Spotify has been released for Linux. As of today, a Penguin-friendly version of the streaming music service is available as a preview, although we still don’t seem any closer to the much-rumored U.S. launch.
According to an official blog post, the Linux version was built by developers at the company “during hack days and late nights”, and shares most of the same features as the Windows and Mac OS X desktop applications. That said, due to issues regarding decoding of local music on the Linux platform, Spotify hasn’t been able to include support for local files in this version.
So who is this new version aimed at? Developers using Linux who “want to listen to music while they’re coding away”, says the company. Oh and it’s only available to Premium (paying) subscribers since it doesn’t support ads.
Of course, while landing on Linux is good news for Penguin-heads, many will think that a U.S. launch should have taken priority. Although that’s not something that “hack days and late nights” alone are likely to achieve.