Nowadays I collect, store, and listen to music mostly on digital media, so I thought I'd find a Linux audio player that does all the things I need it to do. Little did I know how many options I had! After evaluating more than a dozen applications, I've found three that I feel provide the best mix of features and performance.
Before evaluating the Linux audio players, I considered what I wanted from them. I listen to MP3 and Ogg Vorbis music files, CDs, MP3 streaming Internet radio stations, and podcasts. Someday I may also want access to FLAC music files, RealMedia and Windows Media streaming radio, iPod compatibility, and Windows audio file formats (WAV, WMA, and ASF).
My test system is a Toshiba Tecra 9000 laptop with an Intel 82801CA-ICH3 sound card. I use Ubuntu Dapper Drake 6.04, GNOME, and the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA). Dapper Drake is still a beta release of Ubuntu, which may have led to some of the instability I witnessed. I confined myself to looking at the audio players I could find included within the Ubuntu APT software repositories.
Several of the players model themselves after popular music players on other platforms. I tested three that take their cue from WinAmp and five that resemble iTunes, along with several players with more original interfaces.
WinAmp-style Players
The applications in the first group of players have a small, usually skinnable user interface with three windows available: one main window with audio controls, one Graphical Equalizer window, and one Playlist window where you can manage your list of music. Music management is usually limited to a single playlist at a time.
XMMS refused to play WMA and ASF files; the application froze when it reached these files in the playlist.
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BYTE.com > Features > 2006
