Hot Picks

RADIO PLAYER

Shortwave

Version: 2.0 Web: https://gitlab.gnome.org/World/Shortwave

There are so many ways to listen to internet radio with Linux. Choose from a web browser, a media player that can open streaming URLs, a desktop widget, a panel applet, and finally a dedicated fully fledged desktop program.

Shortwave falls into the final category. This is a modern, beautiful and generously populated catalogue of public internet radio stations. While they’re all available elsewhere (most stations have their home pages online), Shortwave brings them together and enables you to search, rate, manage your favourites and keep an eye on what’s being played at the moment.

The application remembers your search history and offers a front-page selection of stations based on your tastes. Version 2.0 of Shortwave features a redesigned user interface. The UI is adaptive and flexible, and you’ll soon notice it after resizing the program’s window. When it’s reduced to a certain size the classic GTK controls disappear and the player transforms into retro-styled mini mode, very much like a customised floating desktop widget. There’s a small display and four buttons in the mini mode, which is enough to control the radio station that’s currently playing.

The flexible Shortwave interface makes hopping between stations easy and fun. However, the program is capable for much more than that. For instance, Shortwave automatically splits the stream into songs and stores them in the local cache, available for further access outside of Shortwave. It’s also possible to stream the audio playback to a network device, provided it supports Google’s Chromecast.

With over 25,000 stations in the catalogue, there’s definitely plenty of listening choice. Give Shortwave a try by installing it from Flathub, or building from source. The latter – and more difficult – approach reveals that Shortwave is a GTK4-based program and is heavily dependent on the Libadwaita library. The UI looks nice with that default theme, but may become clunky when themed differently, so bear that in mind.

DESKTOP ENHANCEMENT

Cosmic

Version: GIT Web: https://github.com/pop-os/cosmic

One of the most attractive members of the Ubuntu family is Pop!_OS, a customised