There were a few things that I absolutely had to have available:
- Searchable catalog (within a reasonable amount of time)
- Built-in media player
- Ability to create a random playlist
- Require login & authorization
I was already used to using Sockso to offer my music on my Windows 7 machine, but lacked the database experience, so I was forced to use Sockso's built-in database, (which could only add ~200 songs at a time). It was taking weeks to add all the music to the collection. Unacceptable.
So after a blown power supply in my desktop, I decided that would be the best time to start over with it. I added another terabyte of storage and loaded Linux. Back to the problem at hand.
So now I haven't a freshly installed OS and a ton of media. So I googled the free alternatives for media server stuff, and saw the typical Subsonic, Sockso, Ampache, Firefly etc.
After loading mySQL, php, etc....
I loaded Subsonic. Seemed great at first, but after adding all my music to it's database, it started lagging. Couldn't search. Couldn't play. Couldn't do anything other than log in.
Unacceptable.
So I tried Ampache. Only took an hour to add 50k songs, and a even some of my movies and podcasts. Awesome.
After fixing the issues with the flash player, it was looking pretty good. Great search-ability. Fast. Responsive. Can create a decent random playlist. Great.Only problem that I have is that when using the random playlist, the song names are never correct. Ever.
Other than that, it's an excellent program and my #1 choice so far.
Lastly I tried old Sockso. Made the changes to be able to use mySQL and it was running... decently. The java front-end just seems to be a resource hog, and it can only find ~44k of my music. Unacceptable. But I will say that it does an incredible job of creating a random playlist with all the information properly displayed. Which is the only reason I can't give it up.
In the end, I am still running Sockso and Ampache, but always favor Ampache. I just can't argue with the speed, search-ability and video qualities that it has. For that, I can overlook the incorrect titles of songs in my random playlist. Heck, It even turns it into a guessing game.
