Creating a Raspberry Pi Squeezebox server

Since I'm not updating this blog anymore here is a link to the new location for this post.

https://homehack.nl/creating-a-raspberry-pi-squeezebox-server/

Spotify silently and remotely deleted app from Squeezebox devices

Spotify removed

Spotify silently and remotely deleted the Spotify app from the Squeezebox devices I found out after returning from vacation (Yes, they did post an article on their help pages I found out but I wasn't notified). I own a Squeezebox Radio and a Squeezebox Touch that I both use heavily to listen to music with the Spotify app. I even have a Spotify Premium Family account that enables me to play Spotify on multiple devices. I understand that support for hardware, such as the Squeezebox, is limited and will end some day. However what outrages me is that Spotify remotely removes software on a device that I own. Spotify makes it very clear that they control the software that they provide for the device and not the user. With that they control the functionality of my devices.

The Logitech Squeezebox Radio, one of several types of Squeezebox devices, now without Spotify (photo from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squeezebox_(network_music_player)).

The Squeezebox music player

The Squeezebox device is a network music player from Logitech. The devices are versatile and have excellent hardware. The Squeezebox can be used in two different ways; as a player that works with an online service, mysqueezebox.com, or with a private server called Logitech Media Server. I preferred to use my Squeezebox devices with the online service mainly for its ease of use and because some streaming services such as Spotify and Deezer are available as an app. The apps are very convenient to stream music just with a remote control. The Squeezebox hardware was discontinued in 2012 but  but, to it's credit, Logitech maintains the online service to this very day.

I didn't mention the best thing about Squeezebox, both the server and player software are non-proprietary and can be installed on several different operating systems. This enables all users to make build their own Squeezebox clients and servers.

Choices

With the removal of the Spotify app I have a choice to make. Will I continue to be using the my Squeezebox devices with the online server using Deezer instead of Spotify or will I set up my own private server? The latter is of course more of a hassle since it involves installing and maintaining the Logitech Media Server, ripping CD's to mp3's and storing them on the server. Nevertheless I may choose to create my own private server. I recently decided to move the software on my iMac from proprietary to non-proprietary so creating the private server for my Squeezebox would also make sense. I happen to have a Raspberry Pi 2 lying around and in the coming weeks I'll try to set it up as a Logitech Media Server.

Replacing Contacts, Calender and Mail with Thunderbird on OSX

Introduction

I prevously wrote about the reason why I prefer open source software above proprietary software for my DIY projects. This time I'd like to take it a step further by replacing all proprietary software on my iMac with open source or non-proprietary software. This is of course not possible because the OSX operating system itself is proprietary but I'm replacing as much programs on it as I can. This will ultimately make it easier to move to the Linux operating system.

Thunderbird the replacement for Contacts, Calender and Mail on OSX.

 

Thunderbird

Today I replaced the proprietary Contacts, Calender and Mail, that come with OSX, with Mozilla's Thunderbird (v52.2.1). Most important are my mails. I have three email accounts from which two migrated without program. Not suprisingly I was unable to migrate my iCloud account. Not a huge problem since I want to abandon this account anyway.

All contacts from OSX Contacts were imported during the installation of Thunderbird. Next I exported my Calender data as an .ics file. Thunderbird imported this file without problem (Events and Tasks/Import).

After just a couple of hours of usage I can't provide a opinion of the Thunderbird software but that is not relevant. Even if Thunderbird would lack certain features or the user interface is not as pretty as the other programs the more important point is that I gained more freedom today. I unchained myself from three proprietary OSX programs and I'm slowly freeing myself from the Apple ecosystem.

Further down the road

Next on the agenda are Quicktime and iMovie which I use extensively for my video tutorials. Possible candidates are OpenShot and Kdenlive. I've heard that both programs can have stability issues so that may be a challenge also the Kdenlive version of OSX is outdated according the Kdenlive website.

Even further down the road is OSX Photos. I have thousands of photo's and as you can imagine they're precious to me. Finding an non-proprietary image organizer for OSX is not easy. My son uses Shotwell on his Ubuntu system but I haven't found an OSX version of it. Another alternative is digiKam. This program appears to be maintained very well so I might want to give it a try.

Any comments on migrating from proprietary to non-proprietary programs are welcome as well as any comments on proprietary versus non-proprietary in general. In the future I'll regularly write an update on how I'm faring with the transition.