illogic-al.Org

So today I figured out pretteh cuncloosevlay, that the issues amarok was having with the phonon_qt7 backend were wholly amarok's fault. There endeth my involvement with that little debacle. Now we need someone with phonon_foo to come fix it. Anyone foolishly hoping I would be the one to buckle down for the summer and dive into both Amarok and Phonon APIs will be pleasantly disappointed as I have absolutely no intention of doing so. The reasons for this are two-fold: 1) I have a job now which I need to begin preparing for, and 2) I don't believe I can do it.

You see my brain works much like everyone elses, which leads to situation number two. I can do anything I believe I can do. Conversely, I can't do anything I don't believe I can do. Knowing that I can actually do anything once I believe doesn't help in this case, because I don't want to. Therefore while I have, in my estimation, done a whole lot in helping solve the issues Amarok has had on OS X thus far, this is where I draw the line. This is the line which I don't dare cross. This goes into debugging software land, a place I dare not tread.

I don't expect a solution to this problem anytime in the near future either,as I don't expect the core Amarok developers to work on this. While this may seem, mean of them, I have to admit, I totally undersand. Having been on the other side of the pond (linux developer having to support OS X users issues) I can understand how unmotivating, frustrating, annoying this can seem. And realistically, let's face it, unless we are aiming for cross-platform compatibility (which the underlying libraries in use haven't even achieved yet) then it makes sense to focus on one main product (linux) to make it the best it can be. Then we can focus on porting the fruits of this labor to other systems (read: windows and OS X).

Frankly kdelibs is currently in no state of readiness on OS X even though it has been consistently marketted as such (4.0 anyone?). Advanced image effects rendering is spotty, library stability for core parts of the system is non-existent and Qt's native style on OS X is... deficient for want of a better euphemism. If any release of KDE 4.1.0 is announced as having support for OS X it will be a debacle of similar if not greater proportions to that made for 4.0 on linux. Which is to say it will suck, people will call the project out on it, and then walk away. Thing is once mac users go away they rarely come back. First impressions and all that.

Furthermore, whether or not the tech is ready by then, the finished product is unlikely to be accepted by the mac user community because polish is lacking. Maybe Qt 4.5 will bring that to us. Maybe 4.4.x will deliver us from ugliness, but until these problems are resolved, Amarok on OS X will suffer by no fault of its own. Unless we get lots more people. Of course that's no reason not to get involved. If nothing else it's still hella fun! Just find something you like, nay love, and get involved.

P.S. This post embodies the whole reason why I don't want to get sydnicated anywhere. I can be completely honest and not have to hear/read/watch anyone bitching and moaning about me hurting their feelings because I spoke honestly about their beloved project. I hate whiners, unless the whiner is me. I'm OK, but only cuz I'm speshul. Remember, whiners are not winners. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to comtemplate going back to the pool.