The problem here is and let me be clear with this: A MUSIC PLAYER IS NOT AN AUDIO PLAYER. It’s not the same when I want to listen to my music library than just hearing an audio file I downloaded from the internet or found in the system. Decibels as an audio player is excellent, finally there’s an app for this specific use case, even though I use the video player most of the time for that. But an audio player and a music player are not the same and that’s why I hated the new “music player” that ElementaryOS has and other similar applications which don’t even have the concept of albums and call themselves music players
This. Exactly. I don't need a huge library suite application for managing a media library of many thousands of music audio files to be loaded into memory to play a single, tiny audio file i downloaded from Epidemic of Sound or something to edit into a video. It is the application which should open audio files, where as you will still want a separate music media library application to play and organize playlists of music separate from this. On GNOME I use a different app to do exactly this.
The problem here is that Gnome keeps churning out new bloated micro-apps one after the other that have near zero functionality and don't do anything that haven't been done by many apps before. Their main or only feature seems to be being rewritten on libadwaita. I have a hard time naming 2-3 modern Gnome apps that are actually worth using as apps, as in, regardless the window manager you use. I used to like Gedit and Palimpsest and Nautilus etc and used them everywhere, but now I only ever launch Gnome apps on Gnome, and even there most of them are a deadweight because they are instantly replaced by other apps.
I edit a lot of audio, and I love decibels. It isn't a music listening suite. It's fast, clean, and plays audio files. That's it. I have to open a lot of little .wav and .mp3 clips, and immediately jumping to a giant waveform that's easy to scrub through is the only thing I want. A fully featured music player is a massive time waster for this task. They do not serve the same purpose. Both have their place.
true but an additional view like a 3d STFT spectrogram would be nice, showing tags, a cover img, be able to play a folder and integrate with desktop multimedia controls and it would still be minimal but a near perfect audio player. No DB, no online connection etc..
I feel like the purpose of this app is to listen to audio files individually which is useful for people like game developers when choosing audio for their game.
why have an extra app when a music player will do just that too? Do you prefer to go out of your way to open a specific app just to do that instead of double clicking the file?
I'm on nixOS, ran decibles by creating a shell with it (nix shell nixpkgs#decibels) and I can confirm that drag and drop does work on it. I don't use flatpaks at all, and well, stuff like that in the video is why I don't, haha.
It would be quickly fixed if they properly implemented the necessary portal. Most Flatpak problems are just because apps weren't designed with Wayland/XDG portal sandboxing ala-Android in mind, which is a shame since it's such a good system.
I honestly think this is a great audio player. It follows the Unix philosophy of having a single job and doing it correctly. It’s not a music or radio player like Rhythmbox and doesn't have most of it's features, which I believe is what is generating the confusion and hate. What we really need now is an alternative to Rhythmbox or perhaps just a major design overhaul for it. Great work by the developers and a great video. Keep it up!
There was a post ~6 months ago from the Lollypop developers that they are working on a Libadwaita+GTK4 music player. For GTK4+Libadwaita you could try Recordbox.
Still missing some features audio files provide and IMHO an audio player needs to support as many audio file features as possible. I mean things like tags and embedded pictures, different views like a continuous line and 3d STFT spectrogram and playing related files like a folder of audio files and playlists of local audio files like a m3u in the folder. Still, keep it simple like no DB and no online features.
Year 3041. Notifications and calendar are completely rewritten with the new version of the ui library, and have lost the ability to be resized along with half the features they used to have
drag and drop not working is an issue with flatpak sandboxing. The app is not allowed to access this path. It will work out of documents and downloaded though.
2:50 I think the reason the files cannot be opened in Decibels using drag-and-drop is because of how Flatpak permissions work - the desktop isn't accessible by default and has to be allowed either through the terminal or the Flatseal app. The same happens to me with other Flatpak applications, such as Discord (uploading attachments fails when drag-and-drop is used instead of the file picker outside of the default directories). Rhythmbox is a snap package on Ubuntu iirc, and snaps have broader filesystem permissions compared to Flatpaks from what I've seen.
Tried it out before, it only has the basics of a music player. Does the job sure, but it looks too simple. Also, about your drag and drop issue, you need to allow permissions to it to open directories of your choosing, assuming you're using the Flatpak, using Flatseal.
@@Error8x8 how is an app not having permissions by default something to avoid? I'd rather it be that way. If anything, the experience isn't as polished as in mobile OSes where it'll prompt you whether you want to give it permission as necessary however that's something solveable
I don't like it when an UI gets simplified to a point where i can no longer use the software. Gnome in general seems to be moving in that direction for a while now but it hasn't become a deal breaker yet. You don't need to applefy everything 😞
Not everything needs to be KDEfied either. As a KDE user, I sometimes use GNOME apps simply because, well, it's simple and gets the job done without extra stuff.
It uses GStreamer underneath, so the fronten language is of no concern, as it will only display stuff from a library. Also: Drag-and-drop does just not work in flatpaks...
