Giving (Or Getting) an MP3 Player for Christmas?

Ever since Apple introduced the iPod, MP3 players have been one of the hottest gifts for Christmas. And the key to getting those MP3 players to work is having a reliable and dependable computer system. If you run Linux, then you not only have a reliable, hassle free operating system, but you also have access to one of the greatest MP3 music programs around. It's called Amarok. And Amarok does it all. It organizes your music, gives you audio track information, stats, and syncs up with your MP3 player.


Other Linux programs like Gimp, OpenOffice and Scribus have been cross platform compatible. You can download Windows or Mac versions and try them out before you make the move over to Linux. In the past, Amarok was only available on Linux. Recently, though, Amarok has been made available for Windows and Mac, although these are not officially supported. But Amarok is so powerful, feature packed, and unique, the best way to really test drive Amarok is to run Linux.

To show you how terrific Amarok is, I've included some screen shots.

In the screen shot at left, Amarok is displaying the album cover of the current track that's playing. It also has found other tracks on my hard drive that are from the same album. In addition, it tells me how often I've played a specific track.

In the second screen shot, Amarok has found the lyrics for the current track playing. All you karaoke enthusiasts can sing along! Amarok has a number of lyric scripts that can be downloaded and run. These scripts find the song's lyrics from around the web. These scripts are community created and supported thanks to Amarok being open source.

Screen shot three shows how Amarok obtains Wikipedia information on the current artist playing. In this case, I'm playing "The Christmas Waltz" by Frank Sinatra off his Christmas With The Rat Pack CD. Amarok goes directly to Wikipedia and finds the page detailing Frank Sinatra's life and career.

And lastly, I mentioned that Amarok syncs up with MP3 devices and players. This can be done automatically or manually. When the MP3 player is synced, dragging and dropping music back and forth between Amarok and the device is incredibly easy.


So, if you want to manage and enjoy your music with greater ease and actually "rediscover your music",then get Linux and get Amarok.