Banshee, Tomboy And Mono Dropped from Ubuntu 12.04 CD

By , Published November 4, 2011

Banshee will be replaced by Rhythmbox for Ubuntu 12.04.

The news was confirmed during the wrap-up session of the Ubuntu Developer Summit.

But Banshee is not the only removal: note-taking application Tomboy is also to be removed from the default application set on the CD.

Both applications will remain easily installable from the Ubuntu Software Centre for those who prefer to use them.

Tomboy and Banshee both relied on the ‘mono’ framework. As this is no longer needed “out of the box”, it too will be removed form the default CD.

Inklings towards the removal of Banshee were felt at the Default Apps Session earlier this week, where a strong case was made for the return of Rhythmbox.

Happy with the decision? Going to miss Banshee or Tomboy?

 

Related posts:

  1. Banshee 1.9.1 upgrades Ubuntu extensions, adds subtitle support
  2. Banshee becomes Ubuntu 11.04 default music player
  3. Humanity Style Icons: Banshee, Tomboy & GNOME Do
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  • Anonymous

    In and out they go, over and over!

    • http://twitter.com/HairoR Hairo R. Carela

      OBJECTION!!!
      As he stated in the title
      “Banshee, Tomboy And Mono Dropped from Ubuntu 12.04 CD”
      I suppose that they’re just saving space and leaving the CD instead of going for a DVD or USB…

      • http://twitter.com/chaeMil Michal Mlejnek

        i didn’t like this at all! in the time of blueray TB hard drives and so on. why the hell we need the OS to fit 650 MB? that’s it i!m going to arch! and unity with ubuntu looks so promising. now i have to install ubuntu and install all the good aps like tomboy (for school) and banshee for the best music management on linux)

        • http://id.robpvn.net/ Robert Nordan

          Especially since OMG! reported earlier today that they were going for a 750 MB ISO, so you can’t fit it on a CD anyway. Why not go straight to 1 GB and have more space for apps?

          • Anonymous

            good question…

          • https://login.ubuntu.com/+id/R4szkb7 Jo-Erlend Schinstad

            As your parent poster pointed out, we now have TB disks. Why stop at a GB? Why not just push the entire repo? 100GB is only 3% of my diskspace. It would take about a millennium to download, but so what.

          • http://id.robpvn.net/ Robert Nordan

            Not if you’re sitting on a university pipe like me. *Smugface*

            But seriously, 750 MB seems so arbitrary. CD-size makes sense, but after that the next stop that makes sense is 1 GB memory sticks. (I have never seen a 750 MB memory stick, to put it that way.)

      • Anonymous

        OVERRULED! I referred to the round-robin of software going in and out. Rhythmbox is now back in!

  • http://twitter.com/Azur_BlackHole Azur

    WTF!? WHY!? Banshee is the best music player with more support! 

    • Nick Becker

      yea, but for people with not-so-awesome CPU Gigahertage, it kinda slows you down.

      • https://launchpad.net/~davidnielsen David Nielsen

        Performance bugs is something you are encouraged to report (www.banshee.fm/file-bugs)

        • Praveen

          How do I generate a performance report of Banshee to file bug. It is slow to start.

          Edit: I got the answer. Dont worry :-) Seem to me that most of them who are unhappy are bacause of SLOW nature of Banshee. It would be a great step to increase the start up time and overall response time:-)

      • bobsmith63635

        They said the same thing about Amarok..  Honestly, the only thing I use to listen to my music is VLC.  Everything else takes just too long to start.

        • Partha Sarathi

          hey did u try Guayadeque music player ? Its blazing fast .. Includes a huge feature list ..and last but not least .. its not ugly like VLC.. Probably the best music player ive used .. :)

  • http://twitter.com/toxicbits toxicbits

    :)

  • Anton Jakob

    I didn’t like Banshee. It was too slow and too buggy

    • Nick Becker

      RhythmBox was Amazing. Mainly because i liked the visualizations.
      but a lack of equalizer that Banshee Had.

      • bobsmith63635

        Gotta make room for the new bloat guys..  100Mb worth of bloat coming soon. We so excited!

      • http://profiles.google.com/mpnordland Micah Nordland

        Banshee had visualizations. Open vp.

      • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_TW5NBFEFFDDRDIITXXQHWYDUQE 2AR

        An EQ exists for Rhythmbox as a plugin, but I couldn’t tell you where to get it.

        • Anonymous

          There is a system wide EQ too, install pulseaudio-equalizer.

    • Anonymous

      I didn’t like rhythmbox. It looked like crap and couldn’t do what banshee could

      R.I.P banshee

      • https://login.ubuntu.com/+id/R4szkb7 Jo-Erlend Schinstad

        RIP? Banshee will be just as alive. Firefox is very popular on Windows, for example, even if it’s not installed by default. But I very much agree with this. While I do like Banshee, it is much too slow and requires way too much.

      • http://www.corbindavenport.com/ Corbin Davenport

        You will still be able to get it from the Software Center.
        :/

      • https://launchpad.net/~woutervddn Wouter Vandenneucker

        honestly, I disliked the buggs and the slowness of banshee. But I dislike rhythmbox as much because of it’s ugly look and the fact that it constantly messed up the song database.

        No, I’m not saying we need, yet another, mediaplayer.. We just need a flexible one that takes the best of both..
        (But for now, rhythmbox seems like a fair shot.. It’s up to banshee to prove us wrong)

        • http://twitter.com/Lonevolf Arka Dipta Das

          Clementine is a great player. I’d vouch for it.

          • bobsmith63635

            It is a shame they didn’t incorporate VLC to have playlist options..  It is small, fast, takes just a microsec to start.

          • http://twitter.com/mickstep Michael Stephenson

            And can’t be included on the Livecd for legal reasons so stop bringing it up.

      • Anonymous

        R.I.P. Banshee? They won’t stop developing Banshee just because of this. It will be easily installable.

  • Akshat Jain

    More stuff to install after installing Ubuntu. #firstworldproblems

    • bobsmith63635

      I want more Bloat. I don’t need choices.. Make them for me. I’m lazy. Thanks.

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Vladimir-Kooznetsov/1660704458 Vladimir Kooznetsov

        Good for you.

        • Anonymous

          Do not feed the troll, thank you.

      • Anonymous

        Pinguy OS

  • Anonymous

    Time to port Vapour to C++!

  • Anonymous

    Eventhough I like Banshee more, I think it’s a good move to get rid of mono.

    • Anonymous

      Its a loss and a win

  • Anonymous

    I wonder if this was related to Amazon MP3 included in banshee vs ubuntu One ect.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_5KG7JAE7WPBQI2PCQL4HYPAKPI Bassboy Anon

      Nah, AFAIK because of a bug in GTK#3.

    • https://login.ubuntu.com/+id/R4szkb7 Jo-Erlend Schinstad

      The main reason why I switched from Banshee to Rhythmbox was that Banshee took about three minutes to start, while Rhythmbox takes less than 15 seconds. Another reason was the lack of Magnatunes and Jamendo. I don’t know if Banshee supports the use of Zeitgeist, but Rhythmbox does. That’s a big win for me.

      I’m not in any way saying that Banshee is a bad player. I really like it, but it needs considerable amount of work in performance and it needs more sources of music.

      • https://launchpad.net/~hyperair Chow Loong Jin

        Do you have a bug for that?

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_DWSOTHNJWUCFFCL5XJPX6CNABQ Renan

    They should help improving Banshee instead of replacing it. If Canonical used to improve their main softwares, we would have a hell of a operating system now.

