Songbird

Its long been an ambition of mine (well, more like a new years resolution) to take part in an Open Source project. I’ve been writing code for a number of years now; but trying to find the spare time to get involved is difficult.

The other problem I have found is, how do you get involved? I’ve looked for advice on the web (Google) and have yet to find a good description.

The best I have found so far is this: Getting Started With Open Source Development.

Well, recently I discovered Songbird, an iTunes challenger based on the Mozilla codebase, which is at version 0.2. I am resolved to take part in some way, even if it is simply to fix a few minor bugs.

So far I have downloaded Song Bird onto my Linux (MEPIS) laptop, but installation has proved problematic: I had some difficulty getting the gstreamer libraries to install correctly. Specifically, I couldn’t get Songbird / gstreamer to play files over http. I think I’ve cracked it now: It looks like I need the gnomevfssrc package.

Well it is a learning experience after all…

So, initial advice: make sure you install all the gstreamer libraries!

If you are having trouble installin Songbird, there are plenty of tutorials available; here is one which may be useful from arsgeek.com: How to install Songbird on your Ubuntu box and then enjoy the music

Now to play for a while, then I have to try to install it from the source code!