Comments on: Songbird Singing A New Tune

By: former_songbird_user

former_songbird_user — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 23:00:01 +0000

The most attractive aspects of Songbird were its open source nature, tri-platform support, and its iPod plugin. Sadly, two of these options are now gone.

I’ve already abandoned Songbird on Windows in favor of a proprietary (but freeware) application. Looks like I’ll have to find a replacement on Linux. Too bad I won’t be able to run the same application across platforms. My only hope is that a cross-platform fork emerges.

btw – the Mac version won’t be dumped because POTI will be pushing to have SB bundled with media players. Having a Mac version gives users of the other commercial/consumer OS an option when purchasing a non-iPod player.

By: vistakiller

vistakiller — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 22:54:37 +0000

We have news. Community has act…

http://getnightingale.org/

By: fraggle

fraggle — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 22:33:06 +0000

why not drop the mac version than instead of linux?

By: ben

ben — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 22:05:04 +0000

i’m a heavy linux64 songbird user and i can’t understand the decision where 0.1% made the difference between mac and linux!

imagine how pretty the new songbird default feathers would look in the new ubuntu 10.04 design

By: G

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 21:46:42 +0000

How exactly does having a Linux build make Songbird money?

Does it cost more money to support Linux than it makes the customer?

If Linux users don’t make them money, and they cost more to support… why would Songbird bother?

By: Nick Elliott

Nick Elliott — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 21:46:15 +0000

I’ll admit to being slightly disappointed as I’d only recently started using Songbird on a regular basis and it showed a lot of potential.

Fortunately there are decent alternatives for Linux, still it’s sad to see one less competitor.

By: jsgosselin

jsgosselin — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 21:14:12 +0000

Well, this is it. I was using Songbird mostly because of the cross-platform capability. Now, I will switch back to Amarok in Linux and Winamp in Windows.

Thanks for the effort and good luck in windows. I think you will need it. I can’t see why someone would use Songbird in windows over all the other great players now that it’s not cross-platform…

By: Songbird for Linux -> Nightingale « The Weblog of Kamisamanou Burgess

Songbird for Linux -> Nightingale « The Weblog of Kamisamanou Burgess — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 20:54:45 +0000

[...] for Linux -> Nightingale After much discussion and internal stress levels rising, Pioneers of the Inevitable decided to drop Linux support for Songbird. This spawned a great sadness in many users of Songbird and Linux, but, as those who run Linux [...]

By: camaron

camaron — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 20:43:54 +0000

You responded to the avalanche of comments in a funny way: thanking those (the very few) who understand the decision, denying some unfunded accusations (Phillips and the rest..) and half-clarifying some numbers. But you’ve left out all the main points:
-You haven’t dropped Linux support, you have stopped being cross-platform, or the “Firefox of music players”
-Why you didn’t ask for support from the Linux community or shared your concerns before the final decision was taken.
-On what account it is more important to dedicate resources to things like video playing than to keep it cross-platform.

It seems to me -by the look of it- that
a- the final decision comes about as a result of much calculation on how to advance your business. It is literally your business not mine. You may or may not have the calculations right but something seems evident: the disappointment and the needs of a lot of people that were so excited about your project didn’t have much weight on either side of the balance.
b-I don’t doubt for a second that this decision has cost grief (and possibly some bitterness) to SOME of you guys, mainly those that strongly argued against dropping support. Unfortunately they were either the minority or not in the right managerial positions.
I am not one of those who are going to stop using Songbird out of spite. I don’t use Songbird on different platforms because I only use Linux. Songbird does exactly what I want from a music player/library organizer in the way I like. No other player comes remotely close to catering for my needs in such a way, in spite of all the well know resource and other issues (at least not in Linux). I don’t personally care about video playing, ipods and the rest of it. I’m just hoping that I can keep using some form of usable Songbird in the future. Whether it is that Linux version you say (in such vague terms) you are going to keep, or is some kind of fork (Lyrebird, etc) I don’t care much.
I hope you do the unlikely and backtrack your decision.
I see you soon

By: chris

chris — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 20:40:39 +0000

I am part of those 10.9%… and used Songbird since the first versions running in Linux AMD64.

I was happy with every new release because you could see major improvements and for me the functionality was sufficient

I will also be part of those of ban Songbird from their hard drives… it is a pitty, however: http://getnightingale.org