    • Martin Kozub

      Why not improve Rhythmbox? + Removing Mono from the default installation is a big plus.

      • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/C6S22ANL35LHAH27EX43XFQKTQ Klau3

        Maybe it is not so easy to improve Rhythmbox – a GNOME application.

        • Anonymous

          which uses gtk3, which is what unity runs off of. I don’t get the point of your comment. GNOME is an open-source foundation, so what’s the problem? just because ubuntu doesn’t use GNOME Shell by default? GNOME is still built off of gtk, which is the same as Unity. There really shouldn’t be a problem.

          • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/C6S22ANL35LHAH27EX43XFQKTQ Klau3

            I said maybe.
            I don’t think there is any toolkit problem – more a human one (a lot of Linux users are pretty conservative and love this kind of old style UI).

            Rhythmbox is there since quite some time and the UI didn’t change much. So »if« gnome devs like the current state the UI is unlikely to change.

          • https://login.ubuntu.com/+id/R4szkb7 Jo-Erlend Schinstad

            Unity is built on Nux, not GTK3. Unity 2D is built using Qt. None of that matters. There are other important things to consider.

    • Alin Reed

      This is one of the reasons that Mac OS X is so successful – its default apps are very intuitive, attractive, and capable, and they are developed and maintained directly by Apple.

    • Anonymous

      I made this argument when they dropped rhythmbox for banshee. Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.

      However, I feel sorry for @openid-16777:disqus , they really treated him poorly here.

      This is another symptom of an unhealthy project. “Lets put Ubuntu on a phone instead of improving the default music player.” Pure Incompetence.

      Jack of all trades, master of none.

      • https://login.ubuntu.com/+id/R4szkb7 Jo-Erlend Schinstad

        Then your suggestion is that the next time, Banshee would never get a chance, because if it didn’t work out, then peoples feelings would get hurt? Because learning is a sign of incompetence? Your arguments seem a little misguided.

        • Anonymous

          What?

          My point is that the FOSS ecosystem would be better served if Ubuntu contributed to the core apps their desktop was based on instead of dropping them every time they encountered a few bugs.

    • bobsmith63635

      I’m switch to Debian if things get more stupid, scary, or just don’t work anymore. UCK doesn’t work. Remastersys doesn’t work. Deployment is a joke right now. Who is this OS for? Newbies only?

      • https://login.ubuntu.com/+id/R4szkb7 Jo-Erlend Schinstad

        Have fun exploring other systems. What do you hope to accomplish by making these threats? They only make you look silly — at best.

      • Anonymous

        Well, Ubuntu has always had the tag line ‘Linux for human beings’, and is oft-regarded as a newbie distro…

  • http://profiles.google.com/jbozman0 James Bozman

    Funny.  One of the reasons Jo Shields gave for including Banshee was that since Mono was already included in Ubuntu, the replacement of Rythmbox with Banshee would free up iso space.

    At least he won’t have to maintain Chicken Little Remix anymore.

    • http://www.manishsinha.net Manish Sinha

      I later told him that he trolled all the mono-haters by mistake. Chicken Little Remix abbreviates to CLR :D

  • Jarrod Henry

    Honestly this is a good thing.  We don’t need a big and bulky music player that has the dependencies Banshee has.

  • http://twitter.com/gabriela2400 Gabriela Gonzalez

    if  Rhythmbox comes back to ubuntu I will be very happy 

  • Martin Smit

    Well, if only Rhythmbox could index my music files as good as Banshee. Bit of work to do there! 

    • Anonymous

      And Unity Music Lens integration!

  • http://twitter.com/icecolddemon Phil Oakley

    Rhythmbox is better. This gets a thumbs up from me :)

  • http://twitter.com/tviking22 Carlos

    Anyone using Rhythmbox could point me to which changes have made it better since it was removed from the Ubuntu CD?
    I mean, either Rhythmbox is much better than before or this change just doesn’t make sense.
    I’ve been using Banshee since 10.10 and I can tell right now is very stable, has a nice UI, and a lot of functionality.

    • Georgi Karavasilev

      Don’t know a lot, but the most important I do know – it’s GTK 3 app now :P

    • Alin Reed

      Banshee isn’t quite as tightly integrated into Gnome 3, and is noticeably slower on most systems. Rhythmbox is the lighter and faster app, although its interface could use some improvement.

      • http://twitter.com/tviking22 Carlos

        I would switch to a nice looking Rhythmbox, as the UI on a media player is important for me, but I don’t see that happening soon in Rhythmbox as I haven’t seen any major change in its UI since I used it in 10.04.

        • Anonymous

          There really haven’t been any changes. And it still doesn’t show album art, something so freaking basic for a music player, it leaves me stupefied for it not to have that shown

          • https://login.ubuntu.com/+id/R4szkb7 Jo-Erlend Schinstad

            Well, Banshee isn’t able to play music from Magnatunes or Jamendo. Don’t you think that playing music is more important than displaying photographs?

          • Anonymous

            As far as I can remember can rhythmbox show album art. I’ll look it up later, but it can.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_GE4EYP3QOQ246PLG2Y2DOD2NIQ Dr. Fly

      Rhythmbox has player controls integrated into the GNOME Shell notification tray, while Banshee doesn’t. Also, I got fed up with Banshee crashing constantly on me and I made the switch to Rhythmbox this morning; no problems yet.

    • https://login.ubuntu.com/+id/R4szkb7 Jo-Erlend Schinstad

      Stable is one thing Banshee is not. It crashes every day I use it, and even when everything _does_ work, it still takes almost three minutes to start.

      • https://launchpad.net/~hyperair Chow Loong Jin

        A list of crasher bugs would be nice. (And the three minutes to start one, since mine starts up in ~20 seconds)

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/C6S22ANL35LHAH27EX43XFQKTQ Klau3

    The Rhythmbox UI sucks – Banshee is much better:
    http://image-upload.de/image/MHZFyp/f682007ba8.png

    • http://yourethemannowdog.com Shasta McShasta

      The UI is the *only* reason I use Banshee over Rhythmbox.   Thanks for the visualization.  It makes a strong case for a Rhythmbox UI overhaul.

      • http://twitter.com/tviking22 Carlos

        Exactly! On a media player, the UI part is essential.
        I don’t even imagine installing a media player without a list/grid of cover arts, for example.

        • Ian Liu Rodrigues

          For me the UI isn’t that important, since I only use shortcuts to change music ;-)

          • http://yourethemannowdog.com Shasta McShasta

            I agree with you there, since I mostly use my laptop’s hard buttons to find my way around my music.  But having a good look draws people into trying your product.  And encouraging usability though a good interface is what’s going to keep them after the honeymoon is over.

      • Anonymous

        Or another new music player for linux

      • https://login.ubuntu.com/+id/R4szkb7 Jo-Erlend Schinstad

        I like the UI of Banshee too. What I don’t like so much, is that it takes 2m50s to start playing a song when I choose it in the files lens.

        • http://yourethemannowdog.com Shasta McShasta

          This is so true.  Banshee likes to take its time starting up regardless.  This is an especially big annoyance for me, since Banshee crashes once in awhile on my machines (which is an issue all its own).  Nothing like waiting for it to load all over again.  I still have a lot of love for the Banshee project though.  Some very friendly and helpful developers!

    • Anonymous

      Sorry, but I don’t see the problem. Is it that the “Control” section goes around the “Content” section?

