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iTunes For Linux, Thanks To CodeWeavers

Posted by timothy on Tue Aug 03, 2004 06:51 AM
from the impressive-stuff dept.
pizen writes "The folks over at CNet have the scoop that a new version of CrossOver Office (3.1) now supports Apple's iTunes. The preview version of the software is being tested and is currently only available to current CodeWeavers customers. They expect a final version to be available later this year." Reader snowtigger contributes a link to this screenshot. White demonstrated iTunes on a Linux machine at OSCON as well; a rendering glitch marred that demo, but he was still able to demonstrate playing back a song which he'd purchased from iTMS using iTunes on Linux.
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  • Finally!!! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by h4rm0ny (722443) * <h4rm0ny@tard[ ]l.net ['del' in gap]> on Tuesday August 03 2004, @06:52AM (#9868001)
    (Last Journal: Tuesday December 02 2003, @06:03AM)

    This is has honestly been the only reason that I still boot up in Windows.

    Also seems I not the only one:
    "iTunes has been our No. 1 most requested application," CodeWeavers CEO Jeremy White said in a statement.

    And presumably a free open source version cannot be far behind? Now, if I can just take this opportunity to ask the iTunes people to please add some (a lot) more to their back catalogue then the world will become perfect.
    • Re:Finally!!! (Score:4, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 03 2004, @07:03AM (#9868037)
      The CodeWeavers people are pretty cool about contributing back their code changes. Their product as such is more or less a way to make wine's configuration "just work"
      [ Parent ]
    • Re:Finally!!! by moonbender (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @07:11AM
      • Re:Finally!!! by Progoth (Score:3) Tuesday August 03 2004, @07:41AM
        • Re:Finally!!! by moonbender (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @07:52AM
          • Re:Finally!!! (Score:5, Interesting)

            by 2nd Post! (213333) <gundbear@pa c b ell.net> on Tuesday August 03 2004, @09:31AM (#9868671)
            (http://nekobox.org/)
            Well, if you don't need it, you don't need it.

            I love the search capabilities.
            I love the 'smart playlist' which can filter songs by number of times played, last played, ID tags, and ratings.
            I love not needing to worry about organization. It's like not caring which track, sector, and platter my data is on; there's no need to care when the OS takes care of that detail. All I need to know is enough meta-data for the OS to find the file.

            Sharing is cool, streaming is cool, and so is the music store!
            [ Parent ]
            • Re:Finally!!! by The Infamous Grimace (Score:3) Tuesday August 03 2004, @10:33AM
              • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
            • Re:Finally!!! by Smurf (Score:3) Tuesday August 03 2004, @08:06PM
              • Re:Finally!!! by myconid (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @09:38PM
                • Re:Finally!!! by cbirdsong64 (Score:3) Tuesday August 03 2004, @10:23PM
                • compilations by grrrl (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @10:24PM
            • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
        • Re:Finally!!! by athakur999 (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @12:32PM
        • Re:Finally!!! by Hatta (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @03:50PM
          • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
      • Re:Finally!!! by pebs (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @07:55AM
        • iTunes does all that by Anonymous Coward (Score:1) Tuesday August 03 2004, @08:34AM
        • Re:Finally!!! (Score:5, Funny)

          by Nexum (516661) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @08:36AM (#9868400)
          Lacking in what way exactly?

          WinAmp has always had a non-standard small, confusing and cluttered interface. It tries to have every control available to you within the space of a postage stamp on screen, and the effect is woeful.

          From the sound of it you've never used iTunes. And iTunes "catching up" yeah... must be tough catching up with the full quality built in cd ripping to MP3 AAC WAV etc. that WinAmp does. Oh and catching up with the one click CD burning that WinAmp does. Oh and the online music sotre integration that WinAmp has. Oh and the easy interoperability with my iPod that WinAmp manages.

          Seriously though, all the WinAmp features you've mentioned have been done in iTunes for years.

