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Too much copy and paste. Not enough innovation.
Hey Folks.
I want to talk to you guys about design. First off, I'm really not into the design of songbird. This whole left sidebar thing that so many players seem to love is hugely over-rated. Its bloat from decades gone past. Please don't waste your time trying to copy what all the crappy popular players(iTunes) are doing. They're popular cause they know how to hype themselves up and lock users in. This is an open-source project so for the love of God: INNOVATE.
Lets talk about what a media player like this needs: Space efficient file organization via media tags OR a file browser on the left pane for those who actually organize their library in the file system. Main content area should be a playlist, not the whole damn library. I need to see what's relevant(what's playing) not everything on my hard drive.
Now I realize that its possible to turn the main library area into a playlist, if I really want to. But now how do I add my files? If the left pane contained my media library, it'd be no problem. I can make the right pane into a directory tree with a plugin, but the plugin sucks(i.e. no actual file management capabilities, I assume that has to do with this being a Java app.). Don't ask me to drag files from the media library onto the playlist file in the list. That's stupid and inefficient.
At the very least every panel or content area you have should be able to do anything that any other panel or content area can do. That's called modularity. You have browser functionality and all kinds of other garbage in here, but the core elements of the software are drawing off the terrible design choices of proprietary programs.
Which reminds me. Fire your art manager. The bastard took a screen shot of the iTunes interface and then C&P'd the buttons into your software. Its a disgrace. I don't mean to be harsh with you guys, but if you're competent enough to get this software to 1.0 status, you're competent enough to do it properly.
This is my third attempt to enjoy using this software. It has failed miserably every single time. Do it right, and I'll happily stop using Amarok.
Thanks for actually reading this far.
P.S. Put some kind of email address on your site, I hate talking to machines.
I want to talk to you guys about design. First off, I'm really not into the design of songbird. This whole left sidebar thing that so many players seem to love is hugely over-rated. Its bloat from decades gone past. Please don't waste your time trying to copy what all the crappy popular players(iTunes) are doing. They're popular cause they know how to hype themselves up and lock users in. This is an open-source project so for the love of God: INNOVATE.
Lets talk about what a media player like this needs: Space efficient file organization via media tags OR a file browser on the left pane for those who actually organize their library in the file system. Main content area should be a playlist, not the whole damn library. I need to see what's relevant(what's playing) not everything on my hard drive.
Now I realize that its possible to turn the main library area into a playlist, if I really want to. But now how do I add my files? If the left pane contained my media library, it'd be no problem. I can make the right pane into a directory tree with a plugin, but the plugin sucks(i.e. no actual file management capabilities, I assume that has to do with this being a Java app.). Don't ask me to drag files from the media library onto the playlist file in the list. That's stupid and inefficient.
At the very least every panel or content area you have should be able to do anything that any other panel or content area can do. That's called modularity. You have browser functionality and all kinds of other garbage in here, but the core elements of the software are drawing off the terrible design choices of proprietary programs.
Which reminds me. Fire your art manager. The bastard took a screen shot of the iTunes interface and then C&P'd the buttons into your software. Its a disgrace. I don't mean to be harsh with you guys, but if you're competent enough to get this software to 1.0 status, you're competent enough to do it properly.
This is my third attempt to enjoy using this software. It has failed miserably every single time. Do it right, and I'll happily stop using Amarok.
Thanks for actually reading this far.
P.S. Put some kind of email address on your site, I hate talking to machines.
I’m frustrated
1
person has this problem
I have this problem, too!
Tell me when someone solves it.
The more people who report this problem, the more it gets noticed.
The more people who report this problem, the more it gets noticed.
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Inappropriate?First. You're not talking to machines. I'm listening, as do many more employees here.
Second.
That was quite frank.
You do realize, that taste differs greatly between humans. I myself can say, that I liked the black songbird better then the now silver standard theme, but to everyone his own, no?
But as you said. We are an open source project and that's the beauty of it!
If you don't like the current art direction we're taking, you can always take another feather and dress the bird the way you like.
You could even go out and make your own.
So at least in this matter, I can't follow your bickering, because quite frankly? It lies in your hands to change that.
As for the rest of your problems.
Look here for all the changes and future features, we have planned.
We are only at the beginning of this project and there will come awesome things (like your mentioned file management and so forth).
You just have to wait and see.
Tyler out!
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This solves the problem
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Hey Tyler.
Yeah the machine thing has to do with the fact that I thought this was going to some vault where nobody was going to see it again, rather then a forum. I'm glad to see there are people around actually reading these things. The reason why I was so upset when I tried this software was because I had expectations that it would be at least up to par with my current media player.
The main thing that frustrated me was the left panel. I need to be able to close it completely and change its functionality to match the functionality of any of the other panels. I should also be able to load plugins there.
That was my main gripe with Songbird. Good luck with the next release. I'll probably give it another shot. -
The Pane Buttons add-on lets you close it... And I'm sure atreiu or someone from the community will eventually make an add-on to be able to put whatever you want there...
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Inappropriate?Shouldn't this stuff be part of the interface already? I mean, all the other panels do what I want already, so why not this one?
CHAMP
