View this article at: http://dev.macnn.com/articles/06/04/24/puma.031.released Monday, Apr 24, 2006 1:50pm Open-source Puma takes on i... A developer today announced the arrival of Puma 0.3.1, an open-source media player set to compete with Songbird and iTunes. Still in its early sages, Puma takes a difference stance on modern media player design. "I don't believe that the current standard in user interface is 'how it should be,' and I've got a school full of college students that agree with me," wrote Puma author Nick Meyer. "Web browsers look alike because Web browser interface design has been evolving for a long time, that's not the case with media players. There's plenty of room for improvement and Puma hopes to address those design issues." Songbird -- an open-source alternative to Apple's iTunes -- had industry watchers speculating in early February whether iTunes' real competitor would be a corporation or an open-source project. Apple has managed to retain its hold on the digital music industry, however, and recently celebrated its one-billionth download. The author hopes to have a working version of Puma available for Mac OS X in the near future. Puma 0.3.1 is available for free, and requires Microsoft Windows as well a Java 5.0 JRE.