FOSSPicks
Elisa 0.1.0
It's perhaps a little surprising that there are still music playing applications being developed well into the 21st century. Ever since modest CPUs had the power to decode MP3 files in real time decades ago, this is a problem that should have been solved. And yet, like the infinite variation in music taste, no single application has yet to nail the perfect design for everyone or even for a significant majority. Amarok, the KDE music player, did get close for a while and was a popular alternative to proprietary alternatives, but its user interface became too bloated for some, leading to a fork back to an old version and the creation of the Clementine project; Amarok development subsequently slowed. All of which has left the KDE terrain, in particular, fertile for the cultivation of a new music player – which is what Elisa is, albeit at a very early stage of growth.
The best thing about Elisa, despite its nascent development state, is the user interface. It feels like a new-age KDE Plasma application, where the interface is well designed and doesn't get in the way of the core functionality. That functionality isn't reading lyrics, integrated research notes on artists from Wikipedia, or seeing a mood bar for the type of music – the functionality is the simple process of listening to music. The main view lists the music in your collection, using thumbnails of album covers if you have them. In fact, the only configuration option currently offered by Elisa is the location of your music, yet the rest of the player is surprisingly mature. In particular, the playlist pane features some excellent design and layout work and already allows you to rate your tracks for easy retrieval. If development continues at this quality and pace, we'll have a contender for the best Linux music player by the end of the year.
Project Website
https://community.kde.org/Elisa
Media player and server
Kawaii-Player 3.3.1
Unfortunately, this great little application has nothing to do with the synthesizer manufacturer that helped make Jan Hammer famous in the 1980s by producing possibly the best additive synth you could buy, certainly in hardware form. Instead, Kawaii-Player is a Linux video player with a built-in media server. It's built on top of the long standard and widely compatible mpv and MPlayer, which means the biggest problems are already solved – performance and media compatibility. These tools are used to handle playback while the application itself adds a huge number of additional features and playback control. The developer has stated that using these technologies to create a simple and lightweight audio and video player plus library was the primary motivation for creating Kawaii-Player, as they felt nothing fit the same remit – MPlayer is certainly complex and unwieldy if you're not used to its environment. This is all a little surprising when you first run Kawaii-Player or look at the features it supports, because it gets very close to being complex and unwieldy itself, mainly thanks to so many features.
The main user interface is a little like an old version of Kodi, albeit with a watercolor landscape for the background. You add files to your library and watch them, using the long control bar to manage playback. But behind this, there's a great deal of control. You can browse your collection, generate universal playlists, make bookmarks, download fan art, and even watch YouTube videos. You can endlessly customize the way subtitles appear or the video processing used for movie playback. Additionally, you can use BitTorrent to stream and play back content, serve files as a standard media server, use a web interface for remote control, and even run in a headless mode. If you're looking for a media player pitched somewhere between VLC and Kodi, this may be it.
Project Website
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Linux Servers Targeted by Akira Ransomware
A group of bad actors who have already extorted $42 million have their sights set on the Linux platform.
-
TUXEDO Computers Unveils Linux Laptop Featuring AMD Ryzen CPU
This latest release is the first laptop to include the new CPU from Ryzen and Linux preinstalled.
-
XZ Gets the All-Clear
The back door xz vulnerability has been officially reverted for Fedora 40 and versions 38 and 39 were never affected.
-
Canonical Collaborates with Qualcomm on New Venture
This new joint effort is geared toward bringing Ubuntu and Ubuntu Core to Qualcomm-powered devices.
-
Kodi 21.0 Open-Source Entertainment Hub Released
After a year of development, the award-winning Kodi cross-platform, media center software is now available with many new additions and improvements.
-
Linux Usage Increases in Two Key Areas
If market share is your thing, you'll be happy to know that Linux is on the rise in two areas that, if they keep climbing, could have serious meaning for Linux's future.
-
Vulnerability Discovered in xz Libraries
An urgent alert for Fedora 40 has been posted and users should pay attention.
-
Canonical Bumps LTS Support to 12 years
If you're worried that your Ubuntu LTS release won't be supported long enough to last, Canonical has a surprise for you in the form of 12 years of security coverage.
-
Fedora 40 Beta Released Soon
With the official release of Fedora 40 coming in April, it's almost time to download the beta and see what's new.
-
New Pentesting Distribution to Compete with Kali Linux
SnoopGod is now available for your testing needs