14 DAY TRIAL // On March 9th, Andrew Gillis announced version 1.2 of the VortexBox Fedora-based operating system, which brings lots of new features. Trying to be one of the best NAS (Network-Attached Storage) for SqueezeBox and Sonos players, VortexBox 1.2 includes now version 7.4.2 of the SqueezeBox Server and repairs some reported issues in the VortexBox Player, introduced in the previous release. With VortexBox, you can rip Audio CDs to the FLAC and MP3 formats, add ID3 tags, grab album art and stream music files on your network.
The developers also worked on a new software manager, one that allows the installation of packages from the graphical user interface (GUI). MP3 encoding was also fixed in VortexBox 1.2, bringing better support for cover art and genre. And, last but not least, users can install the Sonos web GUI directly from the GUI.
"The VortexBox community has been working hard on this release. We have added a lot of new features to make VortexBox the best NAS for SqueezeBox. These include adding the new SqueezeBox Server 7.4.2 and fixing some critical bugs in VortexBox Player. VortexBox Player is now the highest resolutions (192/24) player available that is compatible with SqueezeBox Server (SBS). [...] Thanks to everybody in the community for helping out." - Andrew Gillis said in the official release announcement.
Highlights of VortexBox 1.2:
· Pre-installed and configured SqueezeBox Server 7.4.2 from Logitech; · Improved support for MP3 files; · Fixed critical bugs in VortexBox Player; · New Package Manager; · Lots of bugs squashed!
VortexBox is a Fedora-based Linux distribution that turns any computer into a music server or jukebox. It automatically rips Audio CDs to MP3 and FLAC files with ID3 tags and cover art, then it streams the music files to a network player such as Logitech SqueezeBox, Linn or Sonos, and even to a Windows or Macintosh system. For installation, VortexBox requires an empty hard drive. It doesn't work on a hard disk partition.
Download VortexBox 1.2 right now from Softpedia.