My uConsole Experience
My uConsole is an outstanding little computer. I waited almost a year for the device and ultimately had to pay an additional 40 Euros in customs, taxes, and fees.
Despite all that, the device is excellent. With the CM5, it has plenty of power, and after a small antenna mod, it also has fast internet.
This device is my EDC (Every Day Carry) computer – also perfectly suited for outdoor and prepping use. On 1TB of storage, I have the entirety of Wikipedia, iFixit, and Project Gutenberg, all my music, and a selection of my Blu-ray rips.
The Search for the Perfect Music Player
Finding a good-looking music player for offline use wasn’t easy. I tried quite a few, but I finally found “the one” with Lollypop. It has a great cover overview and cool features.
Overview of Tested Players
For those of you also searching for the right software, here is a brief overview of what I tested:
| Player | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Rhythmbox | A Linux classic; works reliably. | Doesn’t fit well on the small display; lacks clarity; scrolling through text lists is tedious; couldn’t get the equalizer to work. |
| MTOC | Modern look with a cool 3D cover flow. | Difficult installation (no .deb, not in Debian repos); building from source via cmake failed due to QT6 issues. Flatpak worked, but it failed to find most covers. |
| Strawberry | A solid Clementine fork; reliable performance. | No cover overview; relies on long text lists. |
| Lollypop | The Winner. Great grid view (fits 2 rows of 3 covers on screen); feels like the old iTunes. | Cannot scroll through covers using arrow keys. |
Why Lollypop?
In my opinion, it’s the best player for this form factor. It features a great mini-player and an excellent full-screen mode. Crucially, it includes an equalizer—which is vital for my Bose Bluetooth speaker, as the bass is far too heavy without adjustment.
