Songbird… Excellent.

Just downloaded Songbird 1.0 and I have to say, I’m impressed.

I’ve been using the beta version of the program for the last several months after deleting  iTunes due to some weird Flash-video-crippling  bug (* has anyone else experienced this? a bug that causes any streaming video in firefox to stop after 2 seconds of playtime?). iTunes was nice, but only because the alternatives offered nothing remotely better. And my iPod Nano died after a year of using it so I was no longer locked down to Apple’s ubiquitous DRM infested media player. I was playing the field again, and after getting sick of constantly misplacing the 10 windows Winamps opens on my screen I went with Songbird – despite the fact that it was in its beta 0.8 version.

And it did suck sometimes. Veeery slow – it would practically crash every time I typed something in the search box, and I’m running  stripped-down Windows XP on a dual core with 3CB ram. Not encouraging. But I saw potential in it – the integrated web features and open source nature – and freedom from iTunes – and I stuck with it.

It was worth it. Because a few days ago they released 1.0 and I’m very happy. Its like an entirely new program, like I was using a crippled demo version until now. Whys it so nice?

- WAY faster than iTunes (and no firefox bugs) – integrated browser- integrates with streaming music sites seamlessly – tabs – instantly recognized my Sansa Clip (and will also recognize my iPod if I’m ever crazy enough to buy one of those overpriced bricks again) – open source and extensible

So basically, everything i liked about iTunes plus tons more stuff and none of the crap. Excellent. I’m listening to Cut Copy and smiling.

Thank you to the brave and generous programmers that made this great program possible.