Podcasting Apps for the Linux Desktop

Like many people, I usually listen to podcasts on my phone — using a rather minimalist app called Escapepod to do that. An app which, as you might have guessed, is open source.

Recently, while listening to a podcast about open source, I got wondering about what FOSS podcast players are available for the Linux desktop. After going through the Zorin OS software centre, I found two that grabbed my interest and duly took those applications for a test drive.

Let’s take a quick look at them.

Kasts

Kasts is a KDE application. But if you use another desktop environment, don’t let that put you off. You can also install it as a Flatpak or a snap. Even on a GNOME-based desktop, Kasts runs quickly and smoothly.

Launch Kasts for the first time and you see this screen:

You can add one or more podcasts by:

• Searching for one via the site podcastindex.org,
• Pasting a URL to the podcast’s feed,
• Importing an OPML file containing a set of podcast feeds that you exported from elsewhere, or
• If you have an account with gPodder, synchronizing with that account.

Here’s Kasts after I imported an OPML file that I exported from another application:

You’ll need to download the episodes that you want to listen to; you can’t stream them using Kasts. To download an episode, click a podcast in the list. Then, right click on an episode and select Download.

Once the download’s done (and it usually doesn’t take long), click the Play button beside the episode. Here’s Kasts playing an episode of a sports car racing podcast that I regularly listen to:

Podcasts

Podcasts is, at least for me, the desktop opposite number to EscapePod. It’s small, light, minimal, but it’s also easy to use and does what I it need to do. All without various frills which don’t matter to me.

It’s a GNOME app but, as you might have guessed, is also available as a flatpak and as a snap.

Podcasts, when you first start it up, looks like this:

You can pull in podcast subscriptions using an OPML file. Do that by clicking the stacker menu, selecting Import Shows, and then selecting the OPML file with the podcast feeds to import.

Or, you can add an individual podcast by clicking the + button in the header, typing the name of the podcast in the search field, and clicking the magnifying glass icon, like this:

A list of podcasts matching (more or less) your search term displays. Select a podcast in the list and then click Subscribe.

No matter what route you take, your subscriptions look like this:

From there, you can either stream an episode or download one or more to listen to later. Here’s a look at Podcasts in action:

Final Thoughts

Kasts and Podcasts don’t pack every feature that you can imagine a podcast player can or should pack. Instead, they opt for a more stripped-down aesthetic: enabling you to quickly find, add, and play podcasts. And not much else. It’s definitely an aesthetic that I appreciate.

If your needs around a desktop podcast player are simple, then Kasts and Podcasts are both great choices. Give them a try. One of them might be what you’re looking for.

— Scott Nesbitt