I’m using Linux 8.1 on an IBM a21e Thinkpad and I love it. One thing I always missed when I moved to Linux though was listening to web broadcasts from Winamp.com on my NullSoft Winamp player (with the spiffy skins of course). Well, I found a way I can still listen to these playlists on my Linux desktop. All you have to do is install the X Multi Media System (XMMS) and you’re good to go.

Check to see if you have the package installed with

Rpm –q xmms

You should see something like ‘xmms-1.2.5-4mdk’ but if you don’t go ahead and install it from the Mandrake CD’s or download it from XMMS.org. You can install the RPM using either the Mandrake Package Manager or from the command line as root using:

Rpm –iv xmms-1.2.5-4mdk.i586.rpm

Replacing the correct version number etc. You can download the package from any number of Mandrake download sites. I prefer Georgia Tech’s site at ftp-linux.cc.gatech.edu just follow the links to Mandrake 8.1’s RPMs in the Pub directory.

Once you’ve got the player installed simply navigate over to Winamp.com and click on one of the ‘Click to Listen’ links on your preferred station. You’ll get prompted to download the playlist (.pls).

Just go ahead and save the file to your home directory and then fire up XMMS. Then in XMMS just go to ‘Play File’ and open up the .pls J

It’s just that simple. Enjoy :)