[zengrapefruit]

Firstly, I'd like to say that I've not seen any information on the development of Nightingale and what is already planned so please bear with me if I'm repeating anything.

1. Get rid of the browser: This was my main bugbear with Songbird. Unless you're going to give us a fully-fledged Firefox, complete with all the addons, then it's best to concentrate on the music player and do that one thing well.

2. Single platform: Windows has got enough media players and so I feel that effort should be put into creating the best Linux-only player available. Again, it's about doing on thing well.

3. Get the basics right: Nightingale should start simple. Make the base coding the best it can be and then move forward slowly. Add a feature, make sure it works, release it, get feedback and, if all is well move on to the next feature. If not, go back and get it right. Don't rush development.

4. Minimal dependencies. Ties in with the above and self-explanatory.

5. Branding: Often overlooked but proper branding gives everyone involved a sense of direction and also lends a certain amount of professionalism to the project.

I feel a bit of a fraud writing the above as I have zero coding/programming skills and, also, have little time to help elsewhere. I will try to help out as much as I can, tho.

[Matt-SD]

You are repeating a few things, but you're excused because most of the suggestions were lost in the first crash.

1) The browser is something that makes Songbird unique. it could be removed & changed into an addon.

2) The aim of Nightingale is to bring Songbird to linux. Since Songbird releases itself on other platforms, then there's no need for us to release it on those platforms

3) The first thing we're going to do is release a rebranded version of Songbird & then produce enhancements for Linux. Nightingale is the Linux version of Songbird, not a complete branch or a fork. And yes, we will use this approach.

[jman]

Well i'd agree with most of what zengrapefruit said.

I see no need for the browser. I never understand why developers feel the need to waste time reinventing whats already widely available and already a great piece of software in that i mean Firefox or Chrome.
I don't use SB for its browser & NEVER will. i use it to play music. Development should focus on making Nightingale a solid music player (another thing i care not for is Video implementation, why waste valuable time developing something when it doesn't get much better than VLC ;-)

I like addons just like the next person, and use several in SB (several of which don't work at all or are buggy in Linux atm.) and i'd like to see work done on these. But primarily i want to see improvements in the stability of the core player & a few functionalities worked on.

One particular feature i have in mind is an improvement on the Smart Playlist criteria. I think its a bit lacking & could use some improvement. I'd even volunteer to attempt to work on that if i had some help in getting ramped up on whatever is being used now to implement that functionality. I know nothing of XUL & my C++ is very rusty.

[Matt-SD]

I just have to say that I actually do use the browser for downloading music because it automatically goes into the library.

I propose the browser is changed into a plugin.

[JeremyC]

Nice to see things are back up and running. I agree...browser is not necessary. Making it an optional plug-in would be a great idea. It would slim down the initial install and wouldn't be a nuisance to those who think it useless.

[zain3000]

(09-14-2010, 09:16 AM)zengrapefruit Wrote: 1. Get rid of the browser: This was my main bugbear with Songbird. Unless you're going to give us a fully-fledged Firefox, complete with all the addons, then it's best to concentrate on the music player and do that one thing well.

Personally, I use the built-in browser to access music-related websites (Grooveshark, etc.) It helps keep all music-related activities confined to one program.

But I can see how many people might not have any use for the functionality.

[darkscot]

(09-16-2010, 09:41 AM)zain3000 Wrote: Personally, I use the built-in browser to access music-related websites (Grooveshark, etc.) It helps keep all music-related activities confined to one program.

I agree! I wouldn't lose any sleep if the browser wasn't there but I did like having it. It was one of the things that made songbird that much more than just an MP3 player.

[FalconBird]

The web browser is a kind of "Trademark Feature" of Songbird, and that's why it has to stick with Nightingale. It is very useful to install add-ons. Imagine that you have to download all the .xpi add-ons with another browser and then install them one by one. It must be annoying ! With Songbird, you can do this faster.

However, could including the latest Gecko (the same as Firefox 4.0) be a good idea ?

[JeremyC]

I guess my point is the browser isn't really that useful as a browser. Especially when you have something like Firefox available. As far as I can see from the other posts, users use of it doesn't go much farther than music downloading and installing plugins.

I feel it should be an additional feature (plugin) simply because most of the geeks I talk to which like Songbird simply use it as a media player. Some have never even experimented with the browser. Myself...I find it useless when I have Firefox. I just use Songbird as a media player meaning it's usually minimized and out of the way. For me the browser is "bloat" and unnecessary.

[Mozenrath]

I actually like the browser. It lets me listen to sites with mp3s on the fly. It's really not that important, but I think it would be kind of stupid to get rid of it. If you don't use the browser, it's not exactly invasive.

I would suggest making the default feather native compatible, like the Native Purple Rain feather. That way I can actually drag Nightingale across desktops with Compiz turned on!