To avoid any sensationalism, the switch has not yet been flipped, today Rhythmbox remains installed by default. This is likely to remain the case till at least January.
However, then it will change.
First some general information on the switch to Banshee as the default Music player in Natty.
- If you have Rhythmbox installed currently it will continue to be installed and updated, Banshee will not be installed in these cases.
- New installs will have Banshee installed.
- The first release of Ubuntu to carry Banshee as the default music player is likely to be Natty Alpha 2.
- If you want to try Banshee, you can try it by installing and it will support importing your existing Rhythmbox database. Any problems with this importing process should be reported to help ease the migration progress for those who elect to try Banshee.
What has happened now is that all the reviews been finalized to qualify Banshee to be uploaded to the Ubuntu Main repository which is the last major step before a switch is possible. This upload then becomes the first candidate as potential default Banshee package on which testing is highly requested and welcomed.
Also recently the Banshee project released Banshee 1.9.1 and Banshee Community Extensions 1.9.1 at least the former is now ready to be uploaded.
I have been holding off announcing 1.9.1 on OMG! Ubuntu! till this moment, so tomorrow (it’s late here, sorry) I will give you all a presentation of what it brings you.
Plus hints for new features requested (in part) by you, the OMG! Ubuntu! army, to come and more exciting tidbits on how you can help make Banshee great (read: suckage shall be reported and fixed). Regardless of skill level.
The goods:
Via our IRC channel (#banshee on irc.gimp.net)
Laney, won’t be long chaps
gabaug, Laney: not long until what?
Laney, the switch is flipped
gabaug, awesome :) glad to hear it, was starting to wonder
Laney, the bureaucracy is all done should be able to be switched when we upload 1.9.1 very soon
gabaug, Laney: when is pkg freeze for a2?
Laney, i’d hold of publishing anything until we actually upload
gabaug, would it be possible to upload the nightly instead?
Laney, gabaug: A2 is feb third, about a week before that
gabaug, ok
Laney, so it’ll be 1.9.2 anyway
dnielsen, at the pace we are fixing bugs we might even need a daily by then :)
Laney, s’always tempting to have a daily, but we do have releases for a reason
bear in mind that natty isn’t released
gabaug, just saying, atm a daily would be preferable to 1.9.1 don’t want to give testers a bad first impression/get lots of dupes maybe we should roll 1.9.2 sooner than jan 12, and add a release to the schedule
Laney, the switch isn’t realistically goign to happen until at least January, as most Canonical folks are off on holidays until then or will be
Laney, also there is still time to cherry-pick some patches if you’d like
So there you have it, not like as a christmas present but a new music player for a new year and a new great release of a re-imagined Ubuntu.
The Banshee Main Inclusion Review bug can be found here on Launchpad
More to follow, but it is past 1am here now. Tomorrow, excitement, I promise.