i need advice.

[carlosponti]

Ok its been a while since I have been here so to everyone who I know here hello again. Ok here is what i need to ask advice on. I am installing Ubuntu on my brothers laptop and he is a heavy music listener. I refrain from calling him an audiophile because he doesnt go crazy with it just has a huge collection of music and speakers music equipement. as Ubuntu as the distro whats a good collection of software for him?

[D-cat]

I probably would have gone with Mint (based on Ubuntu, but everything works out of the box).

Anyway, starting from standard Ubuntu, first thing is to install ubuntu-restricted-extras, then walk over to Medibuntu repository and install w32codecs*, libdvdcss2, non-free-codecs, and any lib that has to do with a codec.

AFA applications, Ubuntu comes with a working set. With any distro, I suggest at least MPlayer and VLC are installed. Between the two, there isn't much you can't play. If he also likes to play midi files, you can install TiMidity++ and configure it to use a .sf2 soundfont (Chorium Rev.A is my favorite, no link, sorry). That should take care of every common audio and video format.

I hope it all turns out well!

*Assuming you're using 32-bit Ubuntu. w64codecs for x86_64 version

[carlosponti]

on the subject of Ubuntu vs Mint I already use Ubuntu and have for acouple of years and one of the first things i do if i install it for anyone is get the dvd playback mp3 etc. so no worries there. I was looking for ideas on good audio programs i can install that would wow him and make the transition easier. I tend to use Ubuntu and Linux differently ie programming and web surfing. finally got Ustream working so i can start broadcasting my hobby. thanks for the audio suggestions.




ps I have also had issues when i tried out mint. when i added a new user it wouldnt load menus when they logged in. also I have a print server running ubuntu and it wouldnt print well. So now i tend to keep Ubuntu on all the machines I have in the house and they all mostly run the same version. my laptop is on a LTS version right now but the rest are on 8.10. might move my print server over to 10.4 server when it comes out and get rid of the desktop version its running now. i dont use the pc for anything more than a server anyhow and it would be better if i dropped the gui on it.

[MikeTbob]

If you are talking about Media player software, I think Amarok is the most advanced and has a lot of really awesome features...followed by Rythmbox.

[benjamin20]

also depends on his gui toolkit. ubuntu uses gnome by default so any gtk app would be preferred. mint also defaults to gnome, as do just about every other distro. rhythmbox is the official gnome battleship size music player, equivalent of itunes or amorok. of course audacious is a really nice winamp style simplistic music player, and songbird is a promising music player based on gecko's XUL interface library, what does that mean? well, i thought it meant it would look and act like firefox and thunderbird, actually, it doesn't, it more or less looks like a web page, but its them-able!!! if that makes up for it... but its suspose to be a pretty decent player, couldn't be any more out of place looking than oh, say, itunes on windows.