Banshee 1.0 Alpha 3 (0.98.3)

  • Release Date: April 10, 2008
  • Source Tarball: banshee-1-0.98.3.tar.bz2 (http://banshee-project.org/files/banshee/banshee-1-0.98.3.tar.bz2)
  • Release Information: NEWS (http://banshee-project.org/files/banshee/banshee-1-0.98.3.news), sha1sum (http://banshee-project.org/files/banshee/banshee-1-0.98.3.sha1sum), ChangeLog (http://banshee-project.org/files/banshee/banshee-1-0.98.3.changes)

  • If you are running openSUSE 10.3 there is a 1-Click Install available:

    1click-install-button.png (http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Banshee:/Preview/openSUSE_10.3/banshee.ymp)

  • If you are running Foresight 2.0 , install banshee-1 from PackageKit, or in a terminal type, sudo conary update banshee-1

New Features

Audio CD Support

This release brings the return of audio CD playback and ripping. When an audio CD is inserted into your computer, it will show up in the source list like users have been used to for years. You can choose the type of codec to rip to, as well as the quality that you want to use from the Preferences dialog.

The return of this feature brings much improved MusicBrainz metadata integration. Much more metadata will be saved to files when ripping CDs now, including the album release date, disc number, track artist, album artist, MusicBrainz IDs for track, artist, album, and disc, and of course all the additional standard metadata that Banshee has always saved.

Mass Storage Digital Audio Player Support

Adding tracks to USB mass storage device
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Adding tracks to USB mass storage device

This release brings initial support for USB Mass Storage digital audio players. If your hardware player is USB Mass Storage, Banshee will recognize it and let you drag music from it to your Music Library and vice versa.

The feature is not yet complete, but solid enough to preview in the release. We expect to finish the functionality for USB Mass Storage and other Digital Audio Players (MTP/PlaysForSure and iPod) in the next two releases.

New, Slick Shuffle Button

The next button now integrates a slick shuffle mode selector. When a shuffle mode is active, the next icon changes to the shuffle icon. This is an experimental user interface that we think makes sense (shuffle is inherently a 'next' action), so we're giving a chance for users to chime in. Tell us what you think!

The shuffle logic is now much smarter, too -- it never plays songs you've just listened to or skipped -- a much requested feature over the years.


Other Features, Bug Fixes, Errata

Enlarge
  • The main view now respects your system DPI settings and has seen massive performance improvements.
  • Jump to playing song is now implemented (Ctrl-J)
  • The Last.fm data screen has some visual improvements.
  • The repeat drop down button now works.
  • Over 40 bugs fixed (http://bugzilla.gnome.org/buglist.cgi?product=banshee&bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=VERIFIED&bug_status=CLOSED&resolution=FIXED&chfield=resolution&chfieldvalue=FIXED&chfieldfrom=2008-03-27&chfieldto=2008-04-11)


Don't miss out on the feature overviews from previous releases! See what else Banshee 1.0 Alpha 3 has to offer!

Dependencies

  • Mono 1.2.2 (.NET 2.0 Profile / gmcs)
  • SQlite 3.4
  • Gtk# 2.10
  • GStreamer 0.10.3
  • NDesk DBus (ndesk-dbus) 0.5
  • NDesk DBus GLib (ndesk-dbus-glib) 0.3
  • Mono.Addins (mono-addins) 0.3.1
  • TagLib# (taglib-sharp) 2.0

Please note that for openSUSE, all of the dependencies above can be found in the openSUSE Build Service, and are linked into the Banshee:Preview project. Even if you build from source, if you wish to avoid building the entire dependency chain above, add the Banshee:Preview repository (http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Banshee:/Preview/) to your repository list.

Historically, Banshee has fostered development of a number of projects and bundled their source code instead of depending on external builds. Many of these dependencies have matured and grown into well maintained projects on their own, and we are now depending on them externally. We waited to remove the bundles long enough to allow for distributions to ship packages to reduce the pain of building Banshee

Alpha Release Disclaimer

This is the third release in the Banshee 1.0 series. This Alpha 3 release does not have feature parity with previous Banshee releases (the last being Banshee 0.13.2). This means there are a number of features in this release that users may have come to know and love in Banshee that are missing for the time being.

