Gradio running on Ubuntu

Ever listen to radio stations on the Linux desktop? If so, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of Gradio.

The desktop radio player app, which I mentally pronounce “gray-dee-oh“, has been a staple part of the Linux desktop app scene for the past few years.

Heck, we’ve certainly written enough about it enough since its debut back in 2016!

But the developer of Gradio, the terrifically talented (and appropriately named) Felix Häcker, has become a member of the GNOME foundation (and a collaborator on the new GNOME Podcasts app) he’s decided to make some changes.

Gradio is dead!

Firstly, Gradio is dead.

Okay, it’s only as “dead” as any open source code can be (i.e. code remains available, reanimate at will).

Felix says he has no plans to maintain or add new features to Gradio going forward.

It sounds like bad news, doesn’t it?

But it’s not.

Introducing ‘Shortwave’

The first stable release of Shortwave is now available to download.

Replacing Gradio will be a brand new desktop radio app for Linux. Built from the ground up in Rust, the app even has a rather fitting name: ‘Shortwave‘.

“I wanted to rewrite Gradio entirely from scratch using Rust. But I noticed it’s better to start a completely new project,” Felix explains on his blog.

“I’ll stop maintaining Gradio, which means there will be no more major updates. But don’t worry, Shortwave will include all important Gradio features, and your data can be transferred easily from Gradio to Shortwave.”

Shortwave code is up on the GNOME Gitlab should you want to get involved or track its development going forward. Shortwave even has a sweet new icon, too.

Given how great his GTK torrenting tool ‘Fragments’ is, I’m excited to tune in and see what Felix has up his sleeve with Shortwave!