Mfw an audioplayer in development is an application.. that plays audio.. that has issues.. because it isn't finished yet. It's clearly not trying to be the next spotify. People just want a simple app to play audio files without opening their music application. Or even, imagine you have music paused, and you want to listen to an audio file. You have to stop your music completely. It makes total sense what it's trying to do.
@@softwarelivre2389 hmmmmm there must be a browser somewhere (or if you prefer calling it that way, an "engine" like V8) in order for the javascript to be interpreted. If not, how would they do it?
Big issues in oss development: 1. They choose interpreted languages for things that should be compiled. 2. Not all of the devs actually test their code. 3. Sound playing apps are a big of a mixed bag 4. People won’t improve existing tools, they opt to start over.
I actually really like the new app! It's really just designed as a simple way to play audio files and visually integrate into the Gnome desktop. If people need something with more features, they can download other apps. I'm sure small quirks with Decibels will be ironed out over time.
I hate how GNOME ecosystem is about reinventing things over and over. Waaay back in GNOME 2 & 3 days, I would use Totem as an audio player for checking out random mp3s and using Rhythmbox to manage by music collection. Today I don't know if whatever Totem's successor is can handle audio files anymore...
GNOME Videos (Formerly known as the Totem project) is no longer in development, but it still has this functionality. Its successor, Showtime, which is still in the GNOME incubator repository on gitlab, also has this functionality, and all of the other functionality GNOME Videos had. Nothing is stopping you from using either-or. There need not be any changes in your workflow in modern GNOME, if you wanted to use it. And GNOME flashback is still an available distribution of the GNOME desktop, so if you like that style better you can use that.
You confusing audio player with music library player. But yes, multiple selection and playlists support would be nice. Otherwise, this app better be a "spacebar" viewer one.
I use Rhytmbox and it works well and straight forward, no fuss. As for the appearance, some might say it's not very modern, for me it's just meant to show off all complete list of songs and their details including album covers, any infos, etc. (with a number of add-on functions that are immediately visible and accessible). That's Rhytmbox style and it's good in its own purpose. Likewise regarding Decibels, I think there is a misunderstanding about its function, maybe it is meant for a simple and direct audio player (in a specific purpose that also exists in Windows and even in Mixplorer - Android, for example ~~ maybe the purpose is like that), not for the details of a complete music player. ... And those unimportant dramas are weird, maybe a bit indicative of "mental illness" (including dramas between fanatical distro fans). Not only is it useless, it's sometimes completely unnecessary, irrelevant, and sometimes kind of disgusting and st#pid.
Yeah yeah yeah, I get it. I very much dislike gnome too. But at the end of the day, is unix philosophy not to write simple programs that do one thing and do one thing well? This should be part of the file manager, as a preview function kind of like how you can play a file from finder in Mac os
One of the most popular software in the world is MS Excel. Part of the reason why is because it just doesn't blindly adhere to useless software doctrine
To be fair, NO ONE HAS EVER been happy with Javascript, not even the people who wrote it, on the desktop it is not great either but we put up with it when we have to.
this is fine, a simple baseline audio player , yeah, please, and sure fix the drag-drop and multiple file selection , i know it's a bit of work to have this functionality, but it would be really great , just load up a folder full of files, and play them in the order loaded ... you won't imagine the amount of search and testing that goes into finding a simple audio player
Decibels will work really nice on phones though, you have PostMarket OS that uses both Phosh (Based on Gnome) and Gnome, and to have something like that on a phone wouldn't be too shabby.
i like many things about my linux PCs, but one of the things I don't like is the lack of cohesive look of apps. it looks like Frankenstein's monster, build form different parts
The drag and drop fails probably because it is running in sandbox environment (flatpak) without the permission to access your dragged file location. Try to grant it the permission to your whole system in Flatseal and try again.
Sandboxing is a security design. It is by design that a sandbox app do not have access to files unless specifically granted permission in user action. File selection box can work outside of sandbox. But right now I think drag-n-drop only pass on the full system path without file access. Flatpak as a format would need some work to add usability on the this.
It's been a long time since I've used gnome but from what I remember their own apps are supposed to be the most simple version of that software you can get. No features you wish weren't there. And I always liked having that option on a system. If it could open a play list or have more than one file open that's the most complexity I'd add to it. Remember, totem can't do that. VLC doesn't do it with much of a UI being involved. But that's more reason to do it. Be the app with the minimum features but maybe one that somehow the complex apps don't have.
@@penteractgaming it's a good design, it's just not a web browser or a media centre. It's superb as a default audio file player, but not for browsing the web or managing a music library.
So many audio players and none of them can just show all the files and that's it. They overcomplicate audio players or simplify them the point where they become useless.
There's two kinds of "audio players" as you're putting it. 1. audio players 2. music library managers Decibels, is an Audio player. It is a simple application to do exactly the one task of playing a random audio file and nothing else. I think the application you want is a music library manager, which will let you look at all of your music playlists and songs, browsing them to play the music you want.
