[Feedback] What did you do with Amarok?

Tue Jul 28 16:59:07 UTC 2009

On Tue, Jul 28, 2009 at 1:13 AM, Alejandro
Wainzinger<aikawarazuni at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 28, 2009 at 7:12 AM, Eric Altendorf<ericaltendorf at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Well, it would be nice if Amarok could play FLACs from the beginning.
>> Like, really, the beginning.
>>
>> It would also be nice if it didn't consistently fail to read FLAC
>> metadata (possibly solved in recent versions I've tried)
>>
>> It would be nice if having 200 compilation albums didn't litter the
>> artists list with 3000 random artists.  (Finally solved, yay.  Amarok
>> 2 was totally unusable before "Various Artists" came back.)
>>
>> It would be nice if Amarok didn't try to create symlinks on vfat
>> filesystems on ipods when you try to sync them.  Not only does Amarok
>> manage to corrupt the ipod, but in the process it throws up several
>> thousand "Can't create symlink" dialog boxes.  Useful.
>
> If by sync, you mean copy all of your local collection to the iPod,

Well, copy anything to the ipod.  Even a single track.

> copying should not generate symlinks, and the copying is done by KIO
> anyway, so I'm not sure what Amarok is doing wrong.

Yeah, it's very weird.

>  I've never
> experienced this, and I haven't seen a bug report on it, but link me
> if I'm wrong, I'd like to take a look at it just in case.

Hmm, it would be a lot easier for me to find it if bugs.kde.org had
functional search and/or a way to list bugs, open or closed, that one
has filed oneself. :)  Lemme go dig....

Ok, here: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=200690

It was of course filed and ignored.  :(  I have tried copying tracks
to my ipod about a dozen times, across different versions of amarok2,
and even after having completely reformatted my ipod.  Always the
same.

>>
>> It would be nice if album art could be loaded at some size larger than
>> the miniscule default.
>>
>>
>> And yes, I have filed detailed bug reports for the more severe of these issues.
>>
>> Overall, yeah, Amarok2 killed a lot of good features, provided no
>> valuable new features, and most of all, broke a lot of basic
>> functionality.  The most recent versions I've picked up have be
>> re-approaching the "usable" state, so I do have hope for Amarok2 some
>> day being good again, but man things have sucked really bad for a long
>> time.
>
> Generic speech is all very well and good for FUD, but could you
> explain _which_ good features were "killed," which of the new features
> are not "valuable" and which basic functionality is broken?  Also,
> what is required until you consider Amarok 2 "usable?"

What I missed when moving to amarok2:
1) Proper support for playing FLACs from the beginning (still broken)
2) Proper support for reading FLAC metadata (maybe fixed)
3) Support for "Various Artists" (like I said, essential if you have
200 comp albums, fortunately fixed)
4) Reliable support for iPod

If I can see all my music (2 and 3), play it properly (1), and put it
on an ipod (4) I have really all I need from a music player.  I have
tried many other music players and they all have their own
problems....

Right now I am on Amarok2 and just suffering through (1), hoping it
will be fixed, and using gtkpod for (4).  gtkpod is a piece of crap,
but it does manage to get (not all) music onto the ipod.

--eric

>>
>>
>> --eric
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Jul 27, 2009 at 9:11 AM, Ian Monroe<ian.monroe at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> On Mon, Jul 27, 2009 at 6:06 AM, Gary
>>> Steinert<gary.steinert.ml at googlemail.com> wrote:
>>>> On Monday 27 July 2009 01:25:06 mail at enricojoerns.de wrote:
>>>>> Enrico Jörns sent a message using the contact form at
>>>>> http://amarok.kde.org/en/contact.
>>>>>
>>>>> I just want to point out very quickly how dissapointed I am after having
>>>>> used the 2nd generation of Amarok.
>>>>> How could you remove all the very good things that made Amarok to my
>>>>> veryvery favourite music player?
>>>>>
>>>>> I was nearly shocked how bad 2.1 is!
>>>>>
>>>>> No possibilty to delete files out of playlist
>>>> This has been part of the playlist since 2.0 was released IIRC. Either right
>>>> click -> Remove from Playlist or use the icon at the bottom of the playlist.
>>>
>>> He means delete files.
>>>
>>>>> No possibility to hide the contex window (heard fixed now!?)
>>>>> No playlist shuffle option (or too much hided?)
>>>> Shuffle and repeat are under the Playlist menu. We're working on getting it into
>>>> the main window, but the playlist will need a bit of a rethink before we will
>>>> be able to manage it without cluttering the screen too much.
>>>
>>> Amarok 2.1 doesn't have a shuffle feature, though 2.2 will.
>>>
>>>>> No more possibility to easy rename id3 in playlist for multiple songs..
>>>> This is working at least in trunk. Never had call to test it before now so I
>>>> don't know what its like in 2.1
>>>
>>> Well its certainly not as easy as in Amarok 1.4.
>>>
>>>>> Hardly any configuration for everything
>>>> Like what exactly? Because our audio is handled by phonon, a lot of the audio
>>>> settings have moved to the global KDE settings.
>>>
>>> And Amarok 2.2's whole layout will be configurable. :)
>>>
>>>>> ...and many more of those little nice things that brought Amarok 1.4 along!
>>>> We have lost a few features, but we haven't taken anything out of Amarok
>>>> without careful consideration. There are features that we haven't been able to
>>>> implement yet due to other restrictions. Like the graphic equaliser which,
>>>> until recently was not supported by phonon.
>>>>
>>>> But if you take a look at 2.1, you'll find a great deal of new and interesting
>>>> features, such as a big increase in the number of internet services that you
>>>> can access right from within Amarok. And a new, more powerful scripting
>>>> interface that will allow a whole new array of scripts to be written.
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> So, sorry, but as long as I can, I will try to youse the old Amarok, hope
>>>>> it will run in 4.0 too...
>>>>>
>>>>> Please bring back life to Amarok! There are so many people who wish that!
>>>> Amarok is very much alive =) It's just evolved.
>>>
>>> I agree. :) Amarok 2.1 already has everything I need, outside of some
>>> regressions with the dynamic playlist which I'm working on now.
>>>
>>> Ian
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> Amarok at kde.org
>>> https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/amarok
>>>
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