0 /usr/lib/libxmms.so.0
ln -s
your location may be different for the libs but none the less that will fix it.
This is one example of why I really like to have the source code whenever possible. All I would need to do was recompile against the new libraries. But again, I bought this plugin just because it made things sound SOOO much sweeter.
"Fighting the underpants gnomes since 1998!" "Bruce Schneier knows the state of schroedinger's cat"
"Olle Hällnäs wrote in to tell us that XMMS (the premiere GUI MP3 player for Linux these days"
Do you have any idea how hard it is to undo this? Any Linux user who may be thinking about trying other Unices will take this to mean that XMMS isn't "for" _insert_other_unix_system_here_. It's not intentional I know, and the message is completely subliminal.
Open Source isn't just a catch phrase, it means "./configure && make install". To say that XMMS, or any other program that compiles WITHOUT MODIFICTATION from source is "for Linux" undermines the spirit of Open Source.
This is a big issue for me. I'm a FreeBSD user (I use Linux on my workstation at work, and as a MP3 server at home) and #FreeBSD volunteer and Ports Maintainer, and the "Can I get _insert_open_source_program_here_ for FreeBSD?" gets really annoying.
Even if the question is "There's not an [RPM|DEB] for _insert_open_source_program_here_ for Linux, how can I get it?" (And I've seen this on #Linux) I still think it's important that people realize what it's all about.
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My comments and opinions completely reflect those of anyone and anything I am remotely associated with.
Do you have any idea how hard it is to undo this? Any Linux user who may be thinking about trying other Unices will take this to mean that XMMS isn't "for" _insert_other_unix_system_here_. It's not intentional I know, and the message is completely subliminal.
No, it's not true that any Linux user will read that as meaning it's only available for Linux. Only those with poor reading comprehension skills.
If someone reads the correct statement "Netscape is the most popular web browser for Linux these days" as meaning "Netscape is only available for Linux", they have poor reading skills. Likewise, if someone read the quoted statement as meaning XMMS is only available for Linux, they too have poor reading skills.
How do we undo this? Better education in the schools, perhaps? I don't know. But I don't think refraining from making accurate and factual statements because they might be misinterpretted is the answer.
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"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
There is at least one known bug for XMMS 1.0.0. The XMMS website says:
Real men dump cores! Read my journal, I am neat.
When you go to download a .wsz skin, simply rename it to have a .zip extension and save it in your skins directory. A wsz file is simply a zip file renamed to be associated with WinAmp in a Win32 environment.
For more information, click here.
there's a neat little hardware dongle thingie at:
http://lp3music.com
the only limitation is that it can't decode mp3's beyond 192k. that is a bummer - but if you try 192k mode on a good encoder (blade-enc is fine at that rate), you'll be very surprised at the quality; especially with this external decoder unit.
it has the advantage of all the analog electronics being outside the PC. less clock noise and hum = cleaner sound. oh, and since the decode is in hardware, your cpu util. is almost nil. and the best part is that it only needs a printer port - not an ISA or PCI slot. so its perfect for laptops. even older 386 laptops!
oh, and yes, there is linux support for this. they provide links for linux sourcecode to drive this. and there's even some work being done to make this an xmms plug-in; for those who insist on a ooey-gui.
ob disc: I'm just a customer who enjoys this hardware product. I had nothing to do with the design, implementation or anything else for that matter
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"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
"XMMS runs on Linux." + "Hackers use Linux." = "Hackers use XMMS"
"Hackers use XMMS" + "XMMS plays MP3 files" = "Hey, it's the DeCSS of the music industry!"
I called Vegas and the odds are 2:1 in favor of a DeCSS'ish string of arrests before the day is out. Buckle up everybody! Mirror sites, I pray for you! :)
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Oscarfish.com: tropical fish with attitude. Way t
Its this sort of application that is helping bring Linux to the mainstream. The office suites have been out for a little while now. The linux games are starting to sprout up all over the place, and now the multimedia and entertainment utilities are coming through as finished, professional products. Assuming we can get the MPAA off our backs about the CSS fiasco, we're well on the way to being a system that is not only good for the hackers, but useful for the end-user also.
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"When I grow up, I want to be a weirdo"
I must say I have been really disapointed with the tendency of OSS mp3 player to just copy winamp's skinability. The truth is skins are a really lame form of user configuration because they make it more difficult to change the interface in meaningful ways (as opposed to E themes or something where you actually do reconfigure the interface).
Now, you ask "who would want to change the interface to their mp3 player?" Well there are a lot of reasons, but they mostly boil down to (1) playlists are a waist of time and (2) you will waist you life away skipping songs you are not in the mood to hear if you use random play. I wrote an mpg123 front end called smartplay using perl/gtk which tries to fix these problems. Warning: this is ``proof of concept'' which means it will probable crash sometimes. Features: it uses random play but it displays the list of the next 20 songs it will play and allows you to remove them from the queue at any time, i.e. instead of "hitting skip on a crappy song, going back to work, getting another crappy song and needing to quit work (mentally) to skip it" you can just skip all the shit at once. Also, it tracks you lissening patterns to try and opimize it's random file selector to your mood as determined to the kinds of songs you have been lissening to compleatly.
Jeff
The Christian religion has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world. -- Bertrand Russell
For those interested, I'll be updating the Solaris plugin to work with 1.0.x releases either today or by Monday at the latest (disasters at work notwithstanding).
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You can easilly download the sourcecode and add a feature, say a command-line --titlebar, or something. Wine has this capability (--window-managed or something like that) which allows the window manager to manage Wine windows, a feature I use whenever running wine as I hate the default WABIesque behavior of sticking to my virtual desktop.
A similar feature for xmms shouldn't be that hard if you really want it, and a friendly suggestion to the developers might work wonders. Myself, I prefer not having title bars on my xmms, but freedom of choice is what Open Source is all about.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
I've mailed the xmms team 2-3 times even with patches for this bug.
/= 1000; /= 60;
/= 60;
The timer thinks 1 hour is 99 minutes, so after the timer passes 99:59 it says 1:00:00, but it should wrap after 59:59.
Here is the fix
--- main.c~ Mon Jan 24 20:11:01 2000
+++ main.c Fri Jan 28 15:19:29 2000
@@ -2640,7 +2640,7 @@
stime_prefix = ' ';
}
t
- if (t > 99 * 60)
+ if (t > 60 * 60)
t
number_set_number(mainwin_10min_num, t / 600);
number_set_number(mainwin_min_num, (t / 60) % 10);
--- playlistwin.c~ Mon Jan 24 20:11:02 2000
+++ playlistwin.c Fri Jan 28 15:20:01 2000
@@ -1545,7 +1545,7 @@
if (time 99 * 60)
+ if (time > 60 * 60)
time
text = g_strdup_printf("%c%-2.2d", sign, time / 60);