Songbird customer service policy currently a self-fulfilling prophecy

Yes, once the really big features on the roadmap are implemented then I too hope that some of the more innovative features can be offered, but I actually think the Songbird team is pretty generous in supporting innovative features. In fact, those are features that all of us want. I was thinking more about features that some people want but the majority of users don't really care about. For example, an en entire release cycle was used to develop a system to sync iTunes and Songbird. This was basically a response to the fact that a lot of iPod users were complaining that Songbird wouldn't sync with their iPods. But I run Songbird in Linux where iTunes doesn't even exist, and I also don't own an iPod. This feature is useless to me. Meanwhile, features that I passionately care about (CD ripping, podcasting, video support, mass storage class) were all delayed a release to satisfy this particular demographic. I'm glad that the Songbird team are listening to their users, but I think it's a bad policy to always neglect smaller user groups such as Linux users or people without iPods in order to make the majority of the users happy. The effect of this is that the windows users with iPods who were already the majority of Songbird users get yet another feature that they want and everyone else is forced to wait longer. By the time the next release cycle rolls around, the Windows users with iPods represent an even larger proportion of Songbird's users and their requests further cry out the requests of others. In the end, this does not make Songbird a broad, open platform for browsing media in the same way that say Firefox has become a broad, open platform for browsing the web.

One last note (because I want this to be clear): I mention Windows users with iPods because from GetSatisfaction and the Songbird Blog and everywhere else, that seems to be the vast majority of Songbird users. But I don't mean to demonize them. I don't care what OS other people use or what portable media player. I just want Songbird to be the best platform it can be, and the way I see it going, it's becoming more and more tethered to a particular audience and a particular user base. In the end, that's not good for anyone. ( Delete or Edit)

Sure, as I said above, an entire release cycle was devoted to syncing with iTunes. This was considered a sort of compromise, best-we-can-do way to satisfy the uproar of complaints that Songbird does not sync with iPods. But there are thousands of other portable music players whose manufacturers have not used draconians methods to keep 3rd party platforms from supporting them. Anyone using any of these devices has been forced to wait for Songbird to support their portable media player while this half-assed support for iPods was implemented. So the first demographic which I would say has been left-behind is non-iPod users.

2nd demographic: Linux and Mac users. Now that iTunes syncing has been completed, the team is finally working on a mass storage class to support these other devices. While it's listed on the roadmap as "mass storage class," (as though anyone could use it) if you read more closely, it's only being developed for Windows. One of Songbird's developers who uses OS/X is working on getting it going on Macs, but even that effort is not supposed to be officially supported in the release, and it "hasn't been determined yet" when Linux support will be added. When I pressed the Songbird team on this issue in the blog, they wouldn't even commit to adding Linux support within a year. In other words, Linux users may have to wait over a year longer than everyone else to get a basic feature such as a mass storage class. The reason why they are not implementing it in Linux is equally smug and inconsiderate; I was told that "It's non-trivial to port it to other platforms, and we don't currently have the resources to extend it to the Linux platform." I assume it was non-trivial to write the mass storage class in the first place for Windows users but they somehow found the resources to get this done.

3rd demographic: Users with low-end hardware. The Songbird team claims that Songbird has a smaller memory footprint and a faster startup time than iTunes, but that is only true when Songbird is installed without any add-ons. iTunes has a plethora of features that Songbird does not, many of which you have to install an add-on to get in Songbird. If you include all the add-ons necessary to get all the features in Songbird that iTunes has then I doubt it boots faster or users a smaller memory footprint than iTunes. And iTunes is an awful bloated program that runs slow and takes forever to boot. There are a lot of people looking for a more lightweight alternative to iTunes, and I don't think Songbird has really delivered in this department. They used to devote a large part of their release cycle to lowering the memory footprint and improving performance, but lately, it's been an afterthought at best. Basically, performance was brought down to the point where it was acceptable on high-end machines like desktops and fast laptops. If your computer is not that fast, then you're just out of luck.

I'm sure there are other demographics that feel they have been left-behind, but these are just the ones that I know most personally. Like I said above, I don't expect to get all my wishes granted, but I think it's ultimately bad for everyone if Songbird just cators to a single audience. ( Delete or Edit)

"We'll see what POTI will do after the release this fall, that should bring cd ripping and podcast, if I remember correctly... I hope their next moves will then be for Linux and Macs, and universal MSC support.
But before that, their resource will focus on the main population."

Most of the features planned in the release this Fall were supposed to land a long time ago, like last Fall, but they got put off again and again. I don't think those features will be done when the Roadmap says they will be. Already, the Jackson 5 release is behind. But either way, the features you're talking about, CD ripping, MSC support, etc., those are all Windows only. Which is exactly my point. Why should I invest time and energy into a product that from a Linux standpoint, hasn't really advanced in the last 6 months and isn't supposed to get new features for over a year? A year is a long time.

Also, you seem to be interpreting my argument to say that Songbird should prioritize Linux or OS/X over Windows. I am not suggesting that the Songbird team prioritize Linux or OS/X over Windows or that they even give them the same level of attention as Windows. But I do think they need to balance their priorities or else they self-select themselves into a narrow community of users. A good way to do this is to commit to working on one (out of like 6) features that are being championed by a smaller community. It's check and balance on the dictatorship of the majority. Remember, I said: "I propose that the team create a system to recognize and implement one minority feature request each release in addition to the 5 or 6 majority feature requests which already get attention."

"All that being said, I share your concern about low-end hardware, that is totally true. But progressively, such hardware will be replaced and meet SB standards...I know, I'm part of those, and I also know I will have to wait for my next hardware to take full advantage of SB. But in the meantime, I'm trying to help SB development by testing it on a better hardward at work :)"

The trend right now is not faster hardware; it's smaller and more energy efficient hardware. In fact, the only growing segment of the computer industry right now (as far as I know) is netbooks, which are tiny computers that run so slow they can't always play YouTube videos. The computers of tomorrow are not computers as we know them; they're hand held devices like iPhones and Android phones, MIDS, netbooks, e-readers, etc. Maybe in 3 years those computers will be as fast as our desktops, but in the meantime, most software manufacturers are trying to slim down their software so it can run on slower hardware and thus be more portable. I don't think you can rely on the hardware to "catch up" to your software; nor is it a good model for software development. ( Delete or Edit)

sometimes the spam catcher is a tad sensitive... its not anyone from POTI that's blocking your comments.. its them robots ;-)

i've been spammed many times myself :-P ( Delete or Edit)

@Michael Purses

That's an interesting possibility that I hadn't considered. I hope you're right. :-) ( Delete or Edit)

Awesome Laura! Thank you! ( Delete or Edit)

Ha! That's an ironic twist of fate. I spent 15 minutes looking for a way to get to the spam filter and un-spam your comment, but as far as I can tell, there's no way to do this in Blogger. Stupid Google, controlling my information. I'll look into this again later this week when I have some time again. ( Delete or Edit)