Chris wrote:
Well thats kindof dissapointing. If your goal is to try to make windows users convert to blag you need a good cd burning program. Most people could not figure out how to burn a cd with nautilus. Not to mention that nautilus does not automatically convert mp3 files into wav for you which is what windows users are acustom to. Gtoaster made it easy by just letting you drag and then burn. No file converting involved. Everything is done for you. Also, another thing I noticed is that when I gave k3b a try it would not allow the burning of mp3s. So k3b will not be a good substitute unless that is fixed.
In all fairness, the Windows OS itself doesn't burn the CD's correctly anyways and most people revert to Nero. Secondly on Linux at least the OS isn't trying to constantly contact the M$ site trying to verify if the music you are trying to burn is licensed. Annoying if you are a pirate. Piss taking if you actually own the CD and want to legitimately make a backup.
For the most part cdrecord is better than Windows. Ok so you don't get the dinky little % bar saying nearly done 45 minutes after you started burning on your new 52x CD drive you purchased to speed up burning. You also don't get the customary Windows crash and another wasted CD.
Prepare your tracks
Code:
for i in *.mp3; do mpg123 -w `basename $i .mp3`.wav $i; done
Open a terminal, su to root and type cdrecord --scanbus
Code:
[root@localhost jason]# cdrecord --scanbus
Cdrecord-Clone 2.01a19 (i686-redhat-linux-gnu) Copyright (C) 1995-2003 Jrg Schilling
Linux sg driver version: 3.1.25
Using libscg version 'schily-0.7'
cdrecord: Warning: using inofficial libscg transport code version (schily - Red Hat-scsi-linux-sg.c-1.75-RH '@(#)scsi-linux-sg.c 1.75 02/10/21 Copyright 1997 J. Schilling').
scsibus0:
0,0,0 0) 'PHILIPS ' 'DVDR824P ' 'P1.2' Removable CD-ROM
0,1,0 1) 'LG ' 'CD-RW CED-8083B ' '1.05' Removable CD-ROM
You will get something like that though perhaps not two devices if you only have one obviously. Windows will tell you D: or even sometimes E:. Most times though you don't get to pick unless you want to dive 15 menus deep.
Then you type
Code:
cdrecord dev=0,0,0 -eject speed=2 -pad -audio *.wav
if I wanted to use my PHILIPS ' 'DVDR824P'
or
Code:
cdrecord dev=0,0,0 -eject speed=2 -pad -audio *.wav
if I wanted to use my 'LG' 'CD-RW CED-8083B'. Just replace my device names with ones of your own.
Now something you don't get on Windows is the -pad parameter. That basically sorts out the data length of the MP3's. MP3's come in all shapes and sizes. That fixes them. Windows won't allow for that because it of course assumes you have put in all license info. Of course you need the original CD for that. So if you are trying to burn a backup of an old CD, then you are screwed anyways. Not too good in the world of legitimate audio lovers. Linux has more trust in your ethical approach to lining the pockets of Britney and her rich millionaire but needy for money friends.
You can of course go the long Windows way around things and covert wav files to cdr files if you wish. Alternatively you can use just the above cdrecord command and see how even on a 24x speed drive things tend to be a lot quicker than it would be in Windows.
If you don't want to type the command, then make a script and call it burn. Each time you fancy burning a CD, just dump the wavs in a folder called tobeburned or something similar. Then just execute the script. The options really are endless because you can do what you want with Linux.
I also must say our goal is not to make Windows users convert to BLAG. We won't hold guns to heads. They are just shown an alternative world of freedom and given a choice If you want an OS that is insecure, unstable and will costs you a good weeks wages (or two) to purchase not to mention having to download half a gig of updates out of the box with numerous Service Packs, then have Windows. If you want something quicker, secure, stable and free then use Linux. Trust me though most people who have enough patience to deal with Windows fuddy duddy burning heartachs and wasted CD's would probably feel like Linux is a breath of fresh air. Most users in these forums dual boot. The only one who probably doesn't is jebba. So it is not a case of Windows vs Linux. Just honest opinions.
I am going to try to prepare a few scripts for the wiki to automate some of the stuff we take for granted from Windows. Windows isn't **all** bad. Just a lot of it is. It is to be fair a decent desktop OS. So there is a bit we can take from it and maybe add that to our own more stable and secure environment to enhance the desktop experience for your average desktop user.