@@LadyInStem Windows media player that Decibels copies acts as both music player and audio player. You don't have to think and ponder, it just works if you use it on one file, and also works if you use it on multiple files or if you open a playlist.
personally I like decibles. because I perceive gnome as mac os linux version, which as far as I'm aware decibels is much more align with the simplicity and minimalistic ideals that the dev had. though it undeniably still got to more polished. anyway, great video bro
they just need a basic player, user can install something else. their video player app is a joke more. just think of it as a basic player, its not a manager like rythmbox, strawberry. gnome is trying to get a complete desktop not needing extras.
@@giorgos-4515 Yes, but most people don't like that. Not even most Gnome users. That's why most people install extensions to even be able to use the DE.
That’s true. For me gnome is not usable without extensions that make it behave similar to kde and windows. KDE is way worse though in my opinion. It’s just way too ugly and there is no amount of customization that can make up for it.
@GoolagThemTube extensions provide minimal functionality and without too many custom options. I use them a lot too, it feels like Gnome is mostly targeted to laptops.
@@giorgos-4515 Gnome is a niche DE for a niche audience. And that's perfectly fine and all, but it shouldn't be the most commonly used DE for Linux distros.
I stopped caring about Gnome a long time ago. They have shown time and time again that the only thing they care about is aesthetics, functionality be damned.
I wouldn't expect an app named "decibels" would do anything more than what you've shown. I see a lot of potential API expansion by GNOME devs if they decide to develop their own media suite later akin to iTunes or something. I could see API expansion allowing this app to be embedded within other apps or something. I could also see this app being exactly what it is. Nothing more and nothing less as part of GNOME's out-of-the-box feature set. All of those scenarios would indeed be exciting if this weren't GNOME. Yeah, sorry GNOME, you've done well to establish your predisposition for anything you deem "GNOME" and it usually has nothing to do with anything useful to the GUI user space. It's kind of like how Apple approaches everything but without funding. :)
There's a project on the GNOME gitlab called gapless which is a very food music library application, I'm a big fan of it. It essentially replaces Rythmbox on mordern GNOME with libadwaita for me.
Gnome apps are beautiful, but tend to be way too simple for actual use. The only thing that has become rich with features is gnome files, and it is where the most resources on apps should be. They nailed that one. Flatpak is trash. It doesn't follow HFS, which is annoying. Also, many apps are handicapped by their recommended security BS and developers+users eventually loose interest.
Calling "Files" rich with features is a joke. I can't do at least couple of things I want to, and it has at least couple of oddities I didn't notice in other file managers (like for example not respecting selection order). I mean yes, unlike other gnome apps you can use it to get the stuff done, but still I prefer dolphin or even windows file manager
Here are a few notes from an outsider to the GNOME ecosystem: As an official app, this feels too raw and, as you've mentioned, lacks controls. Regarding its limited features and music player capabilities, it fills a similar niche to image viewers: there are those that allow you to browse files and organize collections, and those that simply display images, just as this app plays audio files. Not everyone listens to music daily or needs playlists to do so. The last time I used GNOME was during the GNOME 2 era, and although I think they make some questionable decisions, I don't think this app is necessarily one of them. That being said, if the app weren't as raw as it is now.
It's an excellent app which people are criticising because it doesn't do things this type of app is not supposed to do. It's a default audio player, not a music library browser. When you double-click an MP3 in nautilus you want something like Decibels to open, not a resource hog scanning your music folder or downloading new podcast episodes.
Making a fully fledged music player app is quite a complex task, you need a lot to make it happen and with streaming platforms, desktop music players are kind of a dead project, however a desktop environment should have a "music player like" app its beneficial for the overall experience of the desktop environment. Not every person listens to a huge library of music, organized by albums and most people prefer to create their own playlists to listen to a collection of songs either with simple folders or in a format that an app might specify as a playlist, however Decibles looks like quite an early stage thing and that blown out waveform is a bit... weird.
I don't see why you'd use this over mpv. Maybe if it had simple editing tools like cropping/cutting. But even that can be done in mpv with plugins (although usually it requires keyboard shortcuts which I don't like for this kind of thing)
7:59 I disagree hardly on this. Yes, developers are free to do whatever they want their software, but if they keep reinventing the wheel over and over again, instead of doing what actually is needed to be done, sooner or later, this "free and open source" sentiment won't buy people anymore. You want to have a flourishing community, where everyone wants to support the free software? Do what the community wants. The major bugs and lacking features should be prioritized to be added. What am I gonna do with a half-baked music player? And even if you do reinvent the wheel, make sure it solves a problem, like giving a better music-player experience, like AIMP on Windows. Try to solve a problem, not solve a solution. Otherwise this "OPEN SOURCE IS THE WAY" sentiment will wither soon.
