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Started By
Message
Free & Open Source Alternatives to iTunes and Windows Media Player
Posted on 3/27/12 at 9:43 pm
Posted on 3/27/12 at 9:43 pm
Let's just face reality: iTunes sucks. Windows Media Player sucks.
There has to be a better way!!!
And there is!!! Free, open source music players!
Here is a list of some of the best alternatives available to you. Do your research to see which one best meets your needs.
Banshee { Wikipedia Link } (Linux, Mac [beta], Windows [alpha])
Amarok { Wikipedia Link } (Linux, Windows)
Exaile { Wikipedia Link } (Linux, Windows [unsupported])
Songbird { Wikipedia Link } (Windows, Mac, Linux [unsupported], Android)
Clementine { Wikipedia Link } (Linux, Windows, Mac)
Enjoy!
There has to be a better way!!!
And there is!!! Free, open source music players!
Here is a list of some of the best alternatives available to you. Do your research to see which one best meets your needs.
Banshee { Wikipedia Link } (Linux, Mac [beta], Windows [alpha])
Amarok { Wikipedia Link } (Linux, Windows)
Exaile { Wikipedia Link } (Linux, Windows [unsupported])
Songbird { Wikipedia Link } (Windows, Mac, Linux [unsupported], Android)
Clementine { Wikipedia Link } (Linux, Windows, Mac)
Enjoy!
9
Posted on 3/27/12 at 9:43 pm to WikiTiger
fricking A!
Posted on 3/27/12 at 9:48 pm to WikiTiger
b'marked
Posted on 3/27/12 at 10:19 pm to WikiTiger
if you have an iPod but dont want to use iTunes use Sharepod
Posted on 3/27/12 at 10:22 pm to WikiTiger
Why the hate for iTunes (excluding not being compatible with the penguin)?
If you have a quick enough computer it runs perfectly fine. My desktop is overkill with an i7-920 and 6gb of ram, but even on my C2D Macbook Pro it runs quite quickly.
2 Computers+Multiple iPods/iPhones+iTunes Match=Win
FTR: I have used both Banshee and Amorak on Linux and didn't have too many complaints.
If you have a quick enough computer it runs perfectly fine. My desktop is overkill with an i7-920 and 6gb of ram, but even on my C2D Macbook Pro it runs quite quickly.
2 Computers+Multiple iPods/iPhones+iTunes Match=Win
FTR: I have used both Banshee and Amorak on Linux and didn't have too many complaints.
This post was edited on 3/27/12 at 10:24 pm
Posted on 3/27/12 at 10:22 pm to WikiTiger
Winamp is the only other one I'm somewhat familair with. I don't think its free.
Posted on 3/27/12 at 10:25 pm to WavinWilly
quote:
Why the hate for iTunes
it's really bloated
it tries to force some vendor lock in
it tries to take control of your connected apple devices
it's not open source
Posted on 3/27/12 at 10:29 pm to WikiTiger
quote:
it's really bloated
By and large I don't have this problem, but I'm a spec whore and have overkill computers. So I can see how this may effect some.
quote:
it tries to force some vendor lock in
quote:
it's not open source
I understand this.
Fair enough. Was just curious as to the why.
This post was edited on 3/27/12 at 10:30 pm
Posted on 3/27/12 at 10:31 pm to WikiTiger
great thread man. appreciate it.
Posted on 3/27/12 at 10:41 pm to WikiTiger
No Winamp?.. It really kicks the llama's arse.
Posted on 3/28/12 at 7:54 am to 870Hog
quote:
No Winamp?
not open source
Posted on 3/28/12 at 8:04 am to WikiTiger
Spotify?
Posted on 3/28/12 at 9:22 am to WikiTiger
Foobar2000
Posted on 3/28/12 at 9:45 am to WikiTiger
Bookmarked for later. 
ITunes is awful - after I installed it all my music had a popping sound, and I uninstalled it my music sounded normal. Not to mention it runs several programs in the background even when Itunes isn't open.
Windows Media Player used to be good until they wanted to clone Itunes.
Winamp is pretty cool.
ITunes is awful - after I installed it all my music had a popping sound, and I uninstalled it my music sounded normal. Not to mention it runs several programs in the background even when Itunes isn't open.
Windows Media Player used to be good until they wanted to clone Itunes.
Winamp is pretty cool.
Posted on 3/28/12 at 12:47 pm to WavinWilly
quote:
Why the hate for iTunes (excluding not being compatible with the penguin)?
As someone who didn't use iTunes before last year, here are a few things that I like about it, with most of this being a comparison to Microsoft's crapware in the form of Media Player and "the Zune software":
1. iTunes does reliable gapless playback.
2. iTunes is fast with my large collection.
3. iTunes never grovels the hard drive looking for new files and deleted ones, if you configure it for manual operation.
4. iTunes never touches metadata after adding files to its database, causing more frequent backups.
5. iTunes has excellent filtering capabilities for creating smart playlists.
I turn off the "Genius" feature, "Ping", and other stuff like that, and I also hide 9 of the 13 sources that can appear under "Library", so I have only Music, Books, Apps, and Radio. So it doesn't appear "bloated" at all. I use the Column Browser mode exclusively, and some rather neat, subtle usage patterns fall out of that, which are not possible with the similar view in "the Zune software". Appearance-wise, after you disable stuff you don't use, it looks like any other similar software, actually cleaner and less busy than some.
Of course, when you buy into Apple, you're also able to use things like Airplay, and you can stream to an Apple TV or enabled receiver from iTunes or an iDevice. Works very well.
I like to use what works well. So it's iTunes for my library-based music playback on my PC, along with the management of my iPod Touch. When I want to play music files from Windows Explorer, I use foobar2000. For library-based video playback, I use XBMC. For playing video files from Windows Explorer, I use VLC. For CableCARD TV purposes, I use the only game in town, Windows Media Center, and that's all I use Media Center for.
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