Re: [Banshee-List] Banshee versus Clementine versus any other audio software

[Martin G <ebisumartin gmail com>]

Thank you everyone for the considered responses. I certainly did not
want to ignite any heated debate, and I'm glad non has started.

Point taken to the person who pointed out that I was wrong in saying
that bug fixing isn't necessarily boring. And other worthy statements
were duly noted.

The problem is that when there's agreement, there isn't much to say ;)

So, just to respond to a few of the critiques of my initial standpoint:


1. Some people responded saying "I've never had these problems, and I
love Banshee/Clementine." That is great, but I don't think it really
means much. Here's why:

Any software, any at all, will have a bell curve of user experience.
On one end will be people for whom it works perfectly, because they
either don't use features which might trigger bugs, or their
environment is perfectly suited to the application, or whatever. On
the other end are people for whom it breaks frequently. And rounding
out the top of the curve are the people who have a mix of good and bad
impressions.

The people for whom the application works great will be happy and
request new features. The people who are unhappy will generally leave
(particularly those who are only trying Linux out while their main
computer is another OS). So bugs that existed for some people will not
get addressed, while features will continue to be requested, and in
the process the user base narrows to those for whom it happens to work
for.

I would hope, however, that the goal is to expand the user base, and
that means addressing the concerns of those for whom it does not go
smoothly.

Personally, the only reason I don't just give up on either of these
two applications comes down to one problem: all the other options on
Ubuntu share the same problem, so going from one software to another
is generally just picking and choosing which issues to live with. I'm
too stubborn to give up totally and use my Windows or my Mac.

Which is a backhanded way of saying I think these two are the best two
available, which is good, and well done to the developers for getting
them this far. But that's only in comparison to the rest of the
offerings on Linux. Compared to what is offered on Windows or Apple, I
think they are nowhere near as feature-stable as they could be. Dare I
even say, should be.


2. Some people pointed out developers are part time, so development is
inevitably hampered. Yes, and I totally appreciate that. I have also
helped on open source projects and I'm aware that it is often
thankless work. However, while the programmers should be praised for
their efforts, we can at the same time evaluate the results. I would
say that it's simply an unfortunate reality that open source projects
that are run entirely by developers working spare time will have
erratic and unstable development, and the software as a result will be
a mix of some great features and some buggy features. That is the
essence of my lament. I'm not criticising anyone's efforts, I'm just
reporting on how the results feel on the other end, and trying to be
as objective as possible.


3. Some people said that I should file bug reports. I have, both in
the past and specifically on the ones I mentioned, and also others
have filed bug reports. Here's one bug I mentioned, where someone else
filed it originally and then I contributed:

https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=662909

If this bug were fixed, I would probably abandon Clementine. But it's
about five months old now and I don't know what a reasonable fix time
should be, but, again, since I sympathise with the fact that the
developers are part time, I don't have any expectation that it should
be fixed at all. From the point of view of sympathising with
developers, it's understandable it will take a while. From the point
of view of my using the software, though, it still means I have a
mediocre experience.


4. One of the most interesting critiques of my standpoint was that I
was being hypocritical by comparing and constrasting the two software
packages, Clementine and Banshee. Saying that application A should
have the features of application B is akin to saying that B should
have new features, which is contrary to saying that the focus should
be on stability.

Okay, I'll concede the point that I was being unclear, and that some
of the features would be considered new on one or the other
application.

However, I still think there is some merit in the notion that it seems
that both applications share common goals and offer common features,
but it's not possible to get all of that goodness in one place. Both
have streaming internet and both have remote controls, but streaming
internet only works well on one and the remote control works well on
the other. From a user point of view, it seems like there is a pool of
features available across these and other applications, but it's
frustrating they can't just be relied upon in just one application.

Specific features could be argued as new, but since some features
present in both don't work in both, it makes it hard to choose either
based on feature differences alone. If both applications did what they
advertised perfectly, then I'd simply choose one and make a feature
request for the things I felt was missing from the one I selected.


Again, thanks for considering my point of view. I do hope that both of
these applications will become more stable and reliable as time goes
on.

Thank you to all the developers, your efforts are appreciated.

-- 
Dave M G