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Learning about foobar2000

Just some reactions of users about their start with foobar2000 and evolutions. (mainly taken from Related topic Here)

You should also read some parts of Related topic this topic.

Yotsuya

"Like many users, I was stuck on winamp for years. I tried one alternative player after another but kept returning to winamp because of it's abundant feature list and ease of use while at the same time winamp became more bloated and unstable. I tried foobar several times and while it was definitely a tempting player I was always turned off by the default interface. It wasn't until I finally became so enraged at the poor performance of winamp that I finally forced myself to thoroughly read these forums and make fooobar meet my needs.

I am now hooked on foobar, recommend it to all my friends, and enjoy tinkering around with the interface in my spare time. However, I must say there is a definite learning curve when it comes to this program. The default configuration is far from user friendly and I do not find the configuration to be very intuitive which can be very intimidating for a first time user. I have discovered many of my friends who I have reccomended foobar to also share this opinion. It is not until you overhaul the interface with columns ui and a handful of plugins that the power of foobar really starts to shine. Not until the user can grasp how to use TAGZ to script the interface into whatever shape they desire.

I have also found the foobar community to be rather elitist in nature and not very friendly to the random noob who asks basic questions like how to add a panel to their interface or convert id3 tags. This program is still in beta and this sort of attitude is to be expected, in fact somewhat necessary in order establish a backbone for a solid program.

However, I do feel that as foobar starts to approach the big v1.0 mark it's development and community should become more open to "the average idiot" and consider a distribution where the average user does not have to spend a day probing configuration options and writing script code just to use basic features found in most other programs.

While v1.0 is still far away, we are also far away from being a community where the average windows user can use foobar "out of the box" in a way that will tempt them away from players like winamp, quicktime, realplayer, etc. I'd like to see a consolidated one-stop-shop for extensions, a meaningful user manual instead of a poorly maintained wiki, and perhaps a little contest to find a nice easy to use UI with a dash of eye candy.
"

Keikonum

"Foobar 0.8.3 was my very first version way back when (well, not that far back lol). I grew fond of it right away. I downloaded it because I liked this icon I found of it. I had it unmodified for months. It is the simplist player I have found. I then discovered you could change the look! So I made the background black, and the font grey. I loved it. My own player biggrin.gif. Then I discovered plugins. Downloaded some, and here I am. My own SIMPLE customized player. I grew fond of foobars simplicity as soon as I started using it."

Bachi-Bouzouk

"(But I'm totally addicted, and converted my friends and parents(both 5X years old) to foobar2000, for example, I installed foobar2000 for my mother (she's far from being a geek!! biggrin.gif) and she really loves it (the explorer panel is enough for her), my father is starting to tweak it a bit, a friend is totally addicted too, and another "winamp-addicted" friend is considering using foobar2000)."

Lyx

"Foobar has an easy but totally barebone default UI...... and a complicated but powerful 3rd party UI....... there's nothing in-between - although thats exactly the area which is most interesting to the mainstream. That's why the first reaction of the majority of people is "being turned off"."

Crissaegrim

"Don't diss winamp. I used it for a while. Winamp's small, it does what it's supposed to, and it does it well. All it requires is point-and-clicks to get it to look good. (Seriously, just download presets made by other ppl).

Until you get a taste of media management. iTunes introduced me to that. iTunes is a good media manager. It also looks good. The problem is that it uses too much sys resources.

foobar2000 is the next and final step for me.
"

Erich w/ an h

"MusicMatch Jukebox > Real Jukebox > Winamp (2.x only!) > fb2k.

At first I found the same type of frustration as many when it came to finding good documentation on custumization of fb. But after some questions asked on HA, some deep searching, and a good deal of time learning and d/l components, Im in the same boat as the addicts on this forum. It all boils to one thing, though, when you feel theres no room for "out of the box" options for the average user:

FB2k, and its community, are examples of the DIY mentality; if people feel fb2k is lacking, the point was to create something to fill that gap. So, when there are complaints about how fb2k doesnt do this or that or cater to this or that, then its an indication that there arent people in the community who wish to alleviate that, instead wishing someone else can come along and do it for them. Im sure with the proper time, a simple out of the box plugin can be created to suit the needs of Donald K. Napsterhead.
"

Vainzki

"Hiya all, read this topic and just had to make an account and reply.

So I'm a winamp user, really, I just downloaded foobar about 15 min ago and guess what? I'm seriously thinking to make a complete switch from winamp to this one. Why? Well winamp is good yeah...nice UI and all.

So why the switch if I liked the old player? Winamp comes bundled with LOTS of trash. Let's take those visualizations for example. It has around 300 of those (no I didnt count em all), do I really need those? Do they make my music experience any better? No, for me they just hog more of my precious disk space. Winamp has support for 60 or so file formats, including most audio and video and some even those from which I havent even heard of (ex. KAR, MIZ, OKT, PTM) I mean "huh?". Winamp USED to be pure music player. I have a strong video player (mpc) so why would I need another one messing up with assosiations. I don't. Foobar supports only music for which I'm looking for a player.

Now for the UI. Ok, winamp has a great UI, fallback? It uses resources and is scary with all it's features and switches and argh. I use about 1/3 of the things winamp has in its UI. The media library is sure nice and all, but after winamp made it's changes so that the shoutcast library shows as in browser, I just thought it's all the same if I browse to the shoutcast using my firefox.

When I started up foobar I looked at it for a while...just stared at it, thinking (did I accidentally open up MPC?), no extra stuff, nothing. Just the basic controllers, seekbar, visualization and playlist. I learned to appreciate simple UI's when I started using MPC about a year ago (not forgetting my old love for media player 5.0 wink.gif ). So to me this is like long lost home.

The point is that not so many people who use winamp are bunch of idiots who can't appreciate what you people have done. No, I bet you could find lots of people like me who like simple UI's and programs that do only that one thing they are made for.
"

 

August 30 2007 02:09:31.