[Feedback] What did you do with Amarok?

Tue Jul 28 17:08:22 UTC 2009

On Tue, Jul 28, 2009 at 9:59 AM, Eric Altendorf<ericaltendorf at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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)

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=198240

> 2) Proper support for reading FLAC metadata (maybe fixed)

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=198857

As an aside, my experience filing bugs against Amarok2 has also been
extremely frustrating.  I have been a software engineer for the past
15 years, so I know something about how to file bug reports.  I do my
best to provide as complete information as I can.  The responses I've
gotten on the reports I've filed have generally indicated (1) that the
reader didn't really read the report, and just marked the issue as a
duplicate of some random other thing, or (2) that the reader just
wants to argue -- e.g., when I reported how reading native FLACs is
broken, and the reader started hassling me for not using ogg FLACs.
There are many reasons to use native FLACs, and many people do -- that
was not germane to the bug report.

--eric

> 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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