There are a number of audio and multimedia players for Linux such as Banshee and VLC. However, if you are looking for a lightweight alternative for such players, then try Audacious. It is an open source Linux player for the Gnome desktop environment.
Audacious has been designed to provide smooth audio playback and decoding correctness. It consumes less memory (approximately 7.3 MB of RAM) and system resources which makes it quite a handy player for legacy hardware users. Audacious is compatible with UNIX and Linux based operating systems with limited support for Windows. It is also the default audio player for Lubuntu and and Ubuntu Studio. The supported audio formats include Mp3, FLAC, Ogg, Vorbis, AAC, WAV, TTA, WMA, ALAC and more. One of the best features of Audacious is that it allows creating instant playlists via drag & drop. These playlists can be played and managed within multiple tabs instead of a single convoluted interface. Audacious also comes with different skins including a Winamp style interface.
To start playing songs drag & drop audio file(s) to the main interface of Audacious and click Play. The playback controls provide all essential playback and navigation controls, along with the option to shuffle/repeat playlists.
You can drag additional files over the main interface to initiate a new tabbed playlist. This playlist can be renamed by right-click menu.
The songs queue can also be changed via right-click menu. Other options in the this menu allow obtaining song information, editing metadata of the audio file, and verbose cut, copy, paste, refresh playlist options.
To quickly jump to a song or to switch the song timeline, go to Playback drop down menu, select Jump to Time or Jump to Song . For example, you can jump to a different song in queue or start a song from a precise duration (e.g. 25 seconds).
To change the Audacious interface skin, go to View –> Interface. Here, you can switch between the default GTK and Winamp skin.
Audacious can be installed from the source package available at the Launchpad link given below or from the Ubuntu repositories via the Ubuntu Software Center.
