iTunes on Ubuntu - Songbird 1.4.3

Missing iTunes on Ubuntu ?

I have completely moved from Windows to Ubuntu 9.10 during last 3-4 months, and now I have alternatives for almost all the application I used to run on Windows. However, I'm missing iTunes so badly and couldn't find an attractive media player for Ubuntu till I came across Songbird.

A few days back I downloaded their latest release( Songbird 1.4.3, Build 1438) and really feel happy about the user interface and the features. I feel like I'm using iTunes on Ubuntu.(apparently the Songbird plugin for iPod support seems broken so I have to user gtkpod for manage iPod on Ubuntu )



For those who are new to Songbird, it is a free and open source software audio player (and web browser too) which was founded by Rob Lord. Songbird utilizes the cross-platform frameworks, Mozilla's XULRunner and GStreamer media framework, and capable of running on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and various Linux flavors(Ubuntu, Fedora).

When we compare Songbird 1.4.3 with many other similar media players, there are so many cool features that any music lover would expect from a matured music player, plus its so hard to find such a full featured player for Linux where user community is far less as compared to Windows. Here are some cool stuff that makes Songbird, 'the' player for Ubuntu.

Is this iTunes ? : almost there!

Don't feel bad.. This is not an iTunes screenshot. ;)



Album-art, Artist info, Lyrics on one player..

It not just a matter of listening to a song.. but also you can enjoy the lyrics, album art and artist info/photos/news on one player. This is a true service based design. It fetches various information for the current track from various service providers like Lastfm etc.

Listen and enjoy lyrics at the same time..


Inline Artist info/photos



Listen to Youtube music from the same player.. (of course this is an alternative to your web browser :))




Bad News

The 'Bad news' comes last... :(
Few days back I hear a heartbreaking news about Songbird. This is the news
On April 2, 2010, it was announced that POTI Inc. stops developing program based on multiplatform orientation and will focus only on its MS Windows and Mac OS X versions of Songbird, providing only unofficial support for Linux releases. Company stopped adding by itself new futures and maintaining Linux version and development of the Linux program rely only on community effort.


However, Songbird still remains the ultimate player for Ubuntu... and feel like this would do well on its target platforms (win/mac os').

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