Songbird Drops Linux Support 356
An anonymous reader writes "The Songbird developers have announced that they will no longer support Songbird in Linux. This is really a shocking announcement, as Songbird has its roots in open source. Songbird will, however, continue to be available for Windows and Mac."
In their blog post on the subject, the developers said, "We remain loyal to Linux and the ideology it represents, so we will maintain a version of the software for use by our Songbird engineers who develop on the Linux platform. We’ll make that version available to the community. We will keep Linux build bots and host the Linux builds on the developer wiki. That said, those builds will not be tested and may not pick up new features developed by Songbird’s team."
Help in TFA? (Score:5, Insightful)
Not once in TFA or the summary does it say what Songbird does.
Community involvement (Score:5, Insightful)
There's a housing development not far from where I live that has draconian rules about "community involvement". In order to own property there, it is necessary to spend time on the board or doing board-approved activities. They have immaculate lawns.
I own my own property here, and I have no connection to any third party except the bank and the government. My lawn is a mess, but I welcome anyone who would like to mow it.
Isn't the spirit of Free Software about everyone pitching in and helping each other freely? Or did I misunderstand freedom to mean freedom for others to do work for me for free?
I see nothing in Songbird's announcement that is negative in any way.
Re:Help in TFA? (Score:4, Insightful)
Neither does the original story.
What's Songbird? Who cares ...
Open Source != Linux (Score:5, Insightful)
Linux is open source. Open source is not Linux.
Its not really that shocking.
solongbird (Score:5, Insightful)
Not long before the Windows and Mac development stops, too. This software failed to gain traction.
Re:Alternatives (Score:2, Insightful)
Amarok won't install without KDE
What do you mean by that? It needs kde libs, what's the big deal? It's not like you need to install the desktop environment.
Re:Alternatives (Score:5, Insightful)
I fail to see why so many people using gnome hate anything that uses QT/kde libraries with such a passion. By doing so you are seriously limiting yourself and overlooking some nice software.
Amarok, k3b, k9copy (only decent dvd ripper I've found on linux suitable for recommending to others), konqueror (meh as a web browser but great for viewing local filesystem and sftp'ing with other machines, like a swiss army knife), kino for converting dv cam footage. etc.
The recent trend over the last few years for everyone to default to gnome and nobody having used any qt stuff seems strange to me, I always have both sets of libraries installed and use the best tool for the job.
Re:Alternatives (Score:3, Insightful)
My main problem with most music player software today is the idea of a 'media library'. In order to play a file, you first have to put it in the library. I understand such a database has its benefits, but to me it is unnecessary complication of a simple operation.
This. I work with sound effects and speech clips a lot, usually ones that I've been sent as part of a project, and one of the things I want to be able to do is play a bunch of short files quickly and easily, with no messing around. I used to use XMMS, but it kind of faded away. I use mocp a lot now, more recently audacious. Having to register something into a database when I only want to listen to it once just quickly to make sure the recording was okay, that's just a pain in the ass.
Re:Help in TFA? (Score:3, Insightful)
Wow, for a Gecko-based (actually xulrunner-based!) program, that’s very little.
So it’s basically Amarok, in slow, with an inexplicably low memory usage...
The last time I tried songbird, it was horribly slow, had a really badly designed interface (more “stylishness”, lest “actually usable”ness), and was just all around crappy.
I’ll keep Amarok. TYVM.
It is a reasonable position - but here's an idea (Score:3, Insightful)
It is perfectly understandable for a business to avoid spending a lot of money building a Linux-specific version.
However - what they should do is add Wine as one of their officially supported "windows" platforms. For example, they can guarantee that a stock Ubuntu 10.04 desktop will be able to load their software with just one pre-requisite: apt-get install wine.
Mark
Re:let the themknow how you feel then, uninstall! (Score:5, Insightful)
You're an idiot. What have you done to help them support Linux? I'm guessing nothing.
If you don't like the app, fine, but don't act like it's their job to support the platforms you use. It's your job.
