Although it's compiled from SVN, it is called 2.1-beta1 in the changelog. This review is not neutral, due to my personal needs.
- Compilations still don't work. (Perhaps using iTunesCompilation tag may help)
  Some are recognized, but not complete and without cover.
  Adding albums manually, causes amarok to create double entries in the browser.
- After creating a collection, the browser still shows 0 tracks. Must be restarted.
- After restarting, amarok forgets the path to media. Setting it, causes a scan, which takes longer than the initial scan
- No changes in the collection were recognized because of (see above)
- The layout editor for playlists is neat, but without columns you are not able to sort it. (For me, the editor makes no sense at all)
- still no ability to hide the middle pane
As said earlier in this post, these points are essentially for me, so your mileage may vary.
Haven't tested iPod syncing, playback and replay gain for now, as it makes no sense at this point
My result:
More gadgets, less basic improvements

Sorry
m0nk

Well, my basic opinion still holds: We do not intend to turn 2.x into a clone of 1.x.

I fully understand that you got used to 1.4, but the same thing really happened when Amarok 1 was new. People said: "But it sucks! It's so different from XMMS!"

Amarok 2 has shortcomings, many of which will be remedied in 2.1. But if you expect it to be an 1.x clone, you won't find it here. Be innovative, help us to improve 2.x in a modern way. This is what I wish from our users.

Mark, don't get me wrong. I don't want a clone of the 1.x series. Why have I erased KDE3 completely?.
All I want, is a playlist, which can be sorted. But I also see, that Amarok gets more and more (blink-blink) functions, which not necessarily improve usability.
And if I wouldn't like amarok, why am I so anxious about this wonderful application?
Form follows function!
P.S. I'm using a ThinkPad, because it looks so beautiful (like a tank)

Greetings
m0nk

-The recognized [still incomplete] compilations don't have covers. Manually added ones get it.
-No Artist - Track in compilations
-Missing CD Nr. in browser
-Playback starts automatically when adding first entry to playlist (Bug/Feature?)
-The selection of folders to watch is lost/unchecked after restarting, although playback from the 'old' collection works. As a result changes don't get recognized.
-Checking them again, forces still a complete scan
-Status line stays: Playing xxxx from xxxxx, although playback has stopped and/or playlist is empty
-When adding a custom cover, the tree always closes completely
-When adding a compilation manually, browser jumps to the top
+Scrobbling works
+Caching of tracks for last.fm seems to work
+Last song not scrobbled seems to be fixed

As always, not a harsh critic, but just an overview.

More to come
m0nk

SVN 951014
-Number of tracks is calculated after first scan without restart.
-Compilations work, (but doesn't show artist). No covers, perhaps when amarok reads embedded covers (again).
-Playback still starts automagically.
-Selection of folders to scan stays checked, even after restart.
-Scrobbeling works fine, including last song in playlist.
-Status line doesn't update, when playback has finished.
-I've stated above, that caching does work but that was an error.
-Playlists can't be sorted.
-Adding disc-number to playlist layout isn't honoured.

Thank you for the improvements, especially on the collectionscanner
m0nk

i've just compiled amarok 2.1 beta1 from source, and everythings looks great, except of two things:
first, there was no standart playlist-layout...
second: its possible to write a cover to an ipod, but amarok wouldn't delete them. also while searching for covers for a track on ipod, there is no artist given in the search string, which leads to some huge amount of results ;-]

I'm having the same problem Dieter already mentioned,
The set path to my music disappears when i restart Amarok.
Also when adding files to my collection, the set path to my
music disappears and I have to select the path again and rescan
my collection.

Arch Linux 64-bit, KDE 4.2.2, xine-lib 1.1.16.3, Amarok 2.1beta1

Rehto wrote:I'm having the same problem Dieter already mentioned,
The set path to my music disappears when i restart Amarok.
Also when adding files to my collection, the set path to my
music disappears and I have to select the path again and rescan
my collection.

Arch Linux 64-bit, KDE 4.2.2, xine-lib 1.1.16.3, Amarok 2.1beta1

Not sure what's going on there, but here's a workaround:

Use $HOME/Music, which is the standard location that Amarok scans automatically.

I don't wanna sound rude but you are kidding right?
I hope that's just a dirty hack and there's a fix coming
some day. FYI my $HOME is too small for my collection...

No, not kidding at all. You should see me kidding, it's pretty violent.

I wrote "workaround" for a reason.

I symlinked the dir with my music to $HOME/Music and gonna test it

Edit: OK everything went really funky: amarok keeps crashing when scanning my collection after I made that
symlink

P.S. Sorry if I sounded rude

I am having the same issue....

This is what i have so far:

- My collection is on a 2nd harddisk mounted to /mnt/media, checking the path in settings will be 
  forgotten.

- Creating the dir ~/Music will instantly make amarok check that very dir in settings. It wont help with my
  path to 2nd harddisk tho.

- Rechecking the path after it got forgotten will create the same path a 2nd time in ~/.kde/share/config/
  amarokrc - the bad memory is ONLY gui related, the config file remembers it fine.

- checking another dir inside of $HOME will be remembered (e.g. ~/Muisic and ~/docs) - its not possible
  to remove that dir from settings dialog tho


What i havent tried yet:
- mounting external drive somewhere in $HOME.
- actually testing if updating of database and such works when symlinking external path to ~/Music


For all having this issue: what distribution are you on? it seems that mostly all are on arch linux (including me.)



Related bug report:

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=187126

I can confirm the three problems you told us...

I'll try symlinking (yes again) my collection to ~/Music

Edit: Ok Amarok didn't crash (this time) when I symlinked my collection...

Edit2: Ok adding and removing music from the collection works correctly when
I symlinked my music -> ~/Music. The update collection feature just takes as long
as the rescan collection...