Trench’s Adventures in Linux: Music Players

The other day I posted about how I was finally able to install Linux (specifically Zorin OS) on my Toshiba Satellite. I said that my laptop was no longer Linux-proof but it may still be Linux resistant.

My Satellite is a 64-bit computer so I installed the 64-bit version of Zorin OS. The OS dragged like you wouldn’t believe especially with the music player. Zorin comes pre-installed with Banshee.

Now I have Zorin 32 bit installed on my Acer Aspire netbook and it gives me no problem at all and neither does Banshee. So I installed the 32-bit version of Zorin on my Toshiba and that made all the difference, except for Banshee. Banshee was still slow, sluggish and non-responsive. So on my 2GB of RAM laptop Banshee is slow but on my 1GB of RAM netbook, it works fine. Weird. I don’t blame this on Banshee but on the hardware as I’m pleased with Banshee on my netbook.

The question now was what music player can I put on my laptop? I remember using Amarok on my EeePC and loved it but that was a long time ago. So I installed Amarok on my laptop and that love immediately turned to a deep-seated loathing. This wasn’t the Amarok I knew and loved and I found it to be completely useless.

Then I remembered there used to be another music player that came standard with a lot of Linux distros before Banshee and that was Rhythmbox.

I installed Rhythmbox and ran it on my laptop. It took longer than Banshee to scan my modest music library but that’s a minor complaint that I had. I was also able to customize it to be almost identical to Banshee. Most importantly Rhythmbox didn’t freeze or crash like Banshee was doing on my laptop.

So if you use Linux (mainly Ubuntu-based distros) and would like a music player Trench recommends both Banshee and Rhythmbox depending on your hardware. Avoid Amarok like the plague.