Addition of a music player app

[Yousuf Philips]

Hi Team,

As part of my research[1] of other flavors and Xfce distros, it was clear
that Xubuntu was missing a music player app, as parole isn't a
suitable replacement. Xubuntu previously shipped the Exaile music player
until 2016, as it became unmaintained. Here are some possible music players
that can be added to the next release of Xubuntu.

1. rhythmbox (8,473kb): The recommended option as it is in regular
development and is used by flavors (gnome, mate, budgie) as well as xfce
distros (mint, manjaro, mx).
2. pragha (2,293kb): Lighter weight than rhythmbox, used in opensuse xfce,
and last released in Feb 2019.
3. exile[2]: Was upgraded to a gtk3 and gstreamer 1 in 2019 and is getting
regular updates, but isn't in debian and possibly we wouldn't want to get
bitten by this again.

[1]
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/145vm29WnxgYm4Y_8guaGDAblZT5sRjZ3jhKRktgX1No/edit#gid=0
[2] https://exaile.org/

Regards,
Yousuf

[Martin Sjöstrand]

Not that I'm in the team, but I would vote for Pragha. It's lightweight,
and fills most peoples basic needs I think.

/Martin

Post by Yousuf Philips
Hi Team,
As part of my research[1] of other flavors and Xfce distros, it was
clear that Xubuntu was missing a music player app, as parole isn't a
suitable replacement. Xubuntu previously shipped the Exaile music
player until 2016, as it became unmaintained. Here are some possible
music players that can be added to the next release of Xubuntu.
1. rhythmbox (8,473kb): The recommended option as it is in regular
development and is used by flavors (gnome, mate, budgie) as well as
xfce distros (mint, manjaro, mx).
2. pragha (2,293kb): Lighter weight than rhythmbox, used in opensuse
xfce, and last released in Feb 2019.
3. exile[2]: Was upgraded to a gtk3 and gstreamer 1 in 2019 and is
getting regular updates, but isn't in debian and possibly we wouldn't
want to get bitten by this again.
[1]
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/145vm29WnxgYm4Y_8guaGDAblZT5sRjZ3jhKRktgX1No/edit#gid=0
<https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/145vm29WnxgYm4Y_8guaGDAblZT5sRjZ3jhKRktgX1No/edit#gid=0>
[2] https://exaile.org/ <https://exaile.org/>
Regards,
Yousuf

[Vinzenz Vietzke]

Hi,

just adding that while the last Pragha release is from 2019 it's not dead:
https://github.com/pragha-music-player/pragha/issues/165

vinz.

Post by Martin Sjöstrand
Not that I'm in the team, but I would vote for Pragha. It's lightweight,
and fills most peoples basic needs I think.
/Martin

Post by Yousuf Philips
Hi Team,
As part of my research[1] of other flavors and Xfce distros, it was
clear that Xubuntu was missing a music player app, as parole isn't a
suitable replacement. Xubuntu previously shipped the Exaile music
player until 2016, as it became unmaintained. Here are some possible
music players that can be added to the next release of Xubuntu.
1. rhythmbox (8,473kb): The recommended option as it is in regular
development and is used by flavors (gnome, mate, budgie) as well as
xfce distros (mint, manjaro, mx).
2. pragha (2,293kb): Lighter weight than rhythmbox, used in opensuse
xfce, and last released in Feb 2019.
3. exile[2]: Was upgraded to a gtk3 and gstreamer 1 in 2019 and is
getting regular updates, but isn't in debian and possibly we wouldn't
want to get bitten by this again.
[1]
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/145vm29WnxgYm4Y_8guaGDAblZT5sRjZ3jhKRktgX1No/edit#gid=0
<https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/145vm29WnxgYm4Y_8guaGDAblZT5sRjZ3jhKRktgX1No/edit#gid=0>
[2] https://exaile.org/ <https://exaile.org/>
Regards,
Yousuf

----------
--
xubuntu-devel mailing list
https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/xubuntu-devel

[Michael Lueck]

Greetings team,

1. rhythmbox (8,473kb): The recommended option as it is in regular development and is used by flavors (gnome, mate, budgie) as well as xfce distros (mint, manjaro, mx).

My one critique of it is it can be challenging to, by typing part of the text you know is an attribute of a file, to actually consistently find the piece of music you are seeking. I have enabled all
of the available view attribute lists. I keep trying to move the attribute keywords I remember to spots Rhythmbox full text searches on in that player UI search field.

Otherwise, rock solid, no issues.

I am thankful,

[Eric Curtin]

Personally I use VLC for everything video and music. Because I know it
works for most files I throw at it! So my choice would be:

1. Leave as is, shorter install times, smaller iso's. Not a critical
package.
2. VLC
3. rhythmbox

But just my 0.02!