On the resource issues, Software dev of 25+ years including C, Typescript and GTK app development. Using a modern computer and saying that resource issues don't matter ignores a ton of peoples real concerns. Not everyone has new stuff and this will rarely be the only thing being run. You points on "autonomy" are also silly, none of us are "autonomous" neither of us is expert enough the build a computer and OS from scratch, the open source community is fundamentally a community. Some of us have some authority because that happens in communities. Gnome has authority because they made libraries and a cohesive desktop and they risk losing that authority if their users are unhappy. Disregarding these very real dynamics is silly.
That has nothing to do within the core applications of a desktop environment. This is a specialized app, that should only be fetched from flathub, and it's written in web language, which is the worst choice for efficiency.
How is "let the developers work on what they wanna work on" a valid rebuttal? It doesn't at all address the issue. Gnome devs enjoy wasting time and that's a fact.
I can't seem to like Gnome anything.... why would I want to use restrictive mobile-style apps on my desktop? Also, the color gradients and icons seem like Windows 7. I'll stick with KDE. Also.... Typescript? This is the dystopian future for sure.
It's an audio player that has more features than it requires. It is not restrictive, it's just not supposed to be a music library browser or podcast client. I use it as my default audio player, it's perfect.
What desktop are you enjoying right now?
gnome!
New app coming ;) haha
Gnome
I came back to Ubuntu last month.
Hyprland Astolfo Rice (Arch btw)
The problem here is and let me be clear with this: A MUSIC PLAYER IS NOT AN AUDIO PLAYER. It’s not the same when I want to listen to my music library than just hearing an audio file I downloaded from the internet or found in the system. Decibels as an audio player is excellent, finally there’s an app for this specific use case, even though I use the video player most of the time for that. But an audio player and a music player are not the same and that’s why I hated the new “music player” that ElementaryOS has and other similar applications which don’t even have the concept of albums and call themselves music players
This. Exactly. I don't need a huge library suite application for managing a media library of many thousands of music audio files to be loaded into memory to play a single, tiny audio file i downloaded from Epidemic of Sound or something to edit into a video. It is the application which should open audio files, where as you will still want a separate music media library application to play and organize playlists of music separate from this. On GNOME I use a different app to do exactly this.
@@lian_drake this made me think, it'd be cool if decibels could be a backend for sushi
The problem here is that Gnome keeps churning out new bloated micro-apps one after the other that have near zero functionality and don't do anything that haven't been done by many apps before. Their main or only feature seems to be being rewritten on libadwaita.
I have a hard time naming 2-3 modern Gnome apps that are actually worth using as apps, as in, regardless the window manager you use.
I used to like Gedit and Palimpsest and Nautilus etc and used them everywhere, but now I only ever launch Gnome apps on Gnome, and even there most of them are a deadweight because they are instantly replaced by other apps.
@@ZaeTalkz And that's why I love Lollypop and VLC
exactly, took the words right out of my mouth
I edit a lot of audio, and I love decibels.
It isn't a music listening suite. It's fast, clean, and plays audio files. That's it.
I have to open a lot of little .wav and .mp3 clips, and immediately jumping to a giant waveform that's easy to scrub through is the only thing I want. A fully featured music player is a massive time waster for this task.
They do not serve the same purpose. Both have their place.
gnome sushi
true but an additional view like a 3d STFT spectrogram would be nice, showing tags, a cover img, be able to play a folder and integrate with desktop multimedia controls and it would still be minimal but a near perfect audio player. No DB, no online connection etc..
DeaDBeeF has a Waveform plugin.
It is also really customizable.
I feel like the purpose of this app is to listen to audio files individually which is useful for people like game developers when choosing audio for their game.
As a gamedev, vlc works just right for that
i like to use it as a quick "i wanna know what this file is?" not as a music player per se :)
gnome sushi
mpv
vlc
why have an extra app when a music player will do just that too? Do you prefer to go out of your way to open a specific app just to do that instead of double clicking the file?
@@davidoli calm down son, chill, don't get mad. its the way i like it jeeeesus christ.
You can't really compare a Music player to an Audio player. They have separate functionality.
I'm on nixOS, ran decibles by creating a shell with it (nix shell nixpkgs#decibels) and I can confirm that drag and drop does work on it. I don't use flatpaks at all, and well, stuff like that in the video is why I don't, haha.
Just tried it for hyprland, I will add it to my suite, it's awesome!
Its usually a quick fix using flatseal. Would reccomend.
It would be quickly fixed if they properly implemented the necessary portal. Most Flatpak problems are just because apps weren't designed with Wayland/XDG portal sandboxing ala-Android in mind, which is a shame since it's such a good system.
@@rawrrrer noted, I'm still not gonna run flatpak apps but at least it ot can work
I honestly think this is a great audio player. It follows the Unix philosophy of having a single job and doing it correctly. It’s not a music or radio player like Rhythmbox and doesn't have most of it's features, which I believe is what is generating the confusion and hate. What we really need now is an alternative to Rhythmbox or perhaps just a major design overhaul for it. Great work by the developers and a great video. Keep it up!