      • http://ronan.jouchet.fr/index-en.html ronj

        I think the problem Shasta mentioned is the “Control” section is *huge*, and consumes a lot of vertical space filled with blank space.

        Things Rhythmbox could/should do:
         1. merge the toolbar, seekbar, and search box
         2. get rid of the statusbar (for example displaying something dynamic when songs are selected in the bottom-right corner, ala Firefox or now, Nautilus)
         3. ship a vertical artist/album filter (like Banshee does)
         4. get rid of the “Artist”/”Album” headers, these sections are self-explanatory
         5. this is not apparent in the screenshot using Unity, but the menu bar would also deserve to be compacted to a single button, ala Chrome

        Alas, Rhythmbox is C, and it’s tough to contribute.

        • Anonymous

          So what I’m getting here is basically swap the “Control” and “Content” sections and make them columns.

        • http://yourethemannowdog.com Shasta McShasta

          Bingo.  Well said.

        • http://twitter.com/ryanmacnish Ryan Macnish

          Woah, hang on a sec, C is not hard to learn at all, and Banshee is in C#, which is not that different.

          C is one of those languages that is easy to learn but difficult to understand and master.

    • Anonymous
    • http://profiles.google.com/daengbo Daniel Bo

      You know that if you want more content area, you could make the window larger than 800×600, a size from the early 90s. The top and side bars won’t expand with the window, just the content. If that’s still not enough, the sidebar is adjustable.

  • https://profiles.google.com/phonixor phonixor

    blast just started using tomboy cause of unity integration…

    • Anonymous

      Just because it got dropped from the default CD doesn’t mean you can’t use it anymore. You can install use it after upgrade (~99% sure, really; no need for them to remove it) or download it from Software Center after the upgrade.

      • https://profiles.google.com/phonixor phonixor

        yeah i got that part.
        hope they don’t drop the unity integration though.

    • http://twitter.com/adborden Aaron Borden

      You can still use Tomboy, you’ll just have to apt-get install it after the default install is complete.

  • http://id.robpvn.net/ Robert Nordan

    I’m not very happy about Tomboy being dropped, as I use it extensively and believe as many as possible should be allowed to stumble over it in the default install. (Full disclosure dept: I also have made add-ins for it.)

    But what does this mean for the Ubuntu 1 Notes feature? It relied on Tomboy as the desktop client.

    • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/C6S22ANL35LHAH27EX43XFQKTQ Klau3

      Tomboy is a poweruser feature – so it doesn’t belong to core Ubuntu (John Doe can’t use it = poweruser app).

      Every poweruser can still install it form USC.

      • http://www.manishsinha.net Manish Sinha

        Nope. Tomboy notes was one app which was very simple to use. You don’t need a computer science degree to use it unlike other applications.

        • ryanfarmer

          You need a computer science degree to use the C++ port (Gnote)? I thought the only requirement difference was that Gnote only requires half the RAM and no foreign runtimes. :) Thanks for playing.

          • http://www.manishsinha.net Manish Sinha

            > Gnote only requires half the RAM 

            Check Jo Shield’s blog on his take on gnote http://apebox.org/wordpress/rants/93/
            “Gnote 0.3 and Tomboy 0.14.0 – with a fresh install. 14.2 MiB versus 7.6 MiB”

            Stop quoting your own experiences. On 64-bit all the advantages of RAM is gone if you have it in the first place.

            > and no foreign runtimes
            A user does not need to care about runtime or the language in which it is written.

            BTW thanks for playing too

          • ryanfarmer

            http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/1650/gnotevstomboy.png

            Also, you quote “DirectHex” The only thing he does involving Ubuntu is trying to push more Mono apps into it and spreading lies and FUD about anything that doesn’t use Microsoft API.

            Ubuntu would be better off without these so-called contributors who only exist to infiltrate the project and inject Microsoft patents.

          • http://id.robpvn.net/ Robert Nordan

            Rather silly how disqus won’t allow you to comment below a certain thread depth, so this is actually to ryanfarmer:

            Ubuntu might be better off if people could be civil and refrain from calling others liars and infiltrators based on what is in essence a political disagreement.

          • http://www.manishsinha.net Manish Sinha

            @google-526b0d720ac06f214c5fc8959a54e809:disqus 
            First of all, gnote does not have all the plugins as tomboy. In my case many are disabled too.
            Secondly please install a 64-bit OS and then show your snapshot.

            Lastly, what have you done? Nothing apart from screaming and  shouting and abusing these people. 

            How would you feel if someone says that the whole linux community does not need you.

          • http://twitter.com/jspaleta Jef Spaleta

            64bit Fedora 15:
            ps -eo sz,rss,args |grep gnote
            110847 32592 gnote

            ps -eo sz,rss,args |grep tomboy
            123009 37528 mono /usr/lib64/tomboy/Tomboy.exe

          • ryanfarmer
        • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/C6S22ANL35LHAH27EX43XFQKTQ Klau3

          Ask your mom to use it, if she doesn’t get the main idea in ~30 sec → poweruser app.

          I don’t say that Tomboy is bad. All I say is that Ubuntu should ship applications that normal user understand.

          For example Ubuntu could ship Geany by default. The problem is that 90% of the user won’t get what it is for and therefore it’s a bad choice.
          Same goes for Tomboy.

          • http://www.manishsinha.net Manish Sinha

            Thanks for assuming that users are idiot and no one understands what is sticky notes and everyone lives in a cave where they have never seen a sticky note or never used a diary.

            30 seconds? From where are you pulling out all these random values? Out of thin air?

          • https://profiles.google.com/phonixor phonixor

            they are idiots!
            that’s why everything has to be idiot proof!

            and you shouldn’t read 30 so literally…  you know exactly what he meant :@

          • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/C6S22ANL35LHAH27EX43XFQKTQ Klau3

            I interact a lot with ‘normal users’. They are not digital natives and I see often their weaknesses.

            They are not idiots , just not so certain with computers (some of them using computer since a long time for work).

            “30 seconds? From where are you pulling out all these random values? Out of thin air?”
            What is so wrong with it ~30 sec? How long do you think people try to dispute with something new?

          • http://www.manishsinha.net Manish Sinha

            @phonixer:disqus 
            Probably you meet only idiots, then it is not my or anyone’s problem.

            Actually using a notes app is easier to use an OS and learning how to even minimize, maximize something. Same goes with using office applications. 

          • https://login.ubuntu.com/+id/R4szkb7 Jo-Erlend Schinstad

            I sometimes don’t consider myself that much of an idiot, but it really took quite some time for me to understand why I would need a wiki to make a postit note.

          • Anonymous

            My mom wouldn’t get rhythmbox in 30 seconds

            lets remove it

          • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/C6S22ANL35LHAH27EX43XFQKTQ Klau3

            But she would get what it is for → playing music (hope so).

          • Anonymous

            I’ve never thought of it like that, but that is a good way of thinking which applications should be included by default.

      • http://id.robpvn.net/ Robert Nordan

        Well, it’s all about discovery. I’m not sure I’d ever have caught on to how great it is if I hadn’t started it out of curiosity from a default install.

        • ryanfarmer

          Why don’t you start an Ubuntu Brainstorm entry calling for them to install Gnote in the default ISO? It is identical to Tomboy aside from using half the RAM and having no foreign runtime dependencies.

          • http://id.robpvn.net/ Robert Nordan

            Gnote is perpetually playing catch-up to Tomboy, lacks a culture for contributed add-ins and doesn’t have proper automatic online sync.

