Five of the Best Linux Audio Players

Linux has a large selection of music players and library organizers available. Here’s a list of five of the best:

Amarok

Amarok makes use of core components from the K Desktop Environment, but is released independently of the central KDE release cycle. Amarok’s tagline is “Rediscover Your Music”, and its development is based around this ideology.

Features include the unique “context browser”, integrated Wikipedia lookup and song lyrics download. Amarok also features integration with last.fm, giving users suggestions about what to listen to next and which artists may fit their mood, as well as with Magnatune, allowing no-cost full listening of all the music in their catalog, and DRM-free purchasing. It can also be used to organize a library of music according to genre, artist, and album, can edit tags, associate album art, attach lyrics, and automatically assign ratings to music as it is played.

The next release of Amarok, version 2.0, is currently in development. It will make use of KDE 4 technologies like Phonon for audio and Solid for device interaction, along with extensive use of Plasma for the interface. Amarok 2.0 will also have better integration with online services and add support for Windows and Mac OS X.

The Best General Purpose Linux Distributions

A distribution (also called distro) is a member of the Linux family of computer operating systems. They are built around the Linux kernel and consist of a large variety of software. Here’s a list of some of the best general purpose and most popular open and free distributions:

Ubuntu is a complete desktop Linux operating system, freely available with both community and professional support. “Ubuntu” is an ancient African word, meaning “humanity to others”. The Ubuntu distribution brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the software world.

• The distribution is very user friendly, especially for beginners.
• It is supported by a very large community. A lot of information and answers to problems can be found in the Ubuntu forums.
• Ubuntu is sponsored by Canonical Ltd, owned by South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth, one of the first space tourists.
• Ubuntu releases new versions every six months, and supports those releases for 18 months with daily security fixes and patches to critical bugs. LTS (Long Term Support) releases are supported for 3 years for desktops and 5 years for servers.