There was a post ~6 months ago from the Lollypop developers that they are working on a Libadwaita+GTK4 music player. For GTK4+Libadwaita you could try Recordbox.
Still missing some features audio files provide and IMHO an audio player needs to support as many audio file features as possible. I mean things like tags and embedded pictures, different views like a continuous line and 3d STFT spectrogram and playing related files like a folder of audio files and playlists of local audio files like a m3u in the folder. Still, keep it simple like no DB and no online features.
Its winter in year 3040. The gnome notifications and calender drop down can finally be resized with a simple right click drag.
Year 3041. Notifications and calendar are completely rewritten with the new version of the ui library, and have lost the ability to be resized along with half the features they used to have
@NJ-wb1cz Resizing is added back again in 4067
Now people can enjoy them for about a decade before the Clans inva--no, wait, that's Battletech.
drag and drop not working is an issue with flatpak sandboxing. The app is not allowed to access this path. It will work out of documents and downloaded though.
2:50 I think the reason the files cannot be opened in Decibels using drag-and-drop is because of how Flatpak permissions work - the desktop isn't accessible by default and has to be allowed either through the terminal or the Flatseal app. The same happens to me with other Flatpak applications, such as Discord (uploading attachments fails when drag-and-drop is used instead of the file picker outside of the default directories). Rhythmbox is a snap package on Ubuntu iirc, and snaps have broader filesystem permissions compared to Flatpaks from what I've seen.
Tried it out before, it only has the basics of a music player. Does the job sure, but it looks too simple.
Also, about your drag and drop issue, you need to allow permissions to it to open directories of your choosing, assuming you're using the Flatpak, using Flatseal.
Another reason for not using Flatpak or Snaps
@@Error8x8That could also be a reason to do use flatpaks: your apps only have permissions you want them to have
It's not really a music player. It's just an audio player. This is not for and should not replace your music library suite, whatever you use for that.
@@Error8x8 how is an app not having permissions by default something to avoid? I'd rather it be that way. If anything, the experience isn't as polished as in mobile OSes where it'll prompt you whether you want to give it permission as necessary however that's something solveable
It's still in development, so issues are expected to be fixed. Also, it's not a music player like rhythmbox, it's an audio player.
the drag and drop is most likely not decibel's fault, and probably caused by flatpak. it also could be caused by ubuntu because ubuntu sucks
I don't like it when an UI gets simplified to a point where i can no longer use the software. Gnome in general seems to be moving in that direction for a while now but it hasn't become a deal breaker yet.
You don't need to applefy everything 😞
To be fair, this particular UI largely copies media player from widows XP
Not everything needs to be KDEfied either. As a KDE user, I sometimes use GNOME apps simply because, well, it's simple and gets the job done without extra stuff.
What? You don't like editing obscure xml files and hunting down third party ppa?
It looks cool to me! Always found rhythmbox to be very ugly hahaha, I currently use Elisa which also looks cute
rythmbox makes decibels look good, it's unfair. It should be compared to what it is replacing: Amberol. Which is a great music player
Rhythmbox blows it out of the water
@m4saurabh yeah, functionality-wise, it definitely does
@@moussaadem7933Decibels is not replacing amberol, I use both
Moosync. Since it does spotify while keeping the data hoarding local files also.
Use this to play audio, and something like Amberol for music?
It uses GStreamer underneath, so the fronten language is of no concern, as it will only display stuff from a library.
Also: Drag-and-drop does just not work in flatpaks...
I can drag and drop to Firefox Flatpak with the default permissions.
Rhythmbox is a music, audio player/manager. Decibels is a audio player.
Mfw an audioplayer in development is an application.. that plays audio.. that has issues.. because it isn't finished yet. It's clearly not trying to be the next spotify. People just want a simple app to play audio files without opening their music application. Or even, imagine you have music paused, and you want to listen to an audio file. You have to stop your music completely. It makes total sense what it's trying to do.
What I don't get is why did they program it in typescript? Is GTK+Adwaita good if you write typescript?
Typescript just translates to Javascript, and Javascript is one of the best supported languages in GTK.
@softwarelivre2389 I did not know that! So people prefer to bundle a browser with their app rather than just write C hahshsh
@@acriliqueofc You don't need to bundle any browser. Where did you get that incorrect info?
@@softwarelivre2389 hmmmmm there must be a browser somewhere (or if you prefer calling it that way, an "engine" like V8) in order for the javascript to be interpreted.
If not, how would they do it?
@@acriliqueofc No browser, just a javascript runtime akin to node.js. They actually use spider monkey (Firefox's Js engine)
Big issues in oss development: 1. They choose interpreted languages for things that should be compiled. 2. Not all of the devs actually test their code. 3. Sound playing apps are a big of a mixed bag 4. People won’t improve existing tools, they opt to start over.
