Exaile media player and Mint in the new year...

If you using linux Mint 2.1, based on Ubuntu 6.10, you have to get Exaile media player, for it incorporates many of the cool things from AmaroK , like the automatic retrieving of album art, handling of large libraries, lyrics fetching, artist/album information via the wikipedia, last.fm support, optional iPod support if you have python-gpod installed .Exaile also includes a built in shoutcast directory browser and tabbed playlists. It's GTK+ based, so it runs more smoothly in GNOME.

Mint 2.1 Bea runs on the Gnome desktop. For those who don't know, Gnome got its start in the Americas, and development remains centered there till this day. Gnome, for the most part resembles the classic Mac in terms of layout.. There's a menu bar atop the screen from which applications are launched; a clock and other applets often live in this bar, too.

The purists have really got to recognize that people want to watch Flash movies or play MP3 tracks or Windows Media Tracks. isn't time to combine the power of open source with proprietary code, because its just a simple fundamental core of the Internet experience. Even Ubuntu 7.04, scheduled for release on 19 April 2007 reportly will be including some proprietary drivers. A large proportion of people using Ubuntu has new computers and need a non-Free driver for reasonable performance from their graphics card, wireless card, or modem, because there is no Free driver available, they have little choice in the matter.

The Ireland-based Linux Mint project team, whose goal is to provide a more complete out-of-the-box experience by including browser plugins, media codecs, support for DVD playback, Java, and other components.