Feedback: FC8 Crashes, UI problems, etc.

[Gleb Litvjak]

Hello ziklag!

Sorry for the double send - I forgot to CC ziklag, and he may not be 
subscribed to the Amarok ML

I'm not a developer, but here's what I think from a user's POV:

> 1. Amarok crashes frequently.  I cannot load a playlist
> and walk away and expect it to run.

That is odd, cause on my box, Amarok never crashed for over a year. This may 
be a packaging issue, a broken install, damaged files or something else. Does 
it crash randomly or there are certain conditions that will make it 100% 
crash?

> 3. I like to listen to sermons.  Being spoken material,
> many of them are recorded at low bitrates.  The Xine
> engine is simply not able to play these at any level
> of acceptability (mpg123 and SoundPlay (BeOS) work
> just fine).  (But mpg123 is a commandline app.)

What exactly does it lack? Is the output quality substandard?

> 5. SoundPlay allows:
> 	a. multiple concurrent playlists

Amarok is not a playlist-oriented player. Instead, the main concept is the 
collection (and things derived from it - smart playlists etc).

> 	b. playing many tracks concurrently

Hmmm... Playing 2 or more songs simulaneously? I wonder how many people would 
really need this feature...

> 	c. playing music forwards or backwards(secret
> 	messages!) from -400% to + 400% pitch/speed.

The same here - I doubt that even 1% of Amarok users will appreciate this 
feature.

> 	d. drag-n-drop interface (alas, that's due
> 	to Linux/KDE.)

You'll be surprised, but Amarok supports DnD.

> OK. I realize that BeOS was designed THE RIGHT WAY (TM)
> from the ground up (64bit FS, Attributes, Near Real-Time
> response, seemless audio/video support with integral
> plug-in architecture.)  Linux is forced to respond with
> myriads of half-finished/half bugged-checked libraries.
> (DLL H*LL/RPM madness ensues when one tries to update an FC
> system (first you must delete all existing A/V libraries to
> update because missing dependancies prevent updates of certain
> RPMS.)

This is a Fedora problem - there are many other distributions, so you can 
check them out.

> O.K. How can you fix this?
>
> 1. Use the MPG123 or (MPG321) engine instead. That is
> use a plug-in architecture for MP3, OGG, WMA support
> instead of relying on the inadequate buggy Xine engine.

I seriously doubt that - as Amarok 1.4* series are now considered "legacy", 
and Amarok 2 already uses Phonon instead of Xine, the devs would not spend 
precious time and effort changing the audio engine (which will certainly 
require quite a lot of work and introduce new bugs).

> 3. Encourage Linux "powers that be" to take a serious
> look at BeOS and what it has to offer.  Ask yourselves
> why someone would prefer to use an 8 year old OS on
> a Pentium III instead of FC8 on an Athlon 64Bit system.

Hmmm... Power of habitude?

> 4. Get RedHat to get a clue to the fact that MP3 is the
> de facto standard and to allow easy access to PLAYBACK
> capabilities.  There's nothing illegal about me playing
> my purchased MP3, my BeOS (BladeEnc) ripped music, etc.
> on my Linux box.

That is a redhat problem, which other distros lack. On a kubuntu box all you 
have to do is install libxine1-extracodecs and tunepimp5-mp3 (for MusicBrainz 
lookup) - and viola! MP3 works.

Best regards,
Gleb