I think no. 4 is the biggest oss sin, people do not want to get to know someone else's codebase.
1) It's jited.
And it uses GStreamer underneath, so no overhead at all.
I'm a fan of this. It lets you easily play a audio file, instead of being designed for music.
I actually really like the new app! It's really just designed as a simple way to play audio files and visually integrate into the Gnome desktop. If people need something with more features, they can download other apps.
I'm sure small quirks with Decibels will be ironed out over time.
I hate how GNOME ecosystem is about reinventing things over and over. Waaay back in GNOME 2 & 3 days, I would use Totem as an audio player for checking out random mp3s and using Rhythmbox to manage by music collection. Today I don't know if whatever Totem's successor is can handle audio files anymore...
Totem is still totem
GNOME Videos (Formerly known as the Totem project) is no longer in development, but it still has this functionality. Its successor, Showtime, which is still in the GNOME incubator repository on gitlab, also has this functionality, and all of the other functionality GNOME Videos had. Nothing is stopping you from using either-or. There need not be any changes in your workflow in modern GNOME, if you wanted to use it. And GNOME flashback is still an available distribution of the GNOME desktop, so if you like that style better you can use that.
I pray to god they won't rewrite gparted to use libadwaita
Gnome didn't invent this; the recent news causing all the outrage is that gnome added it to gnome circle.
@NJ-wb1cz They won't, though gparted is still there, they now have gnome disks, which is a different app
If you don’t have a use for it don’t use it but it doesn’t actually effect you if you don’t use it idk why people are so mad
You confusing audio player with music library player. But yes, multiple selection and playlists support would be nice. Otherwise, this app better be a "spacebar" viewer one.
I was actually was using this app for quite a while now, but not for music
Exactly, it's not a music application.
I use Rhytmbox and it works well and straight forward, no fuss. As for the appearance, some might say it's not very modern, for me it's just meant to show off all complete list of songs and their details including album covers, any infos, etc. (with a number of add-on functions that are immediately visible and accessible). That's Rhytmbox style and it's good in its own purpose.
Likewise regarding Decibels, I think there is a misunderstanding about its function, maybe it is meant for a simple and direct audio player (in a specific purpose that also exists in Windows and even in Mixplorer - Android, for example ~~ maybe the purpose is like that), not for the details of a complete music player.
... And those unimportant dramas are weird, maybe a bit indicative of "mental illness" (including dramas between fanatical distro fans). Not only is it useless, it's sometimes completely unnecessary, irrelevant, and sometimes kind of disgusting and st#pid.
Yeah yeah yeah, I get it. I very much dislike gnome too. But at the end of the day, is unix philosophy not to write simple programs that do one thing and do one thing well? This should be part of the file manager, as a preview function kind of like how you can play a file from finder in Mac os
One of the most popular software in the world is MS Excel. Part of the reason why is because it just doesn't blindly adhere to useless software doctrine
At least this one has a volume control!
To be fair, NO ONE HAS EVER been happy with Javascript, not even the people who wrote it, on the desktop it is not great either but we put up with it when we have to.
Flatpaks need permissions to be allowed for some things so maybe it doesn’t think it’s in your home directory or something if you drag and drop?
Try giving filesystem permissions with flatseal
this is fine, a simple baseline audio player , yeah, please, and sure fix the drag-drop and multiple file selection , i know it's a bit of work to have this functionality, but it would be really great , just load up a folder full of files, and play them in the order loaded ... you won't imagine the amount of search and testing that goes into finding a simple audio player
Decibels will work really nice on phones though, you have PostMarket OS that uses both Phosh (Based on Gnome) and Gnome, and to have something like that on a phone wouldn't be too shabby.
i like many things about my linux PCs, but one of the things I don't like is the lack of cohesive look of apps. it looks like Frankenstein's monster, build form different parts
The drag and drop fails probably because it is running in sandbox environment (flatpak) without the permission to access your dragged file location.
Try to grant it the permission to your whole system in Flatseal and try again.
Kinda voids half the point of flatpak though.
However I believe there are portals in development that will fix drag and drop in flatpak.
What a dumb format. Whats the point of a sandbox when you need to work around it to do anything useful?
Sandboxing is a security design. It is by design that a sandbox app do not have access to files unless specifically granted permission in user action.
File selection box can work outside of sandbox. But right now I think drag-n-drop only pass on the full system path without file access. Flatpak as a format would need some work to add usability on the this.
It's been a long time since I've used gnome but from what I remember their own apps are supposed to be the most simple version of that software you can get. No features you wish weren't there. And I always liked having that option on a system. If it could open a play list or have more than one file open that's the most complexity I'd add to it. Remember, totem can't do that. VLC doesn't do it with much of a UI being involved. But that's more reason to do it. Be the app with the minimum features but maybe one that somehow the complex apps don't have.
