Best Linux Multimedia Applications

By Jim on June 19th, 2010

The Register has a good look at multimedia applications that are suitable replacements for iTunes, for Ubuntu users. This article is a great primer for those coming to Linux from Mac OS X or Windows. It introduces some final alternatives to iTunes.

This article is the first in a series that looks at Linux applications – those on Ubuntu in particular – and how they compare to what’s available on Windows and OS X, which have been out there longer, are more polished, and have a larger number of users.

The focus will be on multimedia apps in particular – audio, video and photo – along with back-up services.

I’ll be focusing on Ubuntu because Canonical is specifically hoping to lure Windows and OS X users away.

To kick things off, I look at one area where Linux has an embarrassment of riches – music players. Whether you’re looking for a player with features that puts Apple’s iTunes to shame or just a bare-bones play/pause button, there’s something that will work for everyone.

First, some parameters. I’ll be ignoring things like audio codecs because, sorry to say, codecs are a subject that simply doesn’t matter to the ordinary consumer. Also, if a music player doesn’t support MP3s, then it’s just not a music player for the ordinary PC users.

Similarly the focus will be on GNOME apps. There’s nothing wrong with other desktops and apps written for them, but Ubuntu ships with GNOME and KDE apps have a huge overhead before they’ll run in GNOME.