Why? Because if they REALLY wanted to hide the band-aids while big brother is bleeding, they’d have posted an iTunes client for Linux long ago. They have nothing to lose and only stand to gain. I’ve done my research, there really isn’t anything for Linux that will suffice. Sure, Amarok, Lsongs and Banshee are pretty good, but full-blown iTunes replacements they are NOT! Most of the Linux media apps fill some of the feature needs, but none do all of them. And so far, none that I’ve tried reliably sync with my 30gb iPod Video. While iTunes sucks up a HUGE amount of Windows resources, it runs much more smoothly on a Mac. No surprise there obviously. But as much as I cringe to launch it on my XP or Vista clients (while actually trying to run other apps concurrently), it does provide a nice one-stop shop for Podcasts, Movies, TV shows, Audiobooks, and of course Music. Check this link, or this one.

Why would I claim that Apple has nothing to lose by making an iTunes client for Linux? Because (a) no self-respecting Linux fan would EVER consider switching to Mac, never ever, never. and (b) if it required a full Mac client to enable the forthcoming AppleTV interface promised with Leopard, it still wouldn’t lose any Mac customers.

I’m convinced that there are Windows fans with iPods that would seriously consider jumping to Linux if it werent’ for losing access to iTunes, etc. Sure, Apple would prefer they switch to Mac OSX, but that would almost certainly require buying a new machine. After all, OSX isn’t built to run on BIOS, only EFI. While they might lose the possibility of a new Mac hardware purchase, it would at least make the idea of “leaving Windows” more plausible.

Apple knows that most iPods are used with Windows clients.  The numbers don’t lie.  Windows is the overwhelming dominant desktop operating system in the world.  No one else even comes close by any stretch of the imagination.  Given that iPod is the dominant portable media playing device (in most respects), that means the two demographics overlap.  That’s the ONLY reason Apple makes iTunes for Windows.  They simply cannot ignore that fact.  I don’t argue that.  However…
So rather than make it plausible for Windows victims to “leave” the shackles behind, they’d prefer you keep your Windows or simply jump straight to OSX. Not providing a possible in-between option shows me that they really don’t “hate” Microsoft (after all, MS did bestow a sizeable contribution to them when they were cash strapped some years ago). After all, if Microsoft vanished, Apple wouldn’t have anyone to tease in their commercials.  I don’t propose they stop supporting Windows, only that they consider greasing the skids with a Linux client, with the disclaimer that it would “work better on OSX”.  Nothing illegal or immoral about that.

Why? Because if they REALLY wanted to hide the band-aids while big brother is bleeding, they’d have posted an iTunes client for Linux long ago. They have nothing to lose and only stand to gain. I’ve done my research, there really isn’t anything for Linux that will suffice. Sure, Amarok, Lsongs and Banshee are pretty good, but full-blown iTunes replacements they are NOT! Most of the Linux media apps fill some of the feature needs, but none do all of them. And so far, none that I’ve tried reliably sync with my 30gb iPod Video. While iTunes sucks up a HUGE amount of Windows resources, it runs much more smoothly on a Mac. No surprise there obviously. But as much as I cringe to launch it on my XP or Vista clients (while actually trying to run other apps concurrently), it does provide a nice one-stop shop for Podcasts, Movies, TV shows, Audiobooks, and of course Music. Check this link, or this one.

Why would I claim that Apple has nothing to lose by making an iTunes client for Linux? Because (a) no self-respecting Linux fan would EVER consider switching to Mac, never ever, never. and (b) if it required a full Mac client to enable the forthcoming AppleTV interface promised with Leopard, it still wouldn’t lose any Mac customers.

I’m convinced that there are Windows fans with iPods that would seriously consider jumping to Linux if it werent’ for losing access to iTunes, etc. Sure, Apple would prefer they switch to Mac OSX, but that would almost certainly require buying a new machine. After all, OSX isn’t built to run on BIOS, only EFI. While they might lose the possibility of a new Mac hardware purchase, it would at least make the idea of “leaving Windows” more plausible.

Apple knows that most iPods are used with Windows clients.  The numbers don’t lie.  Windows is the overwhelming dominant desktop operating system in the world.  No one else even comes close by any stretch of the imagination.  Given that iPod is the dominant portable media playing device (in most respects), that means the two demographics overlap.  That’s the ONLY reason Apple makes iTunes for Windows.  They simply cannot ignore that fact.  I don’t argue that.  However…
So rather than make it plausible for Windows victims to “leave” the shackles behind, they’d prefer you keep your Windows or simply jump straight to OSX. Not providing a possible in-between option shows me that they really don’t “hate” Microsoft (after all, MS did bestow a sizeable contribution to them when they were cash strapped some years ago). After all, if Microsoft vanished, Apple wouldn’t have anyone to tease in their commercials.  I don’t propose they stop supporting Windows, only that they consider greasing the skids with a Linux client, with the disclaimer that it would “work better on OSX”.  Nothing illegal or immoral about that.

I’ve used WinAmp for years. Windoze Media Slayer (ha ha), Musicmatch, Real and a few others. Only iTunes has things that seriously irritate me to no end. I’ve yet to find a plugin or alternative that lets me use something else to synch with my iPod, so I’m stuck with it. The first thing is that, at least on Windows (XP and Vista) it’s a MAJOR MEMORY HOG. Oh my God! It eats CPU cycles also. Very slow. I didn’t think anything could take longer to load and respond than WMP10, or 11, but iTunes beats it for slothiness. Also, iTunes is the ONLY media library app I’ve used that has no support for dynamic library updating. That’s where it monitors a folder tree for new/changed/deleted files and automatically refreshes the library database. Every single app does that EXCEPT iTunes. For most people that’s probably no big deal, but I have a big library and that makes a big difference for me. Also, sometimes when you add new files into a folder that contains files already imported into iTunes, and you re-add the folder, it ends up with duplicate entries in iTunes. Dumb. Arrgggh! I had to vent.

Democrats win back control of the House and Senate. Donny Rumsfeld quits. Microsoft relesases Office 2007, IE 7, WMP 11, Live goodies and last, but definitely not least: Windows Vista. Oh yeah: Zune is coming. XBox 360 Live. Apple has a buttload of new tricks coming also. Add to that, Boeing wins back a ton of work from Airbus thanks to FedEx. Mozilla releases FireFox 2.0 (finally).

Regardless of your political or techno leanings (I don’t have any myself), you have to admit this has been a busy month indeed. Hopefully the mix of events results in good things in the coming months. Christmas should be a banner time this year with all the new goodies coming.

Hmmm, I’d better start making my Santa list…