Network music solution for mixed-OS network

Question

My home network at current includes,

• two Ubuntu machines
• a Windows 7 desktop
• a Windows Vista laptop
• and a Windows XP netbook.

In addition, there's one android-based smartphone in the house, planning on adding a second. We've slowly been migrating music to the win7 machine as a central storage place, which, is attached to the good speakers (surround-sound).

I've seen solutions for Windows networks and solutions for Linux networks - is there a good way to control the win7's music playing from both the Ubuntu laptop and the Vista laptop?

If not, I'm gravitating towards Winamp due to Android support.

Will that let me control the playlist on the win7 machine via cellphone, winXP netbook, and winVista laptop?

Answer 1

This may not be what you are looking for, but you might try Subsonic

Subsonic is a free, web-based media streamer, providing ubiquitous access to your music. Use it to share your music with friends, or to listen to your own music while at work. You can stream to multiple players simultaneously, for instance to one player in your kitchen and another in your living room.

Answer 2

Almost forgot about this question! I ended up buying a Raspberry Pi, configuring it with XBMC, and having it mount the win7's music folder on startup. That can be controlled from the smartphones and via web interface, so it allows anyone to play music on the TV at any time.