          • ryanfarmer

            I hope you’re not suggesting there is a Mono culture. :)

            The Mono project is led by a Microsoft MVP, it clones a Microsoft API, it is infringing Microsoft patents, it is promoted by a company that admits it is “open core” (which precludes there being a real community around it).

            What I have seen them do is slither around in sites like this, to troll anyone who tells the truth about Mono, and to pretend to be Joe User when they want to rubber stamp something that (let’s face it) Microsoft pays them to work on through Novell and now through the mysterious investor funding Xamarin. (Gee, I wonder who that could be) :)

            Their job at “Xamarin” is to continue making Linux distributions depend on software that Microsoft reserves the right to sue over.

            Back to Gnote. Where is your proof that they don’t accept patches from users? Are you making that up?

          • http://id.robpvn.net/ Robert Nordan

            @google-526b0d720ac06f214c5fc8959a54e809:disqus

            Arguments can alway go both ways.

            >The Mono project is led by a >Microsoft MVP

            Who is also a winner of the FSF’s
            Advancement of Free Software award.

            >it clones a Microsoft AP

            It implements an ECMA standard.

            > it is infringing Microsoft patents

            In the broken patent system of today, just about any program breaks some patent or other. At least Microsoft has made a promise to never sue for violations of ECMA-related patents. That’s more than you could say for At&T and the C programming language back in the day, and yet it survives and thrives. See this link for more on this reasoning:

            http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2010/07/richard-stallmans-mono-and-dotgnu.html

            Ad hominem attacks does not make you a stronger debater.

            >Back to Gnote. Where is your >proof that they don’t accept >patches from users? Are you >making that up?

            I have no idea what you’re talking about here. All I said is that development on Tomboy is further ahead in features and Gnote will have a hard time ever catching up.

          • Akshat Jain

            @google-526b0d720ac06f214c5fc8959a54e809:disqus The only one who is trolling here is you, with your FUD and no facts whatsoever.

      • Anonymous

        Tomboy was such a SIMPLE program! I have NO idea what you’re talking about here…

        • Anonymous

          A sticky note program would be simple if the notes look liked sticky notes and not .txt files

      • Anonymous

        Except powerusers don’t install stuff via USC
        They use apt-get and aptitude in a terminal (and synaptic if they can’t find the package)

        • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/C6S22ANL35LHAH27EX43XFQKTQ Klau3

          I don’t care how poweruser install stuff. This part of the comment was more meant like: the app is just some clicks away.

          Btw, I’m a poweruser.

    • Anonymous

      Just because it’s dropped from the CD release, that doesn’t mean that you can’t install it anymore. It’ll still probably be maintained, just that new users likely won’t know as much of/about it.

      • http://www.manishsinha.net Manish Sinha

        You underestimate the power of defaults. An app’s visibility is vastly changed if it installed by default

        • Anonymous

          isn’t that what I said, or did you mean that visibility in the eyes of users AND developers/maintainers?

          • http://id.robpvn.net/ Robert Nordan

            Well, you know two things are true for all open source projects: The more users, the happier the developers are, and the more users, the greater the potential for recruiting new developers. ;)

        • ryanfarmer

          Defaults mean less choice.

          Defaults that require a hard dependency on a meta package remove choice.

          If the user decides they don’t want Mono, it means breaking the system. (remove metapackage = next dist upgrade will have unpredictable results).

          Defaults are only a necessary evil they shouldn’t be in your face and difficult to remove without breaking the system. (Ubuntu has forced Banshee into places of the UI in ways that no standard application the user is likely to replace it with can fit into)

          You promote using defaults as a club, to force the user to have patent infringing software on their system, like it or not. By making Banshee more “visible”, they make alternatives that don’t depend on patent infringing software more obscure.

          I’d say they should put in something that doesn’t depend on patent infringing software, make it easy to remove and replace (even if the user chooses Banshee). It beats what they have now which is a legal gray area in many countries, including the US. The Ubuntu disc might not even legally be distributable here, and the only reason they haven’t been sued is because Microsoft doesn’t see the time as being right to file a lawsuit.

          • Anonymous

            Are there really all that all that many alternatives out there that don’t infringe on some sort of patent? So much is patented now that I would think it is hard to develop anything without being in violation of someones property.

        • Anonymous

          Really, it’s true, the defaults apps are more visible.

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Vladimir-Kooznetsov/1660704458 Vladimir Kooznetsov

        You mean they won’t abandon the Ubuntu One syncing feature?  Come on…

  • Etzer Rivera

    Good riddance, if you ask me. On multiple installations of Ubuntu (both 11.10 and 11.04), it would just quit on me after playing a couple of tracks. No error messages; nothing. It would just vanish. Miro is far superior.

  • Glennz NL

    THANK YOU CANONICAL!

  • http://twitter.com/malachi54 Jonny54

    i try to use banshee but it pushes my cpu to hell and crashes -.-
    so i installed “good old rhythm” and it keeps running xP

    so yes. nice news. and i do not know until today why they first kicked it out? they could improve it too…

    • https://login.ubuntu.com/+id/R4szkb7 Jo-Erlend Schinstad

      It keeps running XP? That sounds like a _serious_ bug. :)

      But please don’t use phrases like “they kicked it out”. It hasn’t been kicked out. Banshee is still in Ubuntu. It just isn’t on the CD.

  • Patrick Kohan

    my music player launches hidden on every startup. the only thing i have to do is pressing Strg+P to start playback. It is not important to me which app starts playback.

  • http://azkware.wordpress.com/ Carlos Solís

    If they hope to replace Banshee with Rhythmbox, the developers will need to finish this plugin: http://code.google.com/p/rhythmbox-videosource/

    • Anonymous

      woah, that’s a pretty nice plugin!

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ZWOIIEEVXJ7FMNPUI4453BKDPQ Mark

    Yet more good news today. First Zeitgeist move to Vala, now Mono being dropped from Ubuntu. Looks like Ubuntu started heading in correct direction. The ultimate news should be dropping of Unity and returning to Gnome DE. That way all OS would easy fit in CD.

    • ryanfarmer

      I am no fan of Unity, but Mono was the main blocker for me being able to recommend Ubuntu to people.

      Ever since it appeared in the default install a while back, my first reaction was actually to apt-get purge mono, but then as more and more pieces of the system started needing it, I moved over to KDE.

      As for GNOME, I’m not certain I like the Shell more than I do Unity. It might just be a matter of installing the proper shell extensions and finding the right theme with GNOME Shell.

      As for Unity, my main problem is that they declare that the system tray is obsolete and end up replacing it with something called indicators, which are unwieldy and not widely supported in software that doesn’t come with Ubuntu’s default installation.

  • Anirban Ghosh

    Let us drop Ubuntu from Ubuntu 12.04 CD. Say what? Instead they may put Ubuntu 10.10 and rename as Ubuntu 12.04.

  • http://twitter.com/bottleofink Brian

    That’s a real shame, Tomboy is one of my favorite apps, it’s incredibly useful. I show it off every time I introduce someone to Ubuntu.

    • https://login.ubuntu.com/+id/R4szkb7 Jo-Erlend Schinstad

      Then start using it as an example of how to install software in Ubuntu?

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_YPICAM36WORNHGBRFLV6JORLR4 Tristan Williams

    Bad move.. Rhythembox hasn’t improved since it’s removal and for the people saying Banshee is buggy so is Rhythembox. The best thing I’ve heard in this thread so far was why isn’t canonical working with some of these devs to make default app better? Anyway I’m off to Clementine Music Player for now.

