
This is the JGTK+2 based package which sports a total rewrite from the years-old version we have all been running (Figure 1). I went to the new RealPlayer 10 website ( and downloaded the 6762kb RealPlayer10GOLD.bin file.

Install went smooth and I chose not to do any of my usual final configuration tweaks. I decided to take the full leap and loaded the Slack 10 CD’s optional 2.6.7 kernel, Gnome 2.6.2, new Alsa 1.0.5 drivers, the latest Nvidia 1.0-6111 driver, GCC 3.3.4, and Mozilla 1.7. My main concern about the new RealPlayer10 (RP10) was that it might break some of my older scripts and applications that I use to rip ogg audio files. I already have Slack 10 running in another partition on this machine with RealPlayer8 so I can compare the new and old on the same hardware. My test box is a home built Abit AI7 mb, Pentium4 2.4GHz, 512MB ddr, 60GB Maxtor, Geforce3 ti500 video my trusty old Ensoniq 5880 audio card and nice high-speed cable broadband. My main linux machines all run Slackware and Dropline Gnome so it seemed best to work with a ‘plain vanilla’ clean install. Since I was not sure how this might impact my production machines I decided to just slap a new instance of Slackware 10 on a spare partition of my test box. The recent announcement of RealPlayer 10 for Linux caught my eye and I decided it was worth taking it for a test drive. I confess I am a BBC Radio addict living in the USA and streaming audio is my only way to listen. All rights reserved.I had bitter feelings about RealNetworks products and practices years ago, but over the last couple of years I find that RealPlayer8 is one of the first apps I open on my linux machines.

Update to the latest version by going to Settings > General > Software Update.

