Among the changes slated for Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal was the replacement of another long-time default application. With recent releases, we've seen Empathy take over instant messaging duties and Shotwell inserted to handle photo management. It's also been discussed for quite some time that Canonical should, perhaps, pull the pin on the Rhythmbox audio player.
That's finally happened, as current builds of Ubuntu 11.04 have finally made the switch to Banshee. If you're not familiar with Banshee, it's a full-featured media player. It supports a number of audio and video formats, can sync with Android and iOS devices, offers built-in MP3 purchases via Amazon and eMusic, and sports Last.fm and Wikipedia integration.
OMG! Ubuntu ran a poll a few months ago, and user preference was pretty evenly divided between Rhythmbox and Banshee, but Canonical's Mark Shuttleworth has previously stated that "Ubuntu is not a Democracy." If they've decided to add Banshee to the mix, it's getting added -- but anyone who might be upset by that probably knows how to quickly remove it and install Rhythmbox via a terminal session anyway.
That's finally happened, as current builds of Ubuntu 11.04 have finally made the switch to Banshee. If you're not familiar with Banshee, it's a full-featured media player. It supports a number of audio and video formats, can sync with Android and iOS devices, offers built-in MP3 purchases via Amazon and eMusic, and sports Last.fm and Wikipedia integration.
OMG! Ubuntu ran a poll a few months ago, and user preference was pretty evenly divided between Rhythmbox and Banshee, but Canonical's Mark Shuttleworth has previously stated that "Ubuntu is not a Democracy." If they've decided to add Banshee to the mix, it's getting added -- but anyone who might be upset by that probably knows how to quickly remove it and install Rhythmbox via a terminal session anyway.
Ubuntu 11.04 officially switches default media player to Banshee originally appeared on Download Squad on Sun, 09 Jan 2011 08:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