    • Anonymous

      Sorry to disagree, but I haven’t seen any bugs with Rhythmbox, AFAIK.

      • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_YPICAM36WORNHGBRFLV6JORLR4 Tristan Williams

        You haven’t but I’ve submitted one up to last night They’re both buggy but my god why take a step backwards with Rhythembox; it look like butt with 1/2 the feature sets.. Bad move… Canonical should really start to work with devs to interface default apps better and iron out bugs…
        I

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_5YW6FSUDDHMP3EWTW3OOLRISUY Jkox-one

    if( ubuntu == versionX.04 ) {
        out ( Banshee);
        in ( Rhythmbox );
    }
    if( ubuntu == versionX.10 ) {   
    out ( Rhythmbox );   
    in ( Banshee );
    }

    • Georgi Karavasilev

      Hold on, why do I have the feeling that Rhythmbox was default in Maverick 10.10? :D

      • Anonymous

        big oops there from @yahoo-5YW6FSUDDHMP3EWTW3OOLRISUY:disqus

      • Anonymous

        My six hours of online C tutorial knowledge came up with this solution

        if( ubuntu == versionLTS, versionLTS + .06) {
            out ( Banshee);
            in ( Rhythmbox );
        }
        if( ubuntu == versionLTS + 1.0, versionLTS +1.6) {   
        out ( Rhythmbox );   
        in ( Banshee );
        }

        • https://login.ubuntu.com/+id/R4szkb7 Jo-Erlend Schinstad

          Heh, I don’t even understand what you’re trying to say with that jibberish.

    • https://login.ubuntu.com/+id/R4szkb7 Jo-Erlend Schinstad

      I’ve just spent hours fixing inconsistent indentation. Are you stalking me?! :)

      But I hope you’re not saying that Ubuntu should never test out new ideas and that instead we should only defend our previous choices? So Banshee got a chance and we tried it out for a while, but it doesn’t fit well with Ubuntu presently. It’s not like Banshee has been removed from Ubuntu or anything like that.

      • Anonymous

        I don’t really mind developers trying out different things, what does bug me is that when they changed to banshee, the Ubuntu One Music Store stopped working in Rhythmbox. I thought Canonical wanted as many as possible to buy from them so they could generate a revenue. Build a version of the music store, and then maintain it accross several options, not just the default app. Alternatively, make the store accesible from a web browser so that I can still buy songs without having to alternate between two music players all the time. 

  • http://tomslominski.net/ Tom Slominski

    Wow.

  • https://launchpad.net/~zorkerz zorkerz

    They axed tomboy!? NOOOOOO!
    Will there be a replacement note taking application?
    I’ve used tomboy for years now and found it to be the best way to take notes around. Especially since it was integrated with Ubuntu1. I have no love for mono, always though it was the weakest part of tomboy. Guess it really has turned out to be.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_GE4EYP3QOQ246PLG2Y2DOD2NIQ Dr. Fly

      Dude, you can just reinstall it from the Ubuntu Software Center. It’s not gone for good.

      • https://login.ubuntu.com/+id/R4szkb7 Jo-Erlend Schinstad

        You don’t need to reinstall anything. It won’t get deleted from users computers during an upgrade. It just won’t be automatically installed for users who doesn’t already have it.

        Even a fresh install of Ubuntu should now automatically install your apps, if I understand the point of OneConf correctly.

        • Anonymous

          But lets hope they will keep U1 Tomboy sync feature. Who knows.

  • https://launchpad.net/~davidnielsen David Nielsen

    Words cannot express how disappointed I am with this decision. I put a lot of work into supporting Ubuntu users running Banshee as well as ensuring that bugs of high priority to Ubuntu for the purpose of inclusion were addressed.

    To see it being celebrated as a good thing is kinda insulting to be honest.

    • Daniel Vanzo

      David, Ubuntu Defaults are not Ubuntu Users! Keep working on Banshee! I’m in 10.10 where Banshee wasn’t default neither but I use it every day… :) . 

    • Anonymous

      My friend, people rally around different flags, no?

      I personally love Banshee; I love the plugins, I love the features…I’ll grant you it has a few bugs, but still, I love it.

      This does not mean your work isn’t appreciated, however. I for one am eternally grateful to you and the others for Banshee, as it remains one of the few applications I could ever really say I’ve fallen in love with.

      I know it isn’t much, but I can say I will be using Banshee for the foreseeable future.

    • http://twitter.com/Benedolt Benedolt Dee

      I too am really shocked by this decision. IMO Banshee is a much, much better music player and I will continue using it.

      This is a sad occasion, but I want to thank you nonetheless, David, for all the work you put into Banshee on Ubuntu. (And for your posts here on OMG!) One really sees how much you invest in it and you and the Banshee team have created an awesome product.

      I really really appreciate it, thank you!

    • http://twitter.com/jspaleta Jef Spaleta

      No good deed goes unpunished.

      -jef

    • http://profiles.google.com/mpnordland Micah Nordland

      Don’t worry, I’ve been using Banshee since Opensuse 11.0 I’m still here. 

    • John Stableford

      First thing I’ll do after installing ubuntu 12.04? Install Banshee. Second? remove rythmbox.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_HHS3YNBYUFBBEPUESRLV747QOM Dylan

      I feel your pain, very unfair to be suddenly dropped without any major discussion first. I cant believe that people are posting up such negativity about Banshee. It is leaps and bounds ahead of Rhythmbox!!

    • https://launchpad.net/~serrano-pereira Serrano

      As a loyal Banshee user I’m also a little disappointed with this decision. But I’m guessing the real reason for this decision is that they just wanted to get rid of Mono (which I can understand). Banshee is a great music player, but the fact that it depends on Mono could be a buzz killer for some people. Maybe that’s why so many people favour Rhythmbox over Banshee. I too would rather see Banshee ported to Vala or something. But I’m guessing that ain’t easy.

    • http://twitter.com/jordanbadangayo jordan badangayon

      Much that I love Banshee very much, I cannot use it now with oneiric because it freezes everytime I open it so I have to use force quit a lot of times… I guess the reason they’re switching is due to this instability problem… But I hope banshee will fix this so it can be usable again… :) 

    • http://twitter.com/ryanmacnish Ryan Macnish

      David, i still use Banshee, its the only app that i have found in 3 years that doesnt screw up my music collection, but its also the only app that crashes several times a day.

    • http://ChrisBaskind.com Chris Baskind

      I started with Banshee shortly after leaving Mac for Ubuntu (and before it was the default). Thanks for your work. I, for one, will not be changing over to Rhythmbox. 

    • Anonymous

      don’t worry Banshee will be the first thing i install along with my fav note taking app tomboy.

      Thanks for supporting us and dont worry too much about what ubuntu ships or doesnt ships, your player is still awesome and nothing can change that :)

    • Anonymous

      Beyond the ridiculousness of the flip flopping on default applications, this is unacceptable, in my opinion.  User loyalty to programs is one thing.  People have their preferences and can change them quickly and radically as they see fit.  A distro should not exhibit such behavior, particularly when so much work was done to bring Banshee in and make it feel at home in Ubuntu.

      To see this and the other comments on the previous Banshee/Ryhthmbox post that indicate the Banshee developers didn’t even know the winds of change were blowing is unreal.  This is a dangerous precedent to set for behavior toward projects that you’d like included in your distro.  What incentive does any developer have, after seeing this, to go out of their way to help Ubuntu?  The correct answer should be none.

