I billed Tomahawk as a media player with potential following my first play with it late last month.
So when I heard that Tomahawk recently added a PPA for Ubuntu 10.10 and 11.04 users to install from I decided to check it out and see whether anything had changed.
At the time of my original testing (maybe on a high from having managed to compile the ruddy thing) I was impressed, albeit aware of the gulf in feature compared to Banshee, Amarok, et al. The multi-source library and “genius” playlists all read like killer features, due to aforementioned compiling, didn’t work out of the box for me.
So has it changed? Are those killer features primed for massacre or let downs?
Not really. Whilst the PPA makes installation a breeze, the application itself hasn’t budged much in the interface, feature or plugin stakes; still combining the promise of grand potential with the rather half-baked implementation currently in code.
That said it is a media player and does play media files. Last.FM scrobbling support is baked in and, whilst not the most Unity friendly application – don’t close it or it’s lost forever – it’s still doing a different jig to much of the other ‘yet-another media player’ eco-sphere. Your local library is still mixed with ‘online’ sources, although it should be noted that no online sources are available out of the box resulting in playlists generated with the ‘echonest’ feature being mostly filled with tracks you can’t listen to.
Download
Meerkats and Narwhals can install via the PPA @ launchpad.net/~paulo-miguel-dias/+archive/tomahawk/+packages.
Thanks to Florin