i’ve never considered myself a power user of any application. i just use the common functionality of most apps and thus i’m very easy to please. i want an app to do a few basic things and i’m happy. extra features are a plus of course, but it’s most likely that i will never delve into them.

and despite having used a few other platforms..i come from a ms-dos->windows 3.1->windows 95->and so on background. as mentioned before – http://resinblade.net/wordpress/?p=110, i like my UI a certain way. and that way is generally the win95/win98 model. because it’s the best layout ever? most likely not at all…but it’s what i’m used to. no matter what OS i am using i try to make my desktop reflect that. and when it comes to UI it’s always about preferences. to each their own. arguing about UI layout, though sometimes interesting, holds no real technical merit and arguing over what is “best” is pretty stupid.

all of that explanation leads to why i like my favorite audio player. i “grew up” on winamp and always really loved it. it was simple and efficient. so therefore i like players that resemble and mimic winamp. that used to be xmms(1), but that is no longer maintained and would need a considerable overhaul to modernize anyway. however, i use audacious which spawned from xmms1 at some point. it retains the same goal of being a winamp clone for linux. there’s an xmms2 in the works which i believe is still in its alpha stages.

most modern players seem to mimic itunes. i’m not really a fan of that layout. it makes sense if you manage your music…but i do not. though, if i do have to sync an ipod i use banshee (which is very itune-ish). i simply play single audio files, or sometimes a location, or rarely i’ll listen to shoutcast stations. that’s all i do really.

for playing music on windows i use songbird, also an itunes clone. i just put it in its compact play mode…it’s not bad. and this is because i don’t know of any opensource winamp clones for windows. why not use winamp? two reasons really…1. ever since version 5.x came out it has seemed bloated. 2. it’s closed source and owned by AOL.

just a note: to add mp4 support to audacious in mandriva install the PLF version of audacious-plugins