      I’m a teacher from the U.S. so I found some truth in these words, paraphrased as they are:

      “Prudence, indeed, will dictate that distros long established should not change their defaults for light and transient causes…”

      • http://twitter.com/aplusv_vvh Vincent Van Houtte

        I wouldn’t call mono ‘light’ nor ‘transient’. I’m not an Ubuntu-dev (not even an Ubuntu-user), but I’m sure the devs were looking for a way to make the dependency list for the default Ubuntu-install lighter and thus easier to maintain. There are great alternatives to mono – probably there are also great alternatives to banshee.

        Besides, if you like using banshee, what’s holding you back? It’ll still be included in the repo’s…

    • Anonymous

      Banshee still rules the media player space on Linux! Many, many people will still install it. Count me in. I really don’t like Rhythmbox at all.:D

    • Sashin Ranasinghe

      Well there are stability concerns, along with the LTS nature of this release… and since mono and tomboy are going, it’ll free up additional space for other things.

    • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/L7L7TGYKNBABWM3N7ELVBTLV3E Virgil

      I agree with you entirely. Banshee is the kind of elegant and feature filled media player that folks at large can really enjoy using. I think it offers a better experience. Also being included in Ubuntu by default could mean much more attention to the project and potentially more contributors.

      I think this is a move that reflects the more selfish direction Ubuntu is heading in. It is a much bigger blow than the community outcrying about some window decorations or yahoo deal. Banshee should have stayed.

    • http://rockiger.com/blog Marco

      Yeah,  I understnad you, strange decision. 
      Ubuntu needs more consistency. Developers are making changes for Ubuntu and than they are kicked out of the default programms.What is next? Changing back to Gnome 2?

    • http://legluondunet.over-blog.fr/ Le Gluon du Net

      At my user eyes, Banshee is one of the best mediaplayer on linux but it has several big defaults: it’s coded in mono, I ever find it unstable and eat a lot of my merory. If only it will be coded in GTK and better integrating in Gnome, it will be inescapable

  • http://profiles.google.com/lilianftp Moraru Lilian

    Yay, no Mono, love ya Canonical :)

  • http://profiles.google.com/lilianftp Moraru Lilian

    Btw, I find Clementine the best now…
    I’m talking about version 0.7.3 which is in development now…

    • Anonymous

      FINALLY SOMEONE WHO AGREES WITH ME!!!!

    • andy brine

      Right on!! Clementine is far better than Banshee and Rhythmbox! I have only recently started using it and it is awesome. This should now be the Default Player :)

    • http://twitter.com/ryanmacnish Ryan Macnish

      Not trying to bash Clementine or anything here, but it took nearly 7 minutes to import my music, banshee took 35 seconds.

      Although if they improve its performance i might switch to it.

  • http://www.iheartubuntu.com iheartubuntu.com

    I like and use Banshee. It was only slow and buggy for me on the first few releases. People still use CDs… I would love if Banshee and Rhythmbox use CDDB instead of MusicBrainz. Still cant rip in either of those programs. I would be really sad to see Tomboy go… but as long as I can install it Im cool. Tomboy has become one of my #1 apps. I do a ton of work on three diff computers… home, work and laptop and it is just the coolest thing to have my notes synced up always. SO much easier then emailing yourself something.

    • Anonymous

      I think CDDB support was dropped because they wanted to start charging for API calls, no?

    • http://insight.pinkonbrown.org Dr P Fenderson

      Why do you want it to use CDDB? I have never had any luck with CDDB finding any of the music I want. Seems to work with popular stuff, by ANYTHING obscure is completely missing. Whereas MusicBrainz always finds what I need, save a few rare instances. And in those cases, I can always add it myself…which is a HUGE boon in favor of MB.

  • Alex Robinson

    Beatbox?

    • https://launchpad.net/~afccarl1994 Carl Ansell

      ^^This.

      If they fix it so it shows my album art, that is.

    • Anonymous

      Beatbox FTW!

  • yocto .

    Imma let you finish but Quodlibet is the best player/library-manager of all time !

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_5KG7JAE7WPBQI2PCQL4HYPAKPI Bassboy Anon

    Wow man. That was fracking rude. Leave aside you have no clue what you are talking about.

    • http://shadowfirebird.tumblr.com shadowfirebird

      Well, it *was* rude.  But really, I do know what he means.  Mono sort of freaks me out, also, being a) a bit klunky and b) at least theoretically linked to Microsoft.  I know that this is not entirely rational on my part.  But still: ew.

      • http://id.robpvn.net/ Robert Nordan

        In my opinion mono and C# really is less klunky than Java, but that’s just me. The bigger thing is of course that people should be allowed to use the tools they prefer to create things without being foulmouthed by rude people who disagree.

      • http://www.frothingthefrap.com/ Shannon Black

        Vala FTW

      • http://twitter.com/Benedolt Benedolt Dee

        I as a user couldn’t care less about what it’s written in – as long as it’s a good application. And Banshee is just a better application than Rhythmbox! A very sad decision.

        • http://shadowfirebird.tumblr.com shadowfirebird

          No, look. You can reinstall Banshee in two minutes flat. This change doesn’t affect anyone – unless you think that everyone else should use your favourite app; which is just dumb.
          The whole point of Linux is we all get to choose our personal favourites from a massive set of programs to use. If your personal favourite music player isn’t part of the vanilla install, IT DOESN’T MATTER.
          —– Original message —–

  • http://twitter.com/toetjesman henk de vries
  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_GE4EYP3QOQ246PLG2Y2DOD2NIQ Dr. Fly

    Yes! They are making room for a REALLY awesome new sound theme, I bet!

    On the other hand, I could care less if Banshee and Mono were taken out. As for Tomboy, I used to rely on it heavily for note-taking during my first two years of college, but Google Docs has largely replaced it by now due to flexibility, features and ease of export.

  • Bryce Hardy

    The loss of Tomboy as a default install is regrettable. Gnote isn’t ready yet to replace it (it doesn’t do sync and I couldn’t get it to import my Tomboy notes.) The article doesn’t say what will replace it, but I’ll be installing Tomboy after the upgrade to 12.04.

  • Phoenamandre Phoenamandre

    Tomahawk remains the best music player for me

  • Anonymous

    they have ti improve the Ipod/iphone support, because since january, the sync is totally broken!

  • http://shadowfirebird.tumblr.com shadowfirebird

    Rythmbox, Banshee, meh.  Either way I’ll deinstall it and install Clementine, or Exaile.  Something with a UI that makes sense to me.

  • Roshan P Koshy

    Good doubt..if i install tomboy..it means i would hv to install momo dependencies too

  • bobsmith63635

    Mono can bite me. I would rather use a web based playlist and use my flash plugin to do the same damn job..  Get with the times fellas!

  • Bart Willemsen

    I am more concerned about Mono not installed by default. Wonderful crossplatform .NET framework..

  • Anonymous

    I’m a little concerned about the jumping back and forth with the default programs. It seems like it would provide more stability to pick a program and stay with it.

  • http://ralfhersel.pip.verisignlabs.com/ Ralf Hersel

    I’m sooo happy that they kick out that MONO stuff out of Pangolin. I tested Banshee on six different notebooks and it crashed constantly whatever I tried with it. Most of the other players (Rhythmbox, Clementine, Exaile, Guayadeque, Gmusicbrowser) are so much better.

