I think about switching from Spotify for a longer time now, but with the recent ICE ads I want to be in solidarity with the people in the US and kick Spotify out.
Now I checked the Quboz app and I am in a test month with Tidal right now - so far Tidal is great on my mobile. However I also need a client for Linux!
I am using spotify-client on Linux Mint and works flawlessly. I know its development is not the main goal of Spotify engineers, but it just works.
Now for Tidal and Quboz it seems to be problematic - only Electron apps without HiFi sound because the chromium engine throttles the quality. How am I supposed to switch from Spotify if I can’t use the alternative on Linux? Any advices/experiences?
Any reason in particular you need a dedicated client? Can you not just use a PWA?
No particular reason. I don’t really have much experiences with web apps. I don’t like the idea of putting every functionality into my Browser and I like it simple.
Look at it this way, if you run all pws with same browser you’re not increasing the memory footprint, but if it’s electron you do because you have multiple copies of electron in your disk and your memory.
And there’s more electron apps out there than you know. Slack, visual studio and Spotify, apparently, included.
I’d recommend giving it a go and see if you like it.
Can you elaborate on this topic? Are we just speaking about a web player?
PWA is basically just a browser window that looks and functions like an app on your computer. You can launch it from wherever you launch apps. It will open in its’ own window. It’s functionally identical.
Functionally identical to running it on browser, but no match for true speed and experience of desktop app.
I use them but I’d prefer true options.
This is the way to go
RAM is expensive.
You think a dedicated app is going to use less RAM than a browser window?
RAM is only expensive if you’re dumb enough to buy a modern Mac.
Uh… yes?
Spotify memory usage: 450MB
Rhythmbox memory usage: 95MB
A browser is one of the most complicated applications commonly running on a computer; its code is massive before you load in the mountains of javascript. Also that is measured by RSS - the difference is even starker when you bear in mind that of the 50MB that rhythmbox might be sharing with other processes, most of it probably is being, because a lot will be graphical toolkits used by other programs. Spotify has a smaller fraction, at about 130MB, and god knows what it’s pulling in and is able to share with e.g. the main browser process.
RAM is only not expensive in desktops. In laptops, getting more RAM almost always means getting a higher-tier laptop in other ways which adds a lot to the price.
Spotify is not a browser, it’s an app.
That’s only true if you buy soldered RAM. Don’t do that.
It for a fact uses CEF: https://www.spotify.com/us/opensource/
Chromium Embedded Framework literally describes itself as follows on its Git repos: “Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF). A simple framework for embedding Chromium-based browsers in other applications.”
The Spotify “app” is mostly just web app code running on top of a single page Chromium instance, meaning for the most part, it isn’t truly native.
And takes more resources than a tab because it doesn’t share them, it has its own copy.
We are talking about PWAs?
My point, exactly.
So those require what is effectively a web browser to run them - do you know what the “WA” in “PWA” stands for?
None of this goes against the fact that I went and checked for you and indeed the Spotify app takes about 5x as much RAM as the native app. Do you want to, I don’t know, give a hint of recognition that you erred in some way?
BTW when I replied you hadn’t edited your post. I’m getting to get the laptop that suits my needs, not yours. You said RAM is only expensive if you’re “dumb enough to buy a Mac” and now you’ve retreated to, “or any of the hundreds of non-Apple laptops with soldered RAM.”
I mean, it’s OK and good to adapt your position as you come to new realisations, but if you continue to do it this gracelessly, I will just block you because it’s annoying and there’s no reason to put up with it.
You keep referring to “the Spotify app”. That is not a web app. That is a native app. If you’re referring to the Spotify web app, you should identify it as such so I don’t have to guess and then you get all worked up about it.
I don’t have any needs. I bought 32GB of socketed RAM dirt cheap and slapped it in.
It sounds like you need more RAM, and it sounds like you don’t want to spend the money to buy more RAM. The only way to get that is to buy a laptop with socketed RAM. So do you need it or not? What you said is “RAM is expensive”, which is factually incorrect. The only reason they’re able to jack up RAM prices on laptops is because they solder it to the board, thereby ensuring that you cannot buy inexpensive RAM, and then people like you continue buying them.