K3B and amaroK: Only KDE applications I use
Whatever Linus Torvalds might have to say, I am happy with the GNOME desktop manager. I have used KDE for far too long before I switched to GNOME and I had never liked KDE very much - for whatever reasons. I had liked a lot of applications in KDE though, like KDevelop, Kate etc but I could always install and use these applications from GNOME too, albiet they might load a little bit slowly in that case. The number of KDE applications that I would be using in GNOME started to decrease everyday, and very quickly I found that I was not using a single KDE application any more. That is the reason why I never felt any discomfort while using the Ubuntu operating system, which is completely a GNOME based distribution(the kde version of it is called Kubuntu). The same state did not last for too long though… I came to know about atleast two killer KDE applications which have compelling enuogh features to make them must-haves even for a GNOME user: K3B and amaroK.
Where as GnomeBaker has a simple interface, K3B makes it extremely easy to do a lot of operations like making a CD-to-CD copy, multisession burning etc that are difficult to do or are not yet supported in other CD burning apps. K3B is a combination of ease of use and a great feature set. When it comes to amaroK, it simply rocks! Its interface allows so much to be done and yet it is so simple to use. It allows searching and saving album covers over the Internet, has features for digging up song lyrics and for looking up artists in Wikipedia. It can transform to a smaller window while it is playing aka xmms or can just play from the notification area. Got good skins and presets too. So even if you are a GNOME user, you definitely need atleast these two applications from the KDE stable.
I dont really burn so many cds, so GnomeBaker is more than enought for my needs, I used to use amaroK a long time ago(pre 1.0 versions) and i thought it rocked, but I dont like the new versions. So i use Banshee instead, its really a great player, it uses gtk# so it integrates really nicely with Gnome, really give a try :) .
QuoteComment by Manuel — February 13, 2006 @ 1:45 pm
Banshee according to me is a very promising product for the future, but in its current avatar, lacks some of the fancy features of amaroK(cd cover art, multiple lists etc). i have found the following review of RhythmBox, amaroK and Banshee to be a very balanced one: http://lwn.net/Articles/160704/
Banshee should be the choice number one for the ipod lovers!!
Comment by tabrez — February 13, 2006 @ 9:39 pm
Well K3B and Amarok are replaceable on Gnome. Just now within the Standard Ubuntu repositories.
QuoteTry ‘Listen’ instead of Amarok and Bonfire instead of K3B. They both have equal feature sets compared to their KDE counterparts, just less ugly and more gnome-ish.
Comment by Mr. Know-It-All — August 19, 2006 @ 7:04 am
I don’t need to burn CDs too often, but a while ago when I did, I tried out K3b (by default I run KDE) and was pleasantly surprised by its quick and easy usability. So I agree with you. A note for new users though - just make sure your volume is not set too high… ;)
QuoteComment by Sharad — September 25, 2006 @ 7:20 pm
Have you tried “Listen” or “Exaile”… they are too good… comparable to amarok…
QuoteComment by Prince — October 9, 2006 @ 11:41 pm