However, although this is an Alpha release, it is quite stable and has many great new features and performance improvements which will be detailed later. It has also been designed to be both installed and run in parallel with previous Banshee releases, so you can test the release out without breaking your stable Banshee setup.

Currently Missing Features

  • This release contains limited hardware support
    • No CD burning support
    • No iPod support
    • No MTP device support
  • Additionally, a number of plugins have not yet been ported to the 1.0 architecture
    • Podcasting
    • DAAP/iTunes Music Sharing
    • Internet Radio
    • Recommendations
    • Mini Mode
    • Batch Cover Art Fetching

Do not despair, these features will be added back before the final 1.0 release. Many hardware related features are projected to land in the Beta 1 release of Banshee 1.0. We expect releases in quick succession leading up to the final 1.0 release.

No Conflicts

This new release is not backwards compatible with previous Banshee releases, however, it will not conflict or cause any problems with any previous release you may have installed. If a Banshee library is located from a previous release, it will be copied and migrated to work with the new version.

Previously, all paths and packaging used the banshee project name. We are now using the banshee-1 project name to avoid any packaging, installation, or user-data conflicts with previous releases of Banshee. For instance, the following file/data related things have changed:

  • Packaging/Installation
    • Installation path changed from $(prefix)/lib/banshee to $(prefix)/lib/banshee-1
    • Application launcher changed from $(prefix)/bin/banshee to $(prefix)/bin/banshee-1
    • Application icon name changed from music-player-banshee to media-player-banshee
    • DBus service changed from org.gnome.Banshee to org.bansheeproject.Banshee
  • User Data Access
    • GConf Root Key changed from /apps/banshee to /apps/banshee-1
    • Application data directory changed from ~/.config/banshee to ~/.config/banshee-1 (note, the ~/.config base directory depends on XDG settings for the user)

These changes mean you can have installed and use both older Banshee releases (0.13.2 and older) and new Banshee releases (0.98.1 and newer) without worrying about packaging or installation problems or user data conflicts. Keep in mind however, that this release is not backwards compatible with older releases. If library changes are made in this new release, they will not be reflected if you run an older release.

Community

Contributors For This Release

The following people directly contributed to the release of this version of Banshee. Without their help, there would be no release!

Aaron Bockover, Alex Kloss, Alexander Hixon, Bertrand Lorentz, Gabriel Burt, Michael Monreal, Mike Urbanski, Scott Peterson, Sebastian Dröge

The following people contributed updated translations to this release. Without them, our project's reach would be much more limited.

Artur Flinta (pl), Daniel Nylander (sv), Wouter Bolsterlee (nl)

The release notes and screenshots for this release were crafted by:

Aaron Bockover, Gabriel Burt, Jorge Castro

Contributors In Past Releases

Alan McGovern, Alexander Hixon, Alexandros Frantzis, Alp Toker, Aydemir Ulaş Şahin, Ben Maurer, Bertrand Lorentz, Bill Dawson, Bob Copeland, Bojan Rajkovic, Brian Nickel, Chris Lahey, Chris Toshok, Chris Turchin, Christian Krause, Christopher James Halse Rogers, Dan Wilson, Dan Winship, Daniel Munkton, Eric Butler, Fredrik Hedberg, Hans Petter Jansson, Igor Guerrero Fonseca, Ilya Konstantinov, Ivan N. Zlatev, James Willcox, Jan Arne Petersen, Jason Conti, Jeff Tickle, Jorge Castro, Juri Pakaste, Ken Vandine, Larry Ewing, Lauri Kotilainen, Michael Monreal, Miguel de Icaza, Mike Urbanski, Nathan Palmer, Oscar Forero, Patrick van Staveren, Pepijn van de Geer, Ruben Vermeersch, Sebastian Dröge, Tim Yamin, Trey Ethridge, Will Farrington, Wouter Bolsterlee

Reporting Bugs, Joining the Community

If you encounter any bad behavior with this release, please do not hesitate to file bugs (http://bugzilla.gnome.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=banshee&version=0.98.3)!

We welcome new contributors - developers, translators, artists, writers, support gurus - to join our community. Join us!

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