14 DAY TRIAL // There are a lot of audio players for the Linux platform, some of them are designed especially for KDE, some of them for GNOME, such as Mesk, but most of them work on both environments. However, one must always search for quality and not quantity and Mesk is one of the few quality audio players that really deserve at least a try. I'm pretty sure you won't be disappointed.
Installation
I've tried to install Mesk on Fedora Core 6 and the installation went smooth, provided that I had GNOME installed with most multimedia codecs (gstreamer with plugins, ogg vorbis plugins for python and so on). Unfortunately, you will have to find out and install the additional software on your own.
In order for Mesk to run on your machine, you need to have the following software installed:
- Python 2.4 eyeD3 0.6.10 - pygtk 2.8 - gst-python 0.8 - librsvg (for SVG image support)
To install Mesk, simply download the latest release package in tgz format, uncompress it and execute the popular installation commands: ./configure, make and make install.
Experience
After installation, the simplest way to run the program is to execute the command mesk in a terminal. The first time Mesk starts, a tips window will pop up which I personally hate, so I've unchecked the "Show tips when Mesk starts" option and closed it.
The first thing I've noticed about Mesk is its ability to have more than one playlist. This enables the user to sort his songs by genre, by type (singles or live sets) or by any other combination. Of course, you can rename the playlists as desired.
Like most audio players, Mesk allows you to queue the songs in the playlists. For instance, if you add a song to the playlist, it won't be played immediately, but will rather wait for its turn to be played. To add a song to queue, simply right click on a song and select Queue. From the same right-click menu, you can add more songs, cut, copy or delete them. The queue can be cleared by right clicking somewhere in the blank space and selecting Queue / Clear Queue. The songs can also be moved from one playilst to another by using the Cut and Paste options from the menu.
Unfortunately, Mesk is still in its early stages, so a lot of features are missing. The Preferences window has only two plugins. The gajimstatus which changes your status in Gajim with the currently playing track and audioscrobbler which allows users to share their music preferences through the popular Web 2.0 service, Last.FM.
From the View menu, one can select the compact option, which makes Mesk even smaller and more compact, giving up on the playlist section.
The Good
Mesk is an audio player for Linux with great potential. Even if, for now, it only has a few features, it will leave you with a quite good impression, especially from the smart way its playlists work and from the good-looking interface.
The Bad
Mesk is only at the development stage; therefore, I won't recommend it for intense, everyday usage. It still lacks a lot of features and options which you will most likely need for a great audio experience (an audio equalizer, for instance). Its interface is quite nice but will have to suffer some modification if new options will be added which is a good thing considering that now it looks a little empty.
The Truth
Although it's in an early development stage, Mesk will definitely impress anyone using it, if not with its current features, then with its potential. The way playlists work shows that the author has used an intelligent approach for creating it. If other popular options and features will be implemented the same way, I'm certain Mesk will be one of the most world-wide popular audio players for Linux, and why not, for other platforms as well.
Check out some screenshots below:
