Small heads-up rather than a big announcement — nothing is changing on your device today, and nothing needs any action from you. I just wanted to give you a heads-up before it happens, rather than have people discover it via a changelog line.
Almost 10 years ago this project started as some Christmas-holiday tinkering. When I first shared it here, I went with a slightly goofy name: RoPieee — nodding at Roon and the Raspberry Pi, with an extra wink at a Dutch comedian, which is also why it’s “roh-pee,” not “roh-pie.”
Over the years it grew a fair bit past just Roon — Squeezebox, AirPlay, Spotify Connect, HQPlayer, UPnP, and more have found their way in. If I’m honest, those always felt a bit like add-ons bolted onto a Roon-first project rather than things with equal standing, and the name didn’t help with that. So at some point down the line, I’ll be renaming the project to ‘Something Else’ — a name that fits what it’s actually become, and gives those other services the same footing Roon has always had.
It also means a proper space for the people running this who aren’t on Roon at all. That’s always been the awkward part of doing support here — this is a Roon forum, so anyone using it with Squeezebox or AirPlay or whatever else has had a hard time even finding a place to ask a question. There’ll be a dedicated community space for that, so those users finally have somewhere to actually get in touch.
A couple of things I want to be clear about, since I know this community is protective of what works:
I’m not going anywhere as a Roon user. Roon is my own daily driver — has been since before RoPieee existed — and that’s not changing. Roon support isn’t getting deprioritized because of a name.
Support stays exactly as it is. Same person, same forum, same way of helping out when something’s not working. A rename doesn’t change how involved I am.
Nothing changes on your device with this post. Current builds, update channel, and config all keep working exactly as they do today. When the actual switch happens — new branding, new update infrastructure — it’s built to happen automatically, and I’ll post here again when it does, with the actual details.
That’s really it for now — just didn’t want the name to just quietly change on you one day without a heads-up first. More to come when there’s actually something to click on.
Thanks for the support and trust over the years — it’s what’s kept this going.
Let’s hope the new name won’t interfere with some company name or existing product. As a Squeezebox / Lyrion user I stumbled upon RoPieee more or less by accident earlier this year and I am very happy with it ever since. I really like the appliance approach and the Spotify Connect implementation.
As a Dutchman I’ve never realized the fun factor in the name RoPieee by the way (but now I do!).
I don’t care what you call it…I’ll always love it. It is such an amazing app that I can’t think of why, after 7 years of using it, I would ever look for anything else.
Yeah… besides the Roon Bridge story I’ve spent some time looking into Dali and Sonik. Problem is that I’ve been pondering about this since last winter.
2 options crossed my mind: just go ahead and ‘see what happens’, or go for something else. I had a shortlist with names, so it’s not that I don’t have any other alternatives.
Anyways, the title should now be ‘RoPieee is (eventually) becoming Something Else’
Sounds good to me and BTW, I’ve stopped using RoPieee as a Roon bridge anyway. I’m now just using it as a UPnP renderer for PS Audio’s Maestro (still lots of bugs but boy does it sounds good in my system). Probably be a good idea to be able to disable or uninstall the Roon bridge in the future then.
