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Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2007 9:34 am Post subject: Music Suggestions

Okay question for the pound. I've been trying to get my home PC fully on Linux setup (CentOS right now), with none of the dual boot stuff like I've been running with my setup on Linux and hers on windows. My wife really doesn't care what OS it is, she just doesn't want to have to think about it to run stuff, Most importantly she just wants to make certain her music will play fine. That's the area I've always had problems getting to work, since everything we have is ripped to MP3 rather than OGG. She likes iTunes for doing all of her music through on the windows side.

Right now I'm considering getting the crossover office since it supports iTunes, and just running stuff in there. Anyone have suggestions for other ways to go, or if there might be a better Distro out there for home use specifically? It's all the same to me, I've just generally preferred a Distro that supports RPMs as it is the closest to running a setup.exe in the windows world.

Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2007 9:51 am Post subject:

Amarok, RhythmBox or Banshee will do what you need. You'll need to install a MP3 plugin though. For features Amarok wins every time, although Banshee does all that I need it to do. With plugins you can share with iTunes shares on a network (although only with versions prior to v7 as iTunes now blocks other applications).

Any particular reason as to why you are using CentOS? It is a clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, probably more suited to the workplace. If you like RPMs you could maybe try Fedora, or Ubuntu/SimplyMEPIS otherwise if debs would do the job for you. These days it doesn't make a great deal of difference at all. I've always preferred debs, but it is just personal choice. Fedora and Ubuntu are two of the best distributions around, and very user-friendly.

Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2007 10:13 am Post subject:

Jaymac wrote:
Any particular reason as to why you are using CentOS? It is a clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, probably more suited to the workplace.

It's no mere clone dear boy, CentOS IS Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It's a straight build of the public RHEL sources. They only changes they make are branding-wise. I second the Fedora/Ubuntu suggestion.

Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2007 10:36 am Post subject:

The only reason I'm running CentOS right now, is because in US Gov't Red Hat is generally the only "approved" linux Distro. CentOS is basically the free version of that. Anytime I've done any sort of "Intro to Linux" type classes for the IT Petty Officers here it was using CentOS, since if they see Linux anywhere else in their career it'll likely be Red Hat.

I've played around with quite a few different distro's at home and work. I Honestly don't have a major preference. It's really all the same thing to me, the Desktop makes a bigger difference than anything else unless your really getting into the nitty gritty, which I don't need to do. I was running Ubuntu for a while, but I ran the 64 bit version, which had limited firefox plug-in support, I believe flash was the killer on that one. When I did the last reload it was CentOS.

Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2007 11:00 am Post subject:

I would suggest Fedora then, since RHEL and Fedora are very closely linked. You might consider RHEL to be a sub-set of what's available in Fedora.

Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2007 1:51 pm Post subject:

the only real issue I've run into with Fedora/RH is that amarok/xmms/etc that are included in the default repositories are mp3 crippled and no matter how many times I tried to install lame or mod_mp3, without absolutely removing the programs and using an RPM from the source of the program, I couldn't get mp3s to play. I do have audacity currently acting as my mp3/mp4 player in my Fedora 7 install using a different repository to get the "non-free" codecs. If you can't find it yourself, I'll post links to where I found it when I get a chance.

Ubuntu 7.04 (I actually used Kubuntu since I prefer KDE) on the other hand worked right out of the box to play mp3/mp4/ogg/etc. I'm thinking of switching back to ubuntu just so the wireless will auto-load. NetworkManager seems to have issues in F7.

Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2007 2:30 pm Post subject:

Slymer wrote:
the only real issue I've run into with Fedora/RH is that amarok/xmms/etc that are included in the default repositories are mp3 crippled

You have to use a third party repo like Livna to get the right codecs because of the legal grey area that MP3 lives in, but it was no hassle to set up on my Fedora 6 box:

Code: Select all

#  rpm -ivh http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-6.rpm


#  yum install xmms-mp3

Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2007 10:38 pm Post subject:

CheeseMonger The Great wrote:
Slymer wrote:
the only real issue I've run into with Fedora/RH is that amarok/xmms/etc that are included in the default repositories are mp3 crippled

You have to use a third party repo like Livna to get the right codecs because of the legal grey area that MP3 lives in, but it was no hassle to set up on my Fedora 6 box:

Code: Select all
# rpm -ivh http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-6.rpm # yum install xmms-mp3

In Ubuntu if you try to play something that requires a missing codec, whether free or non-free, you will be prompted and it will then be downloaded and installed with one click of the mouse.

Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2007 11:18 pm Post subject:

Jaymac wrote:
CheeseMonger The Great wrote:
Slymer wrote:
the only real issue I've run into with Fedora/RH is that amarok/xmms/etc that are included in the default repositories are mp3 crippled

You have to use a third party repo like Livna to get the right codecs because of the legal grey area that MP3 lives in, but it was no hassle to set up on my Fedora 6 box:

Code: Select all
# rpm -ivh http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-6.rpm # yum install xmms-mp3

In Ubuntu if you try to play something that requires a missing codec, whether free or non-free, you will be prompted and it will then be downloaded and installed with one click of the mouse.

Oh that is clever. I must admit to not having tried the last couple of versions of Ubuntu.

Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2007 6:54 am Post subject:

Jaymac wrote:
CheeseMonger The Great wrote:
Slymer wrote:
the only real issue I've run into with Fedora/RH is that amarok/xmms/etc that are included in the default repositories are mp3 crippled

You have to use a third party repo like Livna to get the right codecs because of the legal grey area that MP3 lives in, but it was no hassle to set up on my Fedora 6 box:

Code: Select all
# rpm -ivh http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-6.rpm # yum install xmms-mp3

In Ubuntu if you try to play something that requires a missing codec, whether free or non-free, you will be prompted and it will then be downloaded and installed with one click of the mouse.

yup... that was the repo I was thinking of... and yup... that's the ease of use I was thinking of with ubuntu. the only issue I have with ubuntu is that it won't use my laptops full screen (1920x1200)... it only goes up to 1600x1080. Fedora gets closer at 1920x1080. it's an intel video chip that uses the i810 drver (but it's a i935 if I remember right). *shrugs*... guess when I rebuilt this laptop I put too high end of a screen in it for linux to handle it.