  • André Mello

    Funny, last time Rhythmbox  was default I switched to Banshee because Rhythmbox was very buggy for me. When they made Banshee default I thought that had been the reason… Apparently not.

  • Brandon Nolet

    To be honest, I find it’s a good move. Simply because it removes an unnecessary framework.

  • https://launchpad.net/~afccarl1994 Carl Ansell

    Does this mean I can still use my 700MB CDs?

  • Anonymous

    Gotta’ admit- Mono’s a pretty hefty package. Tomboy has never been an extremely essential element of Ubuntu for the majority of users- I was always confused it was there when other GNOME applications were totally ignored.

    It would’ve been better to get rid of it before bringing Banshee in, of course. Either way, I doubt the default set of applications on any OS, even OS X, will always define the possibility of the alternatives to rise to popularity and receive more useful feedback.

    Personally, I’m more excited for the day when we can remove GTK 2.

  • Anonymous

    Well now that bookmark sync for firefox is dead, and note syncing, all ubuntu one has is file sync

    They seriously need some new features in it to replace to lost ones

    • https://login.ubuntu.com/+id/R4szkb7 Jo-Erlend Schinstad

      Why do you keep saying things you know not to be true? Note syncing is there with Tomboy. You _know_ it isn’t going to be removed from Ubuntu. What are you talking about? I haven’t found _one_ single reference to Ubuntu One dropping support of Tomboy. Can you please provide some backing to your statements?

  • Anonymous

    It just depends on what you want the most in a music player. If you’re a UI person, then rhythmbox is a tragedy. It has arguably the worst user interface in any music player I’ve ever used. If you care more about code, speed and stability, you’re likely to gawk in awe at the shit pile that banshee is. If you care about a good user interface as well as speed stability and no-mono dependencies, you hate both of these programs. They suck.

  • http://profiles.google.com/nathanlee2 nathan lee

    I guess I’m not sure why mono is a bad thing. It’s only a few megabytes in size, which shouldn’t be a make or break for inclusion.

    That being said, I’m all for actually focusing development on ONE program – none of this switching back and forth stuff. If you’re going to do that, it’s not a bad idea to use default libraries.

  • http://profiles.google.com/mpnordland Micah Nordland

    Hey, it’s open source, and if microsoft isn’t trying to shut it down, fine. Let’s throw patents and what not to the wind, and have an awesome music app. It’s win-win us.

  • Anonymous

    This seems like a completely mad decision.

  • http://the-good-show.tumblr.com/ Ants

    I for one am happy about this decision. Rhythmbox is great, it is a music app and that’s all it should need to be.

  • Anonymous

    Me, I haven’t used anything but Spotify for a few years now. Old school music apps like rhythmbox and banshee are outdated imho.

    Tomboy won’t be missed either. Wunderlist and Evernote rules supreme since with cross platform I always carry my notes with me. What good are my notes when they’re stuck on my home desktop and I’m out of town?

  • http://www.corbindavenport.com/ Corbin Davenport

    I JUST got my music library over from Rythmbox. Grrrr…

  • http://ney.frota.net Ney Frota

    I cannot live without tomboy. … :/ will be the first thing to install after ubuntu reinstall.

    But banshee or rhythmbox make no difference to me. One is good in some points other in other points.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Vladimir-Kooznetsov/1660704458 Vladimir Kooznetsov

    Wait, it means i won’t be able to sync my tomboy notes with U1?..

    • https://login.ubuntu.com/+id/R4szkb7 Jo-Erlend Schinstad

      It does not mean that, since Tomboy is not being removed from Ubuntu. It is just being removed from the CD. It will not be deleted from your harddisk either. It just won’t be installed for users who don’t already have it.

  • Patricio Rossi

    I don’t use any of that application

  • Ken G

    deberían poner un “me da =” en la votación. Ya que yo no uso ni banshee ni Rhythmbox . xD

  • Nix A Rahim

    in my laptop, banshee always crash when I open much songs… 
    I think develop have to consistent because some users will find it difficult to move from one application to another

  • Julio Neto

    What is going to replace tomboy???

  • http://twitter.com/di0nysys Andrew Smith

    OMGUbuntu, you mocked me, defaced my post in a previous article, calling me a troll for bringing up mono, now look at your headline. Hypocrites.

  • http://facebook.com/domcan2 1roxtar

    Honestly, I’m one who really likes Banshee, especially over Rhythmbox. Nothing against Rhythmbox.  I like it a lot too, but for a default music player, I would have gone with Guayadeque.  However, because of the rabid patent lawsuits by Microsoft, I am glad Canonical is removing any default apps with Mono dependencies from Ubuntu.  Even though, Mono is an open-source implementation of Microsoft’s .NET framework, we don’t need to give them any room for another bogus and drawn out lawsuit to hinder Ubuntu’s march towards mainstream adoption on the desktop. 

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_5AYWWU7ZRLMEHBDZBG6SBVCR7A Mark

    This all about money…   Everybody seems to forget the Canonical pissing contest with Gnome and then the Banshee developers who donate a proceed of the Amazon Store profits to Gnome.   Canonical wanted a bigger cut of the pie.   Now they can keep it all…  Don’t be fooled.  I agree with Canonical wanting and needing to make a profit but this is not how you develop healthy relationships.  

  • Carlos Priego

    I used to love Banshee a while ago, but then it started to get really slow and really buggy. I mean, my library ain’t that large and it takes centuries to scan, besides it constantly freezes.

    I really like Rhythmbox a lot, simpler, more stable, faster, it might not have all the features Banshee has but it’s just that, a music player plus manager

  • Anonymous

    well done, canonical.

  • http://www.shawncm217.com Shawn Mannen

    I don’t really care which one they choose. Neither one has ever really impressed me. However, I do wish they’d pick one and stick to it. This switching back and forth is nonsense.

  • Anonymous

    Thumbs up from me. Didn’t like Banshee, and with the politics of the last release I wouldn’t have it as default either. Those who like it can install it.Tomboy I do like, but as long as Gnote has the same functionality that’s ok. Good move.

  • Anonymous

    Then, with this, What is the reason for increase +50mb the Ubuntu CD?

  • https://launchpad.net/~antonio.chiurazzi steveacab

    fuck yeah!
    mono is crap, and with it all apps build in mono. so… bye bye
    rhythmbox is ugly in the UI and in the name, but better than banshee.

  • Seventh Reign

    Where is the option for “I dont use any of those apps and they get ‘apt-get purged’ as soon as I’m done installing” in the poll?

  • http://twitter.com/Lonevolf Arka Dipta Das

    Clementine is the best music player in my opinion. It should be the default player in Ubuntu!

  • Anonymous

    I think that all major default apps should match ubuntu’s style in semi-minimalist eyecandy, and also focus on stability.

    rythmbox is great but I feel that canonical should urge the developers to create some sort of unity-style skin, for precise pangolin.

  • http://twitter.com/aneeszaki Anees Zaki

    I like Clementine ..but in 11.10  it loses global menu when minimized to system tray and reopened  :(
    so i ll stuck with Banshee till I find a solution .

  • Ryan Gallagher

    Well, I’m not using either – or any stand-alone player. I’ve switched over to Google Music exclusively.

  • Anonymous

    yeesss welcome back rythmbox.

  • http://johannpopper.myopenid.com/ Johann Popper

    What a shame. I congratulate Ubuntu for dropping the only good default application it ever had.

    “Both applications will remain easily installable from the Ubuntu Software Centre for those who prefer to use them.”

    What utter nonsense. Why don’t you tell Americans and Japanese the truth about the fundamentally bad design of global package systems for software management? I speak, of course, of the inherent limitation of dependency hell Ubuntu software distribution. Every modern operating system should have a software ecosystem that is based on discrete bundles, one bundle per app, and all unnecessary add-ons should be modular. Now that Banshee is no longer the default media player, the developers will no longer be constrained by legal concerns to force the app to be installable without requiring the installation of illegal codecs in the United States and Japan… and the user has absolutely no control over the installation of such unnecessary and illegal components. You want to kill the profitable part of the Ubuntu Software Center? This is one way to do it. Now it will be like before Banshee was made default, and a simple install of a PURCHASED Fluendo codec pack will automatically uninstall Banshee because of a dependency conflict. And if it’s not Banshee, it will be another app that requires an illegal codec the user doesn’t want on his system. Or a user will install such an app through the Software Center, and his purchased Fluendo codec pack will be automatically uninstalled, without the user’s permission or knowledge. Happens all the time. The removal of Synaptic just hides that fact from uninformed users. Dependency hell is primitive and ridiculous and arbitrarily limiting. Every app should be its own universe. Certainly, memory space is not an issue on modern hardware.

  • Carlos Felipe Pessoa de Araújo

    Docky uses mono, right?!

    • Ray

      I think it does? http://wiki.go-docky.com/index.php?title=Installing#Installing_From_Source

  • Anonymous

    Honestly, I dont use Banshee(or any other music player that much), and I’d use google tasks and springpad instead of Tomboy. What I’d like really to see is less bugs and easier to configure OS with the next release. Better thoughts what goes into the Software center. For example, WiCD is pain in the a** to use with the new release – no way to add indicator, the scripts dialogs will not open. I managed to solve some of the problems. 
    It seems to me that some of the  KDE apps are  way better than gnome: – Krusader is top, Amarok is really cool, Kate, KRDC performs better for me… I love the whole Unity thing, though :)

  • Anonymous

    I was thinking the other day that removing Tomboy would be a good idea. Not necessary app for most.

  • Ray

    I like banshee as it has Audio & video, it gives me the ability to remove/turn off components I don’t use like Podcasts & Audiobooks etc… and I can kind of sync my music and videos with my android phone, but with banshee I can’t sync my music playlists {I can sync one playlist only and then it removes All other music that’s not in that playlist}… Regardless of which Player they choose one thing I would like to see is out-of-the-box easy to use no config needed syncing of my music, playlists & videos to my android phone [it pains me to say this but similar to itunes] as I think it would be a great incentive to attract new users also. I have no preference between rhytmbox or banshee each has it’s own merits, but I do think that rythmbox needs to be brought up to date with it’s views, options and the way it supports devices, and banshee could too. 

  • http://azadrah.net Sasan

    one by one all my wishes are comming true. no more mono, no more microsoft crap. go ubuntu, go!

  • Dumitru Gheorghiu

    I’m not that much into Banshee. I would prefer Clementine more if it would be more stable and eye-candy….but I don’t understand one thing …  how can you make an application default, when it’s last release was issued 8 months ago?!  And more than that, it’s the version 0.13.3. It looks like a dead software.

  • http://techspalace.blogspot.com Technical Fun

    Finally bye bye Mono. :D

  • http://profiles.google.com/wouter.cox Wouter Cox

    I like them both, but in the past I had a preference for Rhythmbox. Although after using Banshee for a while, I can’t really remember why I liked Rhythmbox over Banshee.

    I wish I could configure which music player was shown in the ‘sound’ menu though. One of those, or even something else. What if tomorrow I decide I want to install Amarok or Clementine, or … Then it’s inconvenient that I can’t access the player chosen through the sound interface (Next/Pause/Prev buttons etc.).

  • jan.heidemeier

    I’m not sure whether Rhythymbox is still advanced. As far as I know switched Ubuntu from Rhythymbox to Banshee because the first named wasn’t supported anymore. So why should they move back? That doesn’t make any sense…

  • http://twitter.com/Shuninzo Sébastien Michel

    Banshee, Rythmbox, I don’t care, just focus on the same default apps for every release of Ubuntu so they have time to be improved and not dump at each new release. And users will have time to adapt instead of switching each time they upgrade Ubuntu.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ZKTU6NNEMGR6NRSFTCYJSHY7EQ James

    Will Gnote now replace Tomboy? I hate to see functionality removed from the default shipping distribution. The initial development of 12.04 is not looking good. Tomboy is an awesome application and I will miss it! ;-(

  • http://oimon.wordpress.com mungojerry

    the problem with default apps is that it suggests that they are the best . maybe i’m dumb but I can’t get rhythmbox to work as I’d expect. I’d be interested in seeing video tutorials from anyone who thinks it is brilliant – I keep thinking i’m missing something

  • Ms. Polly

    I feel like this is a very smart move toward freedom. I would use Rhythmbox before Banshee – of course I always download a lighter player for quick play. This is great news to be rid of mono – always preferred gnote, xpad, osmo, (or xfce notes when on my xfce computer). I am happy that 68% of those who polled here agree with me. They could save space by dumping gwibber too (it is better but still sluggish even with changes) – most people I know use Hotot or Turpial. For the others, you can download them from USC. Now if they’ll just make Shell default…..not gonna happen, I know. I don’t always get what I want either, so like everyone else, I have to tweak.  Xubuntu is still the best choice for desktop use, imho – but Ubuntu will stay on my laptop.

  • Anonymous

    Everything has been said, but still: increasing the size of the .iso and then dropping mono after so many years does not really make sense. And tomboy is the kind of app which makes the gnome-environment strong. Banshee is slow, agreed, but still it’s fantastic,.

  • https://launchpad.net/~ollivision Oliver List

    To be honest, Rhythmbox is better than Banshee. I really like the UI of Banshee, but was never happy with the Mono-thing!
    Just my personal taste: Clementine. Lightwight and very good!

  • Four Cultures

    I really like Tomboy and use it a lot. The obvious alternative is Gnote, which is a port of tomboy to C++ so as to avoid the Mono connection. Zim is also very good and has some features that Tomboy/Gnote lack. Look up Gnote and Zim in the Software Centre (or Synaptic).
    Rhythmbox I am less keen on. It works fine but has a few features annoyingly missing. For example, ‘bookmarking’ a track so you can re-start where you left off. Maybe there’s a way to do this but I haven’t been able to find it. 

  • Endri Budiwan

    hooray no more mono. it has been the very first thing I remove from my linux mint. As mono is gone, nothing can keep banshee and tomboy anymore.

    I never care about rhytmbox as I use clementine

  • http://legluondunet.over-blog.fr/ Le Gluon du Net

    Banshee and Tomboy are easily replace by:

    banshee: rhythmbox, Gmusicbrowser, VLC, Clementine….
    Tomboy: Gnote

    bye bye mono :-)

  • Anonymous

    Banshee, it always work with bugs in my home, it’s slow, I can’t see why it’s in default Ubuntu. And now all the hard job to integrate banshee on Ubuntu is lose.. Clementine is a good player, but it bring QT libraries. It is a good choice yet..

  • Anonymous

    Good fkn riddance.

  • Anonymous

    Oje.

    What about the inegration of the emusic-store and the amzon-store in banshee? New users will never find out that these features are available in banshee. They WILL, however, find out that they can’t download a complete album from amazon or from emusic.

    And then: bye-bye ubuntu.

 
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