KubuntuMultimediaSimplification

Revision 12 as of 2006-11-09 18:13:38

Clear message

Summary

Kubuntu should avoid duplicating functionality in multimedia applications, and improve default settings.

Rationale

There are lots of multimedia applications shipped by default with Kubuntu (kaudiocreator, kscd, kaffeine, kmplayer, amarok, k3b etc...), and lots of them duplicate the functionality provided by others.

This is useless, goes against simplicity and complicates the work of the documentation team.

Use Case

  • Paul wonders how to read an audio CD in Kubuntu. By looking at the popup screen when he puts the CD in the drive he finds right away which program fits his need and doesn't get confused with 3 apps offering the same feature.
  • Kate wants to read a video file, finds the video player and doesn't get confused by a bunch of audio functionality while she already has an audio player.

Scope

Applications in the Kubuntu desktop seed, and default settings in those applications.

Design

Current duplicated functionality is ripping an audio CD is currently possible with kaffeine, konqueror, kaudiocreator and k3b. Reading an audio CD is possible with kaffeine, amarok and kscd.

Kubuntu should focus on keeping the only the best apps and centralise the features. Amarok is the reference audio application, and allows CD reading, so KsCD can be removed. Kaffeine is our video application, it should be patched to remove its audio playing menu entries. KAudioCreator is slower than K3b and more complicated to use & configure than konqueror so there is no need to ship it.

Implementation

The default option provided for CD ripping and DVD ripping should be K3b.

Add servicemenu and bash scripts to Amarok to integrate it with the kde daemon popup box activated when audio CDs are inserted.

Patch Kaffeine to remove audio play options from the File menu and the launch tab, leaving only video options. Users who still want to use Kaffeine for playing audio files can still use File->Open, but the shortcut options will not be shown.

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