Salix OS

My prior experience with Salix OS was less than satisfactory, and therefore, this time, before downloading the newest member, LXDE, I thought I would search the forum, to investigate whether or not, someone else was having difficulty with the same problem.

My problem:

STREAMING AUDIO.

As Gapan noted in the release announcement, one of the (many) uses of Salix could be for OLD computers.....

Streaming Audio reception via internet converts a dusty old computer into a modern radio player. Let me express this thought in another way:

Take any older computer, PIII, 1 GHz, for example, with half a gigabyte of RAM, and play streaming audio (for example, from this web site:
http://www.listenlive.eu/classical.html
which presents the user with icons for each of the several protocols (aac+, OGG, mp3) )
and position it proximate to a modern computer with dual core cpu, 4 gigabytes of RAM, etc..., put the output from both computers into a decent yamaha receiver, and switch between them.

I can hear no difference.

So, streaming audio is very important to me. Salix (older versions, at least) installed effortlessly, but upon clicking on one of the icons, described above, nothing appeared. Salix, in other words, offered the user no streaming audio player. Instead, "brasero" appeared, upon clicking on the icons.

I am accustomed to using VLC. I did a search of VLC on this forum, and found one description, but, it does not seem to be incorporated into the "full" distribution.

The "problem" then, is this: how does one procure either VLC, or any other player, capable of playing streaming audio, with any of those three formats, listed above. In my experience with twenty other Linux distros, only CrunchBang includes VLC "out of the box", and, MOST, not all, but most of the Linux distros' audio players FAIL to play all three non-proprietary formats (OGG, mp3, acc+).

Frankly I fail to see why you'd happily provide tons of DE's/WM's but trip over two extra choices the user would have to make.

And yes, that pulls in dependencies. What you forget is a system that has to play back a lot of audio (AAC, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC et altri) already *needs* a lot of multimedia dependencies. To me it makes a lot more sense to provide a few graphical environments, rather than a myriad of them, and when it comes to multimedia apps, let the user have a choice.

But that's just me

No, sir, it is NOT JUST YOU.

Regards,
CAI ENG

I don't understand. What's your problem? I can listen to all streams I clicked on that page. Is it that you need to install extra codecs to listen to them? It's simple enough to do it, go ahead, we even have a tool for that. Is it that vlc isn't installed by default? Can't you use the package manager?

And please avoid using caps. It's the equivalent of shouting, which is rude.

caieng wrote:I can hear no difference.

Why should you?

caieng wrote:So, streaming audio is very important to me. Salix (older versions, at least) installed effortlessly, but upon clicking on one of the icons, described above, nothing appeared. Salix, in other words, offered the user no streaming audio player. Instead, "brasero" appeared, upon clicking on the icons.

Use "Open with..." and change the default app.

caieng wrote:I am accustomed to using VLC. I did a search of VLC on this forum, and found one description, but, it does not seem to be incorporated into the "full" distribution.

caieng wrote:The "problem" then, is this: how does one procure either VLC, or any other player, capable of playing streaming audio, with any of those three formats, listed above. In my experience with twenty other Linux distros, only CrunchBang includes VLC "out of the box", and, MOST, not all, but most of the Linux distros' audio players FAIL to play all three non-proprietary formats (OGG, mp3, acc+).

Only Ogg Vorbis is patent free and playable by default. That's is a patent problem and not Linux distribution's problem. Just install the needed codec packs. Salix even has a menu entry for this.

gapan wrote:I don't understand. What's your problem?

My problem?
I thought I had expressed myself quite clearly, evidently not.

Salix had no ability, upon completing the installation routine, last winter, to play streaming audio. Instead, I had observed that the floundering operating system invoked 'brasero', upon clicking on one of the three icons described previously.

The "problem" then, is really a question. Does the newest Salix, LXDE, provide the same capabilities vis a vis streaming audio, OR, capital letters, for emphasis, not rudeness, or, alternatively, has there been some improvement since the version of last winter? I was ashamed to have encountered such a blunder in 2010, with the os unable to distinguish streaming audio from copying cdroms.

Strange how someone can worry about whether or not a forum participant has submitted his/her question typing with capital letters, but fail to comprehend a simple query regarding the capabilities of the OS. (or, os, if you prefer lower case letters for acronyms too.)

It is a simple question, gapan.

