StatCounter reported that desktop Linux reached over 4% market share for the first time. I've used Linux for years. Here's why I think it's finally catching on with more people.
There’s still some stuff I’m tied to Windows for, namely music players (MusicBee and Apple Music but they can be used in a VM) and VR. But it’s nice to see Linux growing.
MusicBee. Tried it on WINE. Not great. Linux players also don’t do a lot of what MusicBee does OOTB, and if they do it’s not as seamless as MusicBee. (tag hierarchies are the main thing, but the playlist functionality is also good.)
AFAIK MusicBee isn’t open source, just Freeware. Which is fair enough if the dev doesn’t want to, but also a bit frustrating personally, as people could’ve improved Linux support considerably if it was.
My music player suggestions for local playback on Linux. Please note that you could pick any of these no matter the desktop environment if you do not care about consistently in look and feel. In that case I suggest to go with Strawberry.
On GTK environments: Rhythmbox, Exaile
On QT environments: Strawberry, Clementine and somewhere next year Amarok should be through its revival that KDE has announced not too long ago.
Quod Libet was one I tried. Doesn’t quite scratch the itch MusicBee gives me, but still solid nonetheless. Tauon Music Box is a gorgeous looking player that’s similar.
Not to mention, Apple Music is so much better than Spotify for my needs and Cider isn’t cutting it for me right now. Once they’re not as reliant on MusicKit, I might give it a go again.
When I’ve used it, gapless playback being non-existent due to it basically being a frontend to the web client/MusicKit for web. I listen to a lot of albums in full nowadays, so that can really hurt the experience. It’s a shame because everything else about it is great. I am aware that the Cider devs are trying to find ways of handling that without reliance on the web client/API, which might enable gapless but also stuff like lossless if you got AM for that.
Edit: I should mention that Cider has a new client that’s paid but still supports Linux (specifically with AppImage, .deb and .rpm packages), and my experience was with Cider Classic.
Edit 2: I bought Cider 2 and so far it’s working well. You sacrifice lossless and maybe some gapless playback still, but it’s a mild loss vs. so far a huge gain in usability.
Pretty sure you are talking about audio fading, gapless is different. Gapless playback just means audio playback won’t stop when a new song plays. Without it, the audio sounds like it briefly pauses between tracks.
There’s still some stuff I’m tied to Windows for, namely music players (MusicBee and Apple Music but they can be used in a VM) and VR. But it’s nice to see Linux growing.
music players??
What music player is tying you to Windows?
MusicBee. Tried it on WINE. Not great. Linux players also don’t do a lot of what MusicBee does OOTB, and if they do it’s not as seamless as MusicBee. (tag hierarchies are the main thing, but the playlist functionality is also good.)
Thankfully it runs fine in a virtual machine.
Musicbee was the only thing keeping me from switching for years. Simply put, it’s the best music player and even better is that it’s open source.
AFAIK MusicBee isn’t open source, just Freeware. Which is fair enough if the dev doesn’t want to, but also a bit frustrating personally, as people could’ve improved Linux support considerably if it was.
Even having moved to Linux, I miss Foobar. Deadbeef isn’t that dissimilar but isn’t quite close though for me
Linux VR is slowly growing!
VR on Linux
EDIT: updated the link
Getting 404 on that link. 😩
Whoops my bad. Updated the link.
Bruh, just use Spotify or VLC, XD. But VR, I think I can understand.
vlc sucks for music because it doesn’t have gapless playback, and not everyone wants to use a streaming service.
My music player suggestions for local playback on Linux. Please note that you could pick any of these no matter the desktop environment if you do not care about consistently in look and feel. In that case I suggest to go with Strawberry.
I’d add Quod Libet as another solid GTK pick, though I’m happily using it on KDE.
Quod Libet was one I tried. Doesn’t quite scratch the itch MusicBee gives me, but still solid nonetheless. Tauon Music Box is a gorgeous looking player that’s similar.
Not to mention, Apple Music is so much better than Spotify for my needs and Cider isn’t cutting it for me right now. Once they’re not as reliant on MusicKit, I might give it a go again.
What’s your issue with Cider, if you don’t mind me asking?
When I’ve used it, gapless playback being non-existent due to it basically being a frontend to the web client/MusicKit for web. I listen to a lot of albums in full nowadays, so that can really hurt the experience. It’s a shame because everything else about it is great. I am aware that the Cider devs are trying to find ways of handling that without reliance on the web client/API, which might enable gapless but also stuff like lossless if you got AM for that.
Edit: I should mention that Cider has a new client that’s paid but still supports Linux (specifically with AppImage, .deb and .rpm packages), and my experience was with Cider Classic.
Edit 2: I bought Cider 2 and so far it’s working well. You sacrifice lossless and maybe some gapless playback still, but it’s a mild loss vs. so far a huge gain in usability.
When you mean gapless do you mean the last and first second are mixed together? I think audacious does that. It’s the player I use.
Pretty sure you are talking about audio fading, gapless is different. Gapless playback just means audio playback won’t stop when a new song plays. Without it, the audio sounds like it briefly pauses between tracks.
Huh, I’ve been using gapless playback on Spotify so much, it’s become natural. Yeah, that’s a must have.