in the works since 2005 has SongBird has reached a major milestone with is 1.0 release!!
What is it? A DRM (Digital Restrictions Management, or they “restrict your rights to digits”. ) free, non-proprietary, cross platform, extensible (plug-in services!!), open-source, customizable music player. That’s what!
It’s built atop XULRunner platform (also used by Mozilla Foundation’s Firefox and Thunderbird), runs on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, and supports MP3, FLAC, and Vorbis on all platforms( WMA and WMA DRM on Windows; and AAC and Fairplay on Windows and Mac) via GStreamer the open source multimedia framework.
It’s Fast, Fun and Sweet. Songbird is to iTunes what Firefox is to Internet Explorer.
For us developers, we can create extensions, there is also Greasemonkey add-on, and a Webpage API that allows any web developers to create Javascript interfaces allowing websites and webpages being viewed from inside the Songbird client to richly integrate and interact with Songbird and the user’s media library. (a “iTunes Store” but without the Apple lock-in?)
To badly paraphrase Apocalypse Now : “I love the sound of SongBird in the morning. It’s the sound of Freedom”
linkage :techcrunch Songbird Takes Flight With 1.0 Release; Ars Technica First look: can Songbird 1.0 replace iTunes, WM. I’m sure there will more to follow in the next couple of days as the rest of the net notices… ReadWriteWeb : Why Apple Should Be Worried About Songbird.