Songbird Is Out

[blah509]

http://www.songbirdnest.com/

Now for that Slim integration.....hmmmmm

g

[blah509]

sorry....I should have posted this in the post above...

Songbird is a media browser and Web player built from Firefox's browser engine. Songbird is open source, will run on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux and supports user contributed, cross-platform extensions.

[fairyliquidizer]

I've also read that it's big, fat, and slow. Is this true? Experiences please guys?

[blah509]

I just started using it this morning....so far so good. Also I was doing a little digging around and found a link to slimdevices built in (squeezebox integration...) See screenshot

[blah509]

It's under the services section so I have a good feeling about it....Sonos is there as well boooo

g

[fuzzyT]

fairyliquidizer wrote:
> I've also read that it's big, fat, and slow. Is this true? Experiences
> please guys?

AFAIK this is a _very early_ release from this project. Not sure
whether they're calling it alpha, beta or whatever, but I would not
expect a true release level of features or quality at this point.

That being said, I'm pretty excited about the project.

I use a lot of disconnected small tools to create, manage and play my
music library. These excel at the small tasks they are designed for,
but don't really have much in the way of aesthetics when it comes time
to sit back a enjoy what you've built. SlimServer is great, but like
many I have sometimes wanted the UI of a native app. Songbird looks to
have some potential in that department. And the world _really needs_ an
open alternative to iTunes and it's kin.

So, how could this work with the Squeezeboxes?

I'm pretty sure a SlimServer would still be in the mix. It drives the
SBs, implements the CLI, handles firmware updates, synchronization, and
provides an interface for web and the devices. Songbird would generate
the non-web user interface, do extra stuff like podcasts, and use some
sort of plug-in to communicate to the SS CLI.

The big question in my mind is which application owns the library
database. Does Songbird own it and provide linkage to SS (as with
iTunes today)? Or does SS own it and provide some sort of data layer
linkage that Songbird can use to drive its interfaces?

In any case, this app sure looks like a good candidate for a native app
that could drive the Squeezeboxes. It'll be interesting to watch it
mature and see what the community does with it.

--rt

[Mark Lanctot]

I haven't been able to get this site to load this
morning. Mostly server resets, although I once
got a MySQL error.

Is it a problem on my end or are you guys also
having problems?

I wanted to find out if/how much they were
charging for the software.

blah509 wrote:
> http://www.songbirdnest.com/
>
> Now for that Slim integration.....hmmmmm
>
> g
>
>

--
___________________________________


Mark Lanctot
___________________________________

[fuzzyT]

Mark Lanctot wrote:
> I haven't been able to get this site to load this
> morning.

I'm getting simple connection timeouts. Most likely just load from the
hordes wanting to download the app. (There's a highly ranked mention on
Digg).

[Robin Bowes]

ron thigpen said the following on 02/08/2006 04:22 PM:
> Mark Lanctot wrote:
>
>> I haven't been able to get this site to load this morning.
>
>
> I'm getting simple connection timeouts. Most likely just load from the
> hordes wanting to download the app. (There's a highly ranked mention on
> Digg).

>From the site:

Ouch

We're experiencing too high of a load

Songbird 0.1 for Windows (link)

R.

[fuzzyT]

Yes, they've been "Dugg" (or "Slashdugg", your preference).

There's a bunch of discussion, and also links to some mirrors of the
installer, at the Digg page.

<http://digg.com/music/Songbird_Proof-of-Concept_released_(finally)>

BTW, this is the v0.1.0 release, and all proper disclaimers and
expectation controls were apparently exercised. There's even a fat,
black, little cartoon bird mascot depicted in post-nosedive "splat"
posture. And yet, predictably, there are many comments about the current
state of quality.

--rt