Post by Michael Lueck
Greetings team,

Post by Yousuf Philips
1. rhythmbox (8,473kb): The recommended option as it is in regular

development and is used by flavors (gnome, mate, budgie) as well as xfce
distros (mint, manjaro, mx).
My one critique of it is it can be challenging to, by typing part of the
text you know is an attribute of a file, to actually consistently find the
piece of music you are seeking. I have enabled all
of the available view attribute lists. I keep trying to move the attribute
keywords I remember to spots Rhythmbox full text searches on in that player
UI search field.
Otherwise, rock solid, no issues.
I am thankful,
--
Michael Lueck
Lueck Data Systems
http://www.lueckdatasystems.com/
--
xubuntu-devel mailing list
https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/xubuntu-devel

[Amit Bidkar]

Hello,

+1 for your great work.

My choices:

1. Rhythmbox
2. deadbeef music player. It's small and expandable.


Thanks,
Amit Bidkar

Post by Eric Curtin
Personally I use VLC for everything video and music. Because I know it
1. Leave as is, shorter install times, smaller iso's. Not a critical
package.
2. VLC
3. rhythmbox
But just my 0.02!
Greetings team,

Post by Yousuf Philips
1. rhythmbox (8,473kb): The recommended option as it is in

regular development and is used by flavors (gnome, mate, budgie)
as well as xfce distros (mint, manjaro, mx).
My one critique of it is it can be challenging to, by typing part
of the text you know is an attribute of a file, to actually
consistently find the piece of music you are seeking. I have
enabled all
of the available view attribute lists. I keep trying to move the
attribute keywords I remember to spots Rhythmbox full text
searches on in that player UI search field.
Otherwise, rock solid, no issues.
I am thankful,
--
Michael Lueck
Lueck Data Systems
http://www.lueckdatasystems.com/ <http://www.lueckdatasystems.com/>
--
xubuntu-devel mailing list
https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/xubuntu-devel
<https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/xubuntu-devel>

[Vinzenz Vietzke]

Post by Amit Bidkar
2. deadbeef music player. It's small and expandable.

Deadbeef is not on the official repos and the respective Debian bug
report has been open for ages:
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=576975

Audacious would be an alternative.

vinz.

[Yousuf Philips]

Thanks for everyone's input on the discussion.

I personally use Audacious as my preferred audio player, I grew up on
winamp, and was initially going to include it in the list of suggestions,
but unfortunately it uses Qt libraries, so it would be out of the question
for Xubuntu. VLC would also be out of the question due to the same reason
of using Qt libraries and we already ship Parole as a video player.

Regards,
Yousuf

Post by Vinzenz Vietzke

Post by Amit Bidkar
2. deadbeef music player. It's small and expandable.

Deadbeef is not on the official repos and the respective Debian bug
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=576975
Audacious would be an alternative.
vinz.
--
xubuntu-devel mailing list
https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/xubuntu-devel

[Michael Lueck]

Greetings,

VLC would also be out of the question due to the same reason of using Qt libraries and we already ship Parole as a video player.

Personally I add VLC on Linux systems.

However for playing mp4's, lately it has been grumpy about pausing and resuming later. Freezes, locks up, takes the system hostage for a while. Parole is a more stable choice for viewing mp4's. No
such similar bad behavior. Parole might soon win me over for mp4 default application. Good reminder that Parole comes standard.

I am thankful,

[Stephen Kellat]

As part of my research[1] of other flavors and Xfce distros, it was clear that Xubuntu was missing a music player app, as parole isn't a suitable&nbsp;replacement. Xubuntu previously shipped the Exaile music player until 2016, as it became unmaintained. Here
are some possible music players that can be added to the next release of Xubuntu.

Exaile is out as an option for the foreseeable future as Debian remains in "Hard Freeze" until bullseye releases. I don't think we want to carry a delta in Ubuntu by having it as an Ubuntu-specific package. Depending upon how long Debian's freeze takes we could end up carrying that delta for some time.

Pragha looks interesting and I may install it on the bare metal box I just installed Impish on to test. I'll probably download some 78 RPM record tracks from the Internet Archive to use for playback testing. The Stamps-Baxter Quartet would work nicely, I think.

Rhythmbox is old faithful. Worst comes to worst we can bring it back. It would at least get the job done.

That's the most feedback I can offer at this hour.

Stephen Michael Kellat

[r***@nauta.cu]

Greetings.
In my humble opinion the best choice will be a lightweight GTK3 compatible music player like Pragha (it does a pretty decent job with openSUSE XFCE) or some other similar to Pragha. I also like to suggest: Xubuntu devs should think about including a tiny package with a trigger for apt install xubuntu-restricted-extras in a terminal and a icon displayed on the Music and Videos section of Whisker menu. In that way must of the codecs should be easily installed and Parole will work great.