It needs to be said (Score:5, Insightful)
Desktop development of Linux has stagnated over the last 2 years. We have not seen anything but more fragmentation of the underlying building blocks and several high profile vendors have all said the same things. Adobe said the sound system sucks, Nvidia and ATI have complaints about X.Org windowing systems and in general while I love what Ubuntu has done, it "Appears" that they've dominated the direction desktop Linux is taking lately. I used to be impressed with every new build and the features it has brought, the last few releases bring nothing but yawns and maybe a new skin or some flashy effects, but nobody is addressing the more pressing issues of standards for underlying systems. I understand people want something customizable, but in the end you have to have standards so people who make you all these fun custom things can know what to expect when building them.
Re:Help in TFA? (Score:1, Insightful)
Songbird does two things:
1) Creates massive amounts of hype, for some reason.
2) Functions as an Itunes-like music player.
Re:It needs to be said (Score:3, Insightful)
Stagnated? With KDE transitioning to 4.x and developing quickly, and Gnome about to go to 3.0? With DRM2 and Gallium3d somewhere in the not so distant future? It hasn't stagnated at all, the main problem is that it's in a state of flux. It hasn't stagnated at all.
Re:Help in TFA? (Score:4, Insightful)
Helps you sleep at night by filling your room with the sound of doves and seagulls
Speaking as someone who lives near an area with a fair number of seagulls, I can assure you that (a) they are definitely *not* songbirds and (b) having frequently to shut my window due to the noise of those fuckers, I can assure you that it's the *last* thing that would help you sleep at night.
Needs to be said again since you missed the point. (Score:1, Insightful)
Blah, blah, KDE, Gnome, blah, blah, version 3.x to 4.x, blah, blah, DRM2, Gallium whatever. WOW! Gigawatts of flux.
Your post underscores the parent's point. Linux has stagnated. Version bumps and DRM2 only get YOUR motor started, and guess what -- you already use Linux.
Underlying systems. General usability. Drivers that work and are supported. Linux has a ways to go.
What was the most discussed change in the upcoming Ubuntu release? Whether the window widgets were going to be on the right or the left side. Wake me up when I can hook my Linux box into my HDTV using a dvi to hdmi converter and be able to get the screen dimensions right without doing nasty things to my X config files. That's consumer grade. Linux remains hacker/hobby grade despite efforts by Canonical and others, and now Nvidia and others are starting to flake off. With Apple's non-iPod products providing many users with "just works" systems on decent hardware with functional UI and still providing the *nix capabilities to run the "12 line shell script he uses for grabbing entries from /var/log/messages" someone joked about above, perhaps Linux's foray into mainstream has apexed.
Be angry all you want. Flag me flamebait or troll, fine, but first put up some sort of evidence that the next desktop upgrade or Gallium3d is going to make anyone but you stand in line to get the latest Linux distro.
Re:Alternatives (Score:3, Insightful)
I fail to see why so many people using gnome hate anything that uses QT/kde libraries with such a passion.
Because when run from a Gnome environment, they take a long time to start up, print a lot of crap, don't respect all Gnome preferences, look and work different, and start up extra processes that may or may not hang around.
I think KDE is a decent desktop, but I want to use one or the other and not both. And I generally prefer Gnome.
Re:Help in TFA? (Score:3, Insightful)
I wouldn't say OSX, Windows, or Linux have gotten this one yet...
Re:Needs to be said again since you missed the poi (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't know about your HDTV, HDMI and DVI, but at least a friend's computer needed no configuring at all to get it to work properly in the correct resolution for his HTPC. Same kind of setup. It just worked (tm) with Ubuntu 9.04 IIRC, with no xorg.conf hacking. That's consumer grade, according to you.
Only a few years ago, every screen needed to be set up with correct modelines; it's a fairly recent development that you don't need an xorg.conf. The driver sets the correct resolution automatically in most cases. I'm sure this somehow "confirms" stagnation to you.
Also, Gallium3d and DRI2 are excellent examples of underlying systems that will improve usability and make driver development easier and more unified. Your whole "argument" depends on ignoring that simple fact.
I don't care whether it will improve Linux's market share. I don't work in advertising.