9 Top Alternative Linux Music Players
Reinventing the wheel is sometimes viewed as a significant
barrier to the development of open source software. Critics
point out that if developers simply collaborated more with each other,
instead of creating yet another Linux distribution or programming
another text editor, this would help to simplify matters for users, and
actually significantly advance the development of established open
source projects.
Personally, I like choice. Having the opportunity to select
from dozens of mainstream Linux distributions and choose the one that
best fits my requirements works really well. The same applies for the
individual applications that are included in a Linux distribution. I
do not see an issue in the availability of hundreds of open source text
editors, backup tools, databases, productivity tools etc even if many
of them have a similar set of features. There will always be
important differences between the applications. Moreover, a developer
who simply reinvents the wheel still learns from the programming
experience. The simple open source text editor or sticky notes utility
may lay the foundation blocks for a developer to create something more
groundbreaking in the future.
Even with the abundance of Linux multimedia software, users
are often polarised into one of three camps - either the music
management application Rhythmbox
(inspired by Apple's iTunes), the Rediscover music world of Amarok,
or the feature-laden
Banshee media player.
Our Audio
Software Group Test identified a number of
other quality audio players worthy of attention besides the
aforementioned trio. For this feature, we wanted to identify
top-notch audio players which receive even less attention
in Linux publications. The majority of these applications are not
included in mainstream Linux distributions, and some are early in their
development cycle. But they all have in common something
which makes them stand out from the rest of the crowd, and come with
our strongest recommendation.
Now, let's explore the 9 alternative audio players at hand.
For each title we have compiled its own portal page, providing a
screenshot of the software in action, a full description with an
in-depth analysis of its features, together with links to relevant
resources and reviews.
| Alternative Music Players |
| Aqualung |
Gapless Gtk-based audio player |
| Xnoise |
Bags
of features included in this music and video player |
| Decibel
Audio Player |
Simple and very clean music player for the GNOME desktop |
| Minirok |
Minimalist
audio player which ships with a simple and intuitive interface |
| Herrie |
Minimalistic music player that uses the command line |
| Mesk |
Similar
to the Windows freeware player Foobar 2000 |
| DeaDBeeF |
Billed as the ultimate music player |
| Guayadeque
Music Player |
For
Linux audophiles with large music collections |
| Clementine |
Modern music player and library organiser. Port of
Amarok |
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Return to our complete collection of Group
Tests, identifying the best Linux software.
Last Updated Thursday, February 09 2012 @ 02:30 PM EST
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