Have, or have, if you prefer all lower case, you changed, or improved, the streaming audio capabilities of salix, since last winter, when the os confusedly sought to play OGG (or ogg) using brasero?

thenktor wrote:Why should you?

I would have assumed that any cpu capable of handling the 256kHz sampling rate, would have worked satisfactorily. Accordingly, it seems to me, that Linux is well suited in this application, with older computers. I found your response rather inappropriate, as though you did not understand my point.

thenktor wrote: Use "Open with..." and change the default app.

I haven't the slightest idea what you are describing here.

Were you able to follow my post, or is it also unclear to you, as it seems to have been to gapan?

In my message, I provided the url to a web site. Last winter, upon clicking on any one of the three icons, OGG, mp3, or aac+, I received an error message, indicating that brasero was not able to function.

Now you write, "Open with". What are you typing? Did you visit the web site? There is nothing there to type.... One clicks on the icon, and one hears music. End of story.
There is no typing for any reason. I have no idea what you seek to explain.

thenktor wrote: Only Ogg Vorbis is patent free and playable by default. That's is a patent problem and not Linux distribution's problem. Just install the needed codec packs. Salix even has a menu entry for this.

Do you have a reference for this, I ask, not because of legal concerns, but because your explanation is so much at variance with my own experience using both Linux and M$? i certainly did not have occasion to install anything other than the operating system itself, in the case of either crunchbang or puppy linux. however, even ogg was unavailable to the user, upon completing the previous installations of older versions of salix, hence my question as to whether or not the newer version has improved on this absurd circumstance?

gapan wrote: I can listen to all streams I clicked on that page. Is it that you need to install extra codecs to listen to them? It's simple enough to do it, go ahead, we even have a tool for that. Is it that vlc isn't installed by default? Can't you use the package manager?

i beg your pardon, sir, perhaps we should blame my mother, for i seem to have emerged from her, onto planet earth, without possessing my linux savoir faire already installed, ex utero.

allow me to answer your questions, in order:
a. extra codecs? how would i know that? why would i imagine such a scenario? i am accustomed to clicking on the icon, and listening to streaming audio. since when is it the responsibility of the user to tell the os how to perform its duties? must i also teach the os when, and how, and where to display images on the screen? must one install extra codecs to see images in color, instead of monochrome, as we used to use, back in the good old monochrome days....

b. vlc not installed by default? why not? why wouldn't salix contain vlc? does salix contain a browser? does salix contain an editor? how about a file manager? why wouldn't it contain an ability to play streaming media? what is so peculiar about expecting an os to play streaming media?

c. use package manager?
....i. NO, how would i know? what you imagine that everyone knows how to use "package manager"? i can use a chain saw. does that count?

....ii. why? why in the world would an ignorant like me teach any os how to work?

....iii. how? you suppose that the person staring at the ogg icon at cesky rozhlas understands the concept of 'installing codecs'? you imagine that such an act is intuitive?

upon completing the installation of salix, what i expect to observe is an ability to play streaming audio, as if it were 2010, not 1985. ergo, my question to you: have you made the appropriate changes to the distro, or is it the same as the one from last winter, with a new set of initials, lxde, but the same dismal user hostile interface, which expects the user to figure out how to make the os behave like an os.

CAI ENG

So, if I understand clearly....
you want to use vlc, but refuse to use a package manager to install it when told to...
you want to listen to music, but refuse to install the codecs needed to listen said music...
then you complain about some random application opening the stream file, but refuse to listen to instructions on how to open the stream file with the proper application...


Then you whine that it's salix fault that you have to do a little thinking in order to resolve your problems...
Seriously, if you go about saying things like that only cruchbang gets vlc "out of the box", then why don't you go and use crunchbang instead?
It's not like somebody is forcing you to use salix or something, you are free for using whatever tool suits yourself better for whatever is that you want to do...

If salix is not your cup of tea, so be it; you have freedom of choice.
Just don't go around demanding solutions but refusing to hear the answers, that's rude and disrespectful

caieng, you fail to understand basic concepts of using a linux distribution. That's not bad, noone was born with it. But your attitude is very bad and that matters a lot. Operating systems with mind reading capability haven't been invented yet. That sarcastic tone in your posts will not be tolerated anymore. Get your facts straight first and then start pointing fingers. You have already been given answers to your questions. I'm closing this thread.