Can't find one.

On a brand new Feisty Fawn trying to load a 96k mp3 stream .pls:

Totem -- clips like crazy (no, it wasn't the connection or the station)

MPlayer -- Playlist->Add->play->shows name of list and stares blankly at me, nothing else.

Amarok -- "No suitable Demux". Do they mean "decoder"? for an MP3? Are they kidding?

Rhythmbox -- Playlist->Add->queue all tracks-> zero tracks are queued; same stupid blank stare.

I hate to say such blasphemous things, but I just want winamp without microsoft around it. Why? Well...file->open->any file imaginable be it playlist, mp3, aac, movie file, or even a url. And it works--every time. If I want big fancy library functionality I have the option to start that new hobby, but if I just want a file to play--just want to hear music, that's all--it does it. Simply, and quickly.

Once again: file-->open-->foo.pls--> play the thing! Thats all I'm asking for. Is this out there?

Thanks.

Did you already install the mp3 codecs? Ubuntu doesn't provide these out of the box for legal reasons, but gives great instructions for getting this stuff working on their wiki.

Regards,

Alunduil

I haven't manually. But then why was totem able to play it at all? Rhythmbox can also play them if I really coax it (i.e. copy and paste urls, etc.).

And why is an open format like mp3 not available for distribution? Interesting.

Why do you think mp3 is open? It's licensed an patented. The only thing that has prevented lawsuits is that none of the companies involved have brought suit against the distro makers.

Linux has an equivalent to Winamp - but it's getting a little long in the tooth now. It's called Xmms, and I believe you can actually install Winamp skins onto it. To be honest though, I've never thought that much of it. Perhaps you should try VLC. This is nice because it has the features you mention and comes complete with a full set of codecs. Personally, I prefer Amarok - which is a bit like itunes but more friendly to use. However, you'll still need the Lame package to read the mp3 format which is definitely not open source. The open source equivalent of mp3 is Ogg Vorbis: it's an excellent alternative, but for some reason isn't favoured by the music industry.

Actually because XMMS is now deprecated they've started a GTK+2.0 project under the name audacious. You might want to try that before XMMS.

Regards,

Alunduil

Audacious and beep are both XMMS clones, so they would both work well after you install codecs

Thanks for the correction.

So how does one install the mp3 codec for amarok?

And, dare I ask, er, uh, for aac plus?

you could try Automatix, or add the repositories yourself

Following the directions here should get just about anything you can play in linux to work. I don't remember if aac is available or not (I've generally avoided that format).