11 Responses to “Narwhal:Amarok 2.0 RC 1 released (screenshot tour)”

1. Rex Dieter on November 24th, 2008 2:48 PM

   Relevant fedora (10) update here:
   https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/amarok-1.98-1.fc10
   Enjoy.

2. Gman on November 24th, 2008 3:00 PM

   Hmm well I left amarok 2.0 … I don’t know why, but the developers only work on stuff, a hand full of people are using such as online stuff. The basic stuff for a good media player (amarok 1.4) is just missing. I name:
   - quick filter in playlist
   - proper cue support

3. Abhishek on November 24th, 2008 3:28 PM

   @Rex thanks a lot for the FC10 package !

4. Nikolaj Hald Nielsen on November 24th, 2008 3:39 PM

   @Gman

   I am sorry that you don’t like Amarok 2, but we knew when we started it that it would not be for everyone, and that, at lest in the first few versions, it would not have feature parity with the very mature and stable Amarok 1.4.x series.

   Now, to put things into perspective a bit, I can assure you that the majority of effort has not gone into the “stuff, a hand full of people are using such as online stuff”. Yes, Amarok 2 has has a strong focus of being able to integrate online content sources, and I guess I am mostly to blame for that as I have indeed spent much of my time making this possible. But on the other hand, since being able to do so got me interested in Amarok development, I have also worked on many other parts of the applications, helping to make it ready for release.

   Overall though, the vast majority of development effort has gone into simply making Amarok 2 usable again. realize that Amarok 2 is almost a complete rewrite, and that the initial 2.0.0 version in no way uses the full potential of the underlying framework.

   I strongly recommend Mark’s blog about the missing features in 2.0.0: http://amarok.kde.org/blog/archives/809-Missing-features-in-Amarok-2.html

   Oh, and for the record, since it is my baby, I strongly believe that this online stuff that you do not seem to consider very important is one of the things that will push Amarok 2 forwards in a very big way, benefiting all users. We do have a few things up our sleeve that will be announced in due time…

5. neaghi on November 24th, 2008 5:32 PM

   hi,

   Realy I don’t understand your policy…How you can use an audio player. whitout equalizer…I don’t understand…

6. Bart on November 24th, 2008 5:36 PM

   @Nikolaj: Could someone explain why this layout/skin is chosen? I only saw a blog that it happend but never why. I have my own opinion about the previous versions and this one…..But if it was a logical decision then it would easier to swallow the change.

7. Gman on November 24th, 2008 7:00 PM

   Nikolaj thanks for your reaction, I appreciate that. And I will wait till amarok 2.1 is out or something like that

8. Nikolaj Hald Nielsen on November 25th, 2008 7:04 AM

   @neaghi

   There is currently no equalizer as Phonon ( the audio abstraction layer in KDE 4 which allows us to play sound on all platforms ) currently does not provided the facilities needed to make one. It is something that will be re added. Check the blog I linked in a previous comment. That said, I don’t think I have ever used the equalizer in amarok 1.4.x…

   @Bart

   I assume you mean the new 3 “panel” layout? I think this has been explained a number of times, but I will try to do so again. The reason for the new layout is mainly that we wanted to make the content that previously lived in the context browser more useful by making it available at all times. On of the big limitations previously, was that you could not show context information about whatever you were browsing as the browser and context info could not be shown at the same time. Also, as this context info was what, in many peoples opinion, made Amarok special, we decided to make that the centerpiece of Amarok 2. This required some other changes. The old column based playlist was very flexible, but also took up a very large amount of horizontal space, so we decided to try something new that required less space. While it is currently not very flexible compared to the old one, there are some really cool plans to make it more so. Also, as we use Qt4’s model/view architecture, adding an alternate playlist view that more closely resembles the old one is relatively easy to do ( I actually made a prototype of this a while back ) and I know that some people plan to do just this in the future.

   Also, keep in mind that all the panels can be resized and that the context view in the middle can be completely hidden.

9. E-B on November 25th, 2008 11:02 AM

   @Nikolaj Hald Nielsen

   At least I’m glad to hear that not all the effort has gone into the “online stuff” (which is working quite nice btw - goods job on that).

   Although I’m still wondering why something like a playlist search haven’t been added yet. I mean, speaking of basic functionality, this is more a must-have then a nice to have, in my humble opinion. How many people do you know with a playlist under 1.000 files these days?
   I’m fully aware of the fact that Amarok 2 is a complete rewrite. And so far I’ve seen it growing into a mature piece of software (I try to rebuild my SVN version on a daily base and have been doing that since a1). And my compliments for the work being done so far. But missing those (that) small detail(s) kinda disappoint me. I’d guess I’d just have to wait a little bit longer for those features to arrive (if they ever will…) And if the don’t I’ll be waiting for the necessary changes in the API which will allow me to create something equal myself.

10. ThOR27 on November 27th, 2008 9:30 PM

    First I would say congratulations for this release and I will still keep with amarok 1.4 until we got an amarok 2.1 [ Playlist sorting and filtering is a MUST-HAVE to me)

    Just wondering, you said that there is a way to completely hide the context view… but there is anyway to add the “context view features” in the left side, so it will act as amarok 1.4….

    I will probably use this context stuff when using my widescreen monitor, but when use my fullscreen one, I will prefer to save some horizontal space…

11. hanzolo on November 29th, 2008 2:15 PM

    I have been waiting for a really long time for this! And finally Amarok 2 starting to get into the final rounds. Of course having loves previous versions (1.4) the expectations where high… but I thing you’re going in the right direction. I like the new layout very much, I was always a bit bugged by the problems you mentioned in one of the comments here…
    And anyway… online stuff is the thing! I mean, who cares for an EQ? You only need an EQ when you have lousy loudspakers. I think services like last.fm really make listening to music something different! So glad you’re working hard on having more of these services working in Amarok.
    I guess… it’s time to switch back to KDE…
    hannes

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