Linux people should stop being so obsessed with bashing on all technology 😆
No one is bashing technology. People are bashing stupid design that doesnt improve on what already existed.
@@penteractgaming it's a good design, it's just not a web browser or a media centre. It's superb as a default audio file player, but not for browsing the web or managing a music library.
Isn't gnome already running a js engine?
Why isn't this video just a bug report?
So many audio players and none of them can just show all the files and that's it. They overcomplicate audio players or simplify them the point where they become useless.
There's two kinds of "audio players" as you're putting it.
1. audio players
2. music library managers
Decibels, is an Audio player. It is a simple application to do exactly the one task of playing a random audio file and nothing else.
I think the application you want is a music library manager, which will let you look at all of your music playlists and songs, browsing them to play the music you want.
@@LadyInStem I've tried them all, they all suck
@@LadyInStem Windows media player that Decibels copies acts as both music player and audio player. You don't have to think and ponder, it just works if you use it on one file, and also works if you use it on multiple files or if you open a playlist.
personally I like decibles. because I perceive gnome as mac os linux version, which as far as I'm aware decibels is much more align with the simplicity and minimalistic ideals that the dev had. though it undeniably still got to more polished. anyway, great video bro
Can't wait for Cosmic to be ready as an daily driver🙃😅.
they just need a basic player, user can install something else. their video player app is a joke more. just think of it as a basic player, its not a manager like rythmbox, strawberry. gnome is trying to get a complete desktop not needing extras.
People have been shitting on gnome for YEARS but they're doing their thing and crushing.
Everything Gnome is always too barebone.
This is part of its appeal, Cosmic seems to want to bridge the minimal nature of gnome with KDE's customisability.
@@giorgos-4515 Yes, but most people don't like that. Not even most Gnome users. That's why most people install extensions to even be able to use the DE.
That’s true. For me gnome is not usable without extensions that make it behave similar to kde and windows. KDE is way worse though in my opinion. It’s just way too ugly and there is no amount of customization that can make up for it.
@GoolagThemTube extensions provide minimal functionality and without too many custom options. I use them a lot too, it feels like Gnome is mostly targeted to laptops.
@@giorgos-4515 Gnome is a niche DE for a niche audience. And that's perfectly fine and all, but it shouldn't be the most commonly used DE for Linux distros.
THEY PROMOTED DECIBELS TO CORE?!!!
I stopped caring about Gnome a long time ago. They have shown time and time again that the only thing they care about is aesthetics, functionality be damned.
Aesthetics matter a lot.
@@Home-o2v4h Not more than functionality lmao
A typical "I don't have use for this, therefore NOBODY has use for this" video.
I wouldn't expect an app named "decibels" would do anything more than what you've shown. I see a lot of potential API expansion by GNOME devs if they decide to develop their own media suite later akin to iTunes or something. I could see API expansion allowing this app to be embedded within other apps or something. I could also see this app being exactly what it is. Nothing more and nothing less as part of GNOME's out-of-the-box feature set. All of those scenarios would indeed be exciting if this weren't GNOME. Yeah, sorry GNOME, you've done well to establish your predisposition for anything you deem "GNOME" and it usually has nothing to do with anything useful to the GUI user space. It's kind of like how Apple approaches everything but without funding. :)
There's a project on the GNOME gitlab called gapless which is a very food music library application, I'm a big fan of it. It essentially replaces Rythmbox on mordern GNOME with libadwaita for me.
They already have a media suite, it's called Music.
@@shaunpatrick8345 That doesn't mean they're not exploring a new direction..... something GNOME wouldn't be any worse off if they tried... :)
Gnome apps are beautiful, but tend to be way too simple for actual use. The only thing that has become rich with features is gnome files, and it is where the most resources on apps should be. They nailed that one. Flatpak is trash. It doesn't follow HFS, which is annoying. Also, many apps are handicapped by their recommended security BS and developers+users eventually loose interest.
Calling "Files" rich with features is a joke. I can't do at least couple of things I want to, and it has at least couple of oddities I didn't notice in other file managers (like for example not respecting selection order). I mean yes, unlike other gnome apps you can use it to get the stuff done, but still I prefer dolphin or even windows file manager
Dumb ppl isn't happy. It's just a audio player not a music player. Cmon
Here are a few notes from an outsider to the GNOME ecosystem: As an official app, this feels too raw and, as you've mentioned, lacks controls.
Regarding its limited features and music player capabilities, it fills a similar niche to image viewers: there are those that allow you to browse files and organize collections, and those that simply display images, just as this app plays audio files.
Not everyone listens to music daily or needs playlists to do so.
The last time I used GNOME was during the GNOME 2 era, and although I think they make some questionable decisions, I don't think this app is necessarily one of them. That being said, if the app weren't as raw as it is now.
drag drop play working with arch gnome ❤
Stop writing these things in JavaScript. Devs these days arent taught anything!
isnt Gnome nowayds js based most of the thing its literally a browser at this point
JS != BROWSER
Amberol ftw
omg, your clickbait is incredible. "drama", "controversy"... I almost laugh myself off of my chair.
