For slackware, and even dropline, there really isn't a multimedia tool that appears to stand up to anything like windows media player or itunes. Sure we have xine and gxine but I honestly think that euphoria would be if apple were to decide to port itunes to linux. Unless we jump through hoops and install some type of additional emulation system for windows, there isn't really anything quite as nice. So my question is this :

Besides Crossover Office or wine solutions, where are the multimedia tools that are comparable to windows?

I understand that codecs are cross-platform, which ones can I use from windows and where are they?

As some of you may know, I am an engineer. Would it be worth just writing my own piece of software to achieve this?

On a side note: I like linux and slackware and I have a special place in my heart for it, and I was just sitting around and thinking, with Mac, you got Quicktime and itunes and with windows you got wmp and itunes...what about linux? xine that hasn't hit version 1.0 in eons? I am sorry but I don't have enough trust nor respect for an application that hasn't hit 1.0 for as long as I can remember. (Now I am complaining) It is obvious to me that someone hasn't had the gumption to keep working on it and update the UI. It sucks. It seems that it was meant to be in the realm of DVD playing, and not as a multimedia tool. I don't think that it's even really worth installing as a default. It seems as though that these software multimedia players are to fill the void that is barely being filled to begin with.

You know, there is this thing called mplayer ... a really good media player that beats the sh*t out of any WMP or iTunes bloated pieces of ...

Try the slackbuild (the preferred way with all codecs you will ever need to play virtually any video ever made (except for some POS proprietary BS codecs)) or if you can't get it to work try linuxpackages.

And, please, in the future, do search well.

I usually search the following places for good free software (usually open-source as well):

http://freshmeat.net/
http://sourceforge.net/
http://www.google.com/linux

and so on ...

Oh, and if you're gonna be using so many Window$ programs without bothering to try out any native Linux ones ... why did you switch in the first place ?

Slackware is the only distro that supports all media formats I want to use. For music there are any number of apps (my preference is kaffeine, I just dig those visual effects). For video, there is mplayer. Suffice it to say that it rocks.

Get thee to mplayer downloads

Pay particular attention to the codecs.........

Also, if you need packages, go to LinuxPackages it's an invaluable resource for Slackers

I find amarok to be hands down better than any audio player. Especially being able to sync it with my iPod in a very simple manner. I also find xine to work more easily than any other video player(even had more luck than VLC). I guess if you want some massive all-in-one you have to slick with MPlayer(which is a great player imo). But if you are willing to have 2, I find the xine/amarok combo to be most fulfilling.

I use xine and mplayer ... mplayer tends to be less error tolerant and doesn't handle streams well, but is in general better than xine. Xine handles streams better, tolerates most errors (from broken movies), but is not quite as feature-full as mplayer. As for VLC ... I never got it to work properly.

@ Kingscriber: Well, there you go ... there are at least 3 alternatives ... which ones have you tried ?

Noatun I have found does a decent job, and it's very integrated into KDE. It is a little slow at times, though.

Well it seems that mplayer is fairly popular. I will give that a shot. I noticed that dropline comes with Totem movie player, but I don't think that is the same thing. I noticed that on both web pages though that it says "the movie player"...which is a little deceiving.

Thank you J.W for the links and the kickstart, I really appreciate it.

Well, I have been a windows developer for quite some time, however now and then I will pop into linux to do some cross platform development. So naturally I am used to those players. I am a linux enthusiast. I like to tinker and play around with things so I am not up to speed with what people use to 'use' the operating system. I have installed linux to just get it up and running and play around with it and then put the next distributon on to check it out.

In my original post I stated that there were some standards to other operating systems with multimedia and I was searching for what was popular and if there wasn't, I was willing to step us and contribute to with something that could be as popular as itunes and wmp. Now that mplayer exists, I will try it. If it is well liked, then how come it isn't being installed by default (assuming that totem is different) ?

xine appears to be well liked as well, but see my original posts as to my opinions on that piece of software.

Thank you again.

Most applications under Unix/ Linux tend to be conservative about version numbers. Also note that you are confusing xine and xine-ui - xine is currently at xine-lib-1.1.3, xine-ui is what is currently at the 0.x stage, and besides, there are plenty of other front ends to xine-lib (such as Kaffeine). Please do _not_ make the mistake of assuming that as in Windows, version numbering is an exact indication of stability - it is not. Some perfectly stable software is left at the 0.x version numbering due to the preference of the developer.

As far as I am concerned, version 11 of WMP, which is supposed to be "stable", doesn't even begin to compare against Amarok 1.4.5 in terms of features or stability - so I repeat my point; do not take version numbers as "definitive" guides of stability/ maturity.

totem is xine-based. xine is not that bad when configured properly. I use and prefer mplayer to all other players.

So, you're telling me that you will single-handedly make a multimedia player that can defeat mplayer or even xine, easily. I would love to see that ... however, somehow I feel you don't realize the task that lies before you when making such an attempt.

Ok, thanks for the heads up.

[Please excuse me addressing an off topic comment.]
Yes I am telling you that. I am sure that Linus had some of the same rhetoric when he wanted to tackle an operating system project. As far as realizing what tasks can go into any kind of project, I am sure that noone ever really understands exactly what must go into a project like that or any project really. If it did come down to me doing a project like such, I wouldn't do it single handedly. I would ask a knowledgeable person that would like to have a hand in the matter...such as yourself, since you would love to see it so much. :-)

Hmmm ... good example. Alright, go for it

This is the coolest statement I've seen on LQ in quite a while. I think you are setting a very high goal for yourself, but FWIW I'd encourage you to go for it.

The following Wikipedia entry compares various media players and may be of interest. Suffice it to say that for support, mplayer is hard to beat, at least in my own opinion.

Dropline's Totem is compiled against xine-lib. In most respects, it should play the majority of files that you throw at it quite well, provided that you have the codecs installed and your x-server is using XV or some other similar mode for the movie playback. It always plays everything just as well (if not better) on my Linux system than Windows Media Player does on my work machine.

Mplayer probably is probably slightly better at playing a handful of movies, but its UI is lacking in many respects.

Most people use the Mplayer "essential" codec pack for both xine-lib and mplayer based programs.

Are you serious?
Please, take ten minutes of your time to explore the KDE menu before trolling.

There's amarok, please no iTunes on linux oh please If there are things missing in amarok that iTunes have (freezing pc,..) just ask the developper and they will put it. There's also madman.
I don't like totem and noatun, they are the first that I remove.
Then xine vlc mplayer, I use all.
What I like with mplayer is the output that tells you everything. Also mplayer plays very well on some old machines I have, the cpu consumption is very low.
Have you seen that mplayer is now 1.0, that's recent!