I want to like it, really I do. I know lots of people like it, I know it’s functional and I know it does everything I need, and I’ve got the Kubuntu KDE desktop as well as Ubuntu’s default Gnome, so I suppose I have whatever it wants, but I just can’t get over how remarkably UGLY AmaroK really is. There are themes for it, but they don’t help much, and according to the AmaroK page, there’s no intent to skin the damned thing. I’m using a Debian Red Gnome theme now, which is nice, but even that can’t help the butt-fugly interface. I had the bright idea to try the “extra” player view (“like XMMS”, they said), thinking I might like that better, but it’s HIDEOUS. XMMS, my arse. Looks like the Windows sound recorder; I think someone probably spent ten whole minutes on the design. Bleh. I guess I really don’t need AmaroK because there’s no way in HELL that I’m going through and editing the tags for 4000-plus files, not even if I can automate most of the process, and the library management is really the only benefit I can see in AmaroK over XMMS (or Beep). If I close AmaroK, it doesn’t close, it goes to the panel until I right click and Quit. When I close an app, I want it to GO AWAY; if I want it on the effing panel, I’ll minimise it there. XMMS is small, has skins (and can even use Winamp skins), stays out of my way and doesn’t try to identify any songs except by what I’ve called them and where I’ve told it to look for them. Maybe I’m a control freak, maybe not. 🙂

Amar-yuK:

Slick-looking skinned XMMS:

No contest.

My desktop today. 🙂