Using Gmusicbrowser takes a lot of getting used to

Rhythmbox is the default on Ubuntu and these days I find VLC’s user interface too limited when it comes to playing music files. I’d rather stick with Rhythmbox or if I am playing songs found in one directory, I could make do with Totem. But if you want more options in managing playlists for your mediaplayer you need more than that.

Gmusicbrowser in iTunes layout, by Clair Ching 2008.

Enter Gmusicbrowser. In the package manager Synaptic, I recall reading something like it’s a jukebox. Maybe so. But I find it overwhelming. You have many options to choose from when it comes to handling your playlists. There are also different views to choose from, and they are based on commonly used Linux music-playing apps.

What I like about it:

• Many kinds of layouts. You could select the type of layout based on the familiarity you have with the UI of other apps.
• The usual features are still there. Editing the information of the music file, etc.
• You could have many filters for a playlist.
• You have a separate window for the music library browser. Dragging and dropping from there to the playlist of your choice is easy.

Things I didn’t like:

• Too much information. Too many tabs. This is not always good because the tabs overlap sometimes.
• Some of the filter descriptions seem vague. And I couldn’t see other type of filters could be used.
• It feels like its cramming too much in one app.

But I still find it useful despite my gripes. I don’t have that many playlists but I appreciate the Foobar 2000 like user interface. It makes playlists more obvious.

Some screenshots:

Editing song properties, by Clair Ching 2008

The music browser, by Clair Ching 2008.

With the library context, by Clair Ching 2008.

In case you’re getting bored with the default app on your computer, try giving this a chance. You might find it nifty when it comes to your collection.