Re: Proposed: Rhythmbox

[Jeff Waugh <jdub perkypants org>]

<quote who="Joe Marcus Clarke">

> > Including or not including something in that doesn't change the number
> > of tarballs you have to download to get said something on Solaris, or
> > ease of compilation.
> 
> Why is gnomemeeting part of the core desktop then?  It is quite difficult
> to compile, and adds bulk that I think many users at this stage could do
> without.

This is increasingly seen as a difficult to support module, as it keeps
depending on bleeding edge versions of libraries, it was recently pointed
out that it doesn't actually have any documentation (this should have been
noticed last time), etc. I'm going to raise some of these with Damien. It
was added because VoIP and audio/video chat are important applications (and
a very good bullet point), but I do think that it should be shifted to a
network or multimedia release in the future.

> Agreed.  Segmenting applications such as AbiWord, Gnumeric, Evolution,
> etc. into other suites makes sense.  Most other OSes/desktops do similar
> things.  A media player should come standard, though.

Totem is a media player (sound, video, music) - Rhythmbox is a music
management application. I think there's a pretty reasonable distinction
here. I would like to see Totem 'chained' to the Desktop release because it
is already mature, is of very wide appeal (because it provides the basics of
media playing) and very supportable. I'd like to see Rhythmbox free to grow
and change radically.

(This is a sore point. Totem isn't in the Desktop release because it uses an
'undesireable' library, and yet it is convincingly the best media player in
the GNOME world. This is really disappointing.)

> > The argument for Rhythmbox IMO is that it has an important user
> > datastore - music files - and I think we should be pushing for a vision
> > of one UI for accessing and searching all your data, including music,
> > movies, photos, documents, etc. Similar to the advantages of WinFS.
> 
> That's fine, but couldn't we also provide users something in the meantime?

As stated in the original email about module selection: Not being included
*DOESN'T* mean the application is not available to users. We will all
continue to use Rhythmbox regardless of its inclusion in the Desktop. But it
has far more flexibility and opportunity to change to suit users. I think
that room is really good for Rhythmbox, and for users, and doesn't compare
to any benefits they'd get out of RB being included in the Desktop - really,
what does that give anyone but rules? :-)

- Jeff

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