Shitty app, no drama...
It's an excellent app which people are criticising because it doesn't do things this type of app is not supposed to do. It's a default audio player, not a music library browser. When you double-click an MP3 in nautilus you want something like Decibels to open, not a resource hog scanning your music folder or downloading new podcast episodes.
.-. just saw a comment of mine get deleted
nvm lol
I think UA-cam is messing up right now. It took forever to process my video. Somethings happening on the backend 👀
single file list, no playlist, dogshit..... doesnt need to be a "music player" but playlist is the bare minimum i feel otherwise why even make a gui
gapless whould have been better
we are evolving, but backwards
Amberol is better
Great video. Lets the developers create what they want. Freedom of choice.
I like it.
And I support they make essential basic desktop apps.
Hope they add sidepane for music list in the future.
Are Linux users actually this prone to drama, or is this just a UA-camr chasing another minor squabble for views?
I'll stick to ffplay
Recordbox
I thought I was banned because I tried to recommend this app for music enjoyers
Bruh my messages get deleted
There wasn't any drama????
It being unpolished doesn't count as drama????
That wasn't really worth it...
MusicPod is my go to player.
the best version of windows 95 sound recorder yet
Well it is a nightly build so lets give them the benefit of doubt
Just because you can, doesnt mean you should. Ultimately the users will decide its popularity.
This wasn't worth your time Nik. So much stuff to do and people chose to complain about this?
Making a fully fledged music player app is quite a complex task, you need a lot to make it happen and with streaming platforms, desktop music players are kind of a dead project, however a desktop environment should have a "music player like" app its beneficial for the overall experience of the desktop environment. Not every person listens to a huge library of music, organized by albums and most people prefer to create their own playlists to listen to a collection of songs either with simple folders or in a format that an app might specify as a playlist, however Decibles looks like quite an early stage thing and that blown out waveform is a bit... weird.
I don't see why you'd use this over mpv. Maybe if it had simple editing tools like cropping/cutting. But even that can be done in mpv with plugins (although usually it requires keyboard shortcuts which I don't like for this kind of thing)
6:32 It already was crashing during demo.. hahaha
i prefer VLC. it doesn't fit with gnome because it uses Qt Toolkit. but if it's works, i'll use it & make it default.
7:59 I disagree hardly on this. Yes, developers are free to do whatever they want their software, but if they keep reinventing the wheel over and over again, instead of doing what actually is needed to be done, sooner or later, this "free and open source" sentiment won't buy people anymore. You want to have a flourishing community, where everyone wants to support the free software? Do what the community wants. The major bugs and lacking features should be prioritized to be added. What am I gonna do with a half-baked music player? And even if you do reinvent the wheel, make sure it solves a problem, like giving a better music-player experience, like AIMP on Windows. Try to solve a problem, not solve a solution. Otherwise this "OPEN SOURCE IS THE WAY" sentiment will wither soon.
It's not a music player. What you should do with it is set it as your default audio player.
whatever... just install VLC and audacity.
On the resource issues, Software dev of 25+ years including C, Typescript and GTK app development. Using a modern computer and saying that resource issues don't matter ignores a ton of peoples real concerns. Not everyone has new stuff and this will rarely be the only thing being run. You points on "autonomy" are also silly, none of us are "autonomous" neither of us is expert enough the build a computer and OS from scratch, the open source community is fundamentally a community. Some of us have some authority because that happens in communities. Gnome has authority because they made libraries and a cohesive desktop and they risk losing that authority if their users are unhappy. Disregarding these very real dynamics is silly.
VLC is the only media player for me. Everything else is eh in comparison
That has nothing to do within the core applications of a desktop environment.
This is a specialized app, that should only be fetched from flathub, and it's written in web language, which is the worst choice for efficiency.
Why not turn gnome-music into a proper music player??? Gnome devs are weird.
Very immature software
It's a mature app, it's just not supposed to be what people criticise it for not being. It is a default audio player, nothing more.
@@shaunpatrick8345 you see it crashed in the video. It has very few features and all of them should work flawlessly
How is "let the developers work on what they wanna work on" a valid rebuttal? It doesn't at all address the issue. Gnome devs enjoy wasting time and that's a fact.
Gnome didn't develop it, they introduced it into gnome circle.
Having an audio player in Linux is kind of optimistic considering that sound never ducking works.
gnome have too many duplicate apps.
I can't seem to like Gnome anything.... why would I want to use restrictive mobile-style apps on my desktop? Also, the color gradients and icons seem like Windows 7. I'll stick with KDE. Also.... Typescript? This is the dystopian future for sure.
It's an audio player that has more features than it requires. It is not restrictive, it's just not supposed to be a music library browser or podcast client. I use it as my default audio player, it's perfect.
I'll stick with Audacious or DEADBEEF