Seriously, this was supposed to be the iTunes killer. The only problem is, when one installs iTunes, that's it, he installs iTunes, his music plays, he can edit playlists, the UI is logically laid out, etc.

Amarok is a hacked up pile of turd. Seriously, the docs that explain how to get mp3 support point to some unofficial repository. Where are the docs that give the slightest hint on what is required to play a simple mp3? The format is probably the most common music file format, but there is not built in support, or even a simple way to get it? I admit, amarok isn't my only **** tonight - fedora/redhat is on the list too.

Oh, and amarok blew away most of the playlists on my 5th gen ipod (whichever version was installed by default with Ubuntu Feisty). I guess I'm a little **** about that too. **** I just wanted to manage the music on my mp3 player and listen to some tunes. I'm off to give rhythmbox a try, if that doesn't work, back to Windows/iTunes I suppose.

OK, so back to the feature request:
  1. better documentation
  2. more built in functionality
  3. default mp3 support??????
  4. Better themes, or the ability to use gtk.
  5. How about when you double click a song it just plays?
  6. Unclutter the UI.
  7. better documentation!!!

Reading is a prerequisite for using free software.

Dan wrote:Reading is a prerequisite for using free software.

I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic or not, but if you noticed, I put "better documentation" in there 2 times...

Dan, I would suggest the OP is using one of those distros that wraps everything in dog droppings - that's the only thing I can think of that would explain the smell. And probably then ignored the popup telling them how to install mp3 support.

Dear bugmenot, Dan is most definitely not being sarcastic. You've chosen to use a linux distribution which deliberately cripples mp3 support, requiring you to perform a fairly basic query using the search engine of your choice.

dangle_wtf wrote:Dan, I would suggest the OP is using one of those distros that wraps everything in dog droppings - that's the only thing I can think of that would explain the smell. And probably then ignored the popup telling them how to install mp3 support.

Dear bugmenot, Dan is most definitely not being sarcastic. You've chosen to use a linux distribution which deliberately cripples mp3 support, requiring you to perform a fairly basic query using the search engine of your choice.

Fair enough, and true enough. Seems that most of the distros do this in some way or another (wrapping it all in dog droppings). Which distro do you recommend then?

I don't recommend any in particular - I usually suggest getting to know the one you've chosen
Shortcomings aside, (k)ubuntu is fairly well documented. Like anything there's a learning curve, and without knowing where you're at on that curve, I can't really tell you where to start. Distro home-pages usually have links to documentation, and official forums will more than likely have information about unofficial package repositories.
Since you will probably have already found the page via your searching, I offer you http://amarok.kde.org/wiki/Download:Kubuntu and suggest you have a look through the rest of the Amarok wiki.

Not exactly the answer I was looking for (and a bit surprised that you contradicted your first post). (*)Ubuntu and Fedora are the root of the exact problem that I'm talking about. In order to get mp3 support, just load up this repo and hit go. That's not what I want. I want to know exactly what and how to get mp3 support working, and why it takes so many separate packages to get it done. I call it dependency hell. I'll grab the svn repo and start the build from there. I had to go through this exercise with getting a video player that could play the formats that I wanted since Fedora cripples that too. I ended up just pulling the mplayer source and going that route. Kaffeine dropped the ball there too, since it says something simliar that Amarok does on how to get those formats (points you to a repo). I guess repos are fine until you get into a distro (ie, fc8) that there isn't one available for, hence my frustration.

Thanks.

no contradiction. There are many people happily using amarok with the *buntus and fc... (well, perhaps not happily in the case of fc )
If you feel the documentation is inadequate, even after being pointed directly to the information you needed, you're welcome to add to it with your experiences.

Alrighty then, I obviously have some sort of difficulty with communicating effectively and getting my point across. Appreciate your time, see you around.

Thanks.

As for the MP3 support in Ubuntu - I went through hell when trying to follow other people's instructions "sudo apt get blah blah blah"

just go to Add/Remove programs, search for AmaroK in "All Available Applications" and install the MP3 codecs. 

From what I understand MP3 is a licensed file format and can't be included with the default install without shelling out some $$ which would probably remove the "Free" nature of this application (feel free to correct me if i'm wrong on that statement"

Personally, I'm not particularly happy with the music players available for Linux distros.  Certainly not the drag-and-drop/right click world that windows and mac has made out for us but Amarok seems to be the better option.  Songbird has built-in mp3 support and an iTunes-like interface, but is DREADFULLY slow with a collection of even a moderate size.

As far as built-in functionality - what more do you need?  Playlists, smart playlists, MP3 device support, Cover art?  all seems to be there. 

Actually, current versions of Amarok (on modern distros like Kubuntu) are able to install mp3 support automatically. Once you try to play an mp3, Amarok asks you if the codec should be installed.

Except it was broken for one release, as far as I can tell - certainly didn't work automatically here - had to manually install mp3 support on the buntu laptop

Mind you, that was pretty damn simple even for a buntu noob like I am.

i had a lot of problems with the auto-install on Ubuntu.  I would click "OK" for the "Install MP3 Support" dialog box and it would hang indefinitely to the point where I would have to restart Ubuntu in order to kill the process.  But doing the add/remove programs thing did the trick for me.  But I just have the version of Amarok that's in the Add/Remove list.  I'm doing my best to avoid command line in my switch from WinXP to Ubuntu

Yeah, the hanging problem is a known issue in Feisty (happens semi-randomly); However, it's fixed in Gutsy.

Hello peoples,

Amarok is great but... I'm still using 'old' XMMS with EQU plugin (http://equ.sourceforge.net/) because I think is the best equalizer plugin ever! What about including an EQU plugin in Amarok?