          Go download it and give it a whirl.
          [ Parent ]
          • Re:Finally!!! (Score:4, Interesting)

            by pebs (654334) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @09:28AM (#9868660)
            (http:///#!/)
            Lacking in what way exactly?

            The Winamp playlist is much easier and more powerful than what iTunes has. iTunes' "Party Shuffle", gives you some of this functionality, though, but before they added that, there was nothing to match it.

            Seriously, download Winamp and give it a try. I have compared with the latest iTunes, and I find Winamp to be more feature-rich and flexible. A bit more for "power-users" though, so I can see why some people may not like the interface.

            Not to say iTunes sucks or anything, its a great player, and should satisfy most people. If I owned a Mac, I'd probably be using it. But I simply find Winamp 5 to offer more powerful features and a more useful interface.

            As for the iTunes feature you mentioned...

            BTW, Winamp does have ripping/burning in the Pro version, but that does cost $15 and I can't vouch for it. There is also an iPod plugin, but I can't vouch for it because I'm not willing to buy that overpriced, overrated player.

            I don't particularly see having an online store integration as a good thing when you are locked into one store for that integration.
            [ Parent ]
            • Winamp playlist by Catullus (Score:1) Tuesday August 03 2004, @10:48AM
            • Re:Finally!!! (Score:4, Informative)

              Winamp's ID tag editing functionality is a pale, wan ghost of what iTunes can do. This is the specific reason why I now use iTunes. I don't use Winamp as a video player because it is a spectacularly crappy one, so iTunes fits my needs very nicely. I like being able to rate songs and see when I last played them right in the playlist, but for all I know WA5 might do that. I have WA5 but I haven't bothered to install it because WA2 plays shoutcast streams just fine, and the first time I installed WA5 (version 5.0 as opposed to 5.0x) it wouldn't work, I'd try to run it and it just never started. Maybe I jumped the gun but from that experience I decided that nullsoft has lost its thunder and I should stick with the old winamp for my shoutcast needs. :P
              [ Parent ]
              • Re:Finally!!! by athakur999 (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @01:43PM
              • Re:Finally!!! (Score:4, Informative)

                It's bulk changes that attract me to iTunes as opposed to winamp, because I can select a range of files and ID them at the same time. For example I can select all the songs by a given band and set the artist and genre, then I can break it down into albums and set the total number of tracks, album name, and year, then I can set track numbers one at a time and so on. It's not as good as using a dedicated tagger but I just want to tag from inside my player. The only thing I don't like about iTunes (besides the amazing slowness, at least on windows) is that the list jumps to the current song when the current song changes. That is really, really stupid.
                [ Parent ]
              • Re:Finally!!! by TheVoice900 (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @02:39PM
              • Re:Finally!!! by drinkypoo (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @02:49PM
              • Re:Finally!!! by Moofie (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @04:01PM
              • Re:Finally!!! by Moofie (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @11:50PM
                • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
              • Re:Finally!!! by Trillan (Score:2) Wednesday August 04 2004, @12:33PM
              • iTUNE Noob by superpulpsicle (Score:2) Thursday August 05 2004, @05:50PM
              • 2 replies beneath your current threshold.
            • Re:Finally!!! by Moofie (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @03:54PM
              • Re:Finally!!! by VooDoo999 (Score:1) Tuesday August 03 2004, @04:37PM
              • Re:Finally!!! by pebs (Score:1) Tuesday August 03 2004, @06:48PM
              • Re:Finally!!! by Moofie (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @04:56PM
              • Re:Finally!!! by VooDoo999 (Score:1) Tuesday August 03 2004, @08:24PM
                • Re:Finally!!! by Ohreally_factor (Score:2) Wednesday August 04 2004, @01:45PM
              • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
            • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
          • Re:Finally!!! by Tim Browse (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @04:39PM
          • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
        • Re:Finally!!! by Anonymous Coward (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @08:37AM
        • Re:Finally!!! by ColMustard (Score:1) Wednesday August 04 2004, @02:04AM
        • Re:Finally!!! by pebs (Score:1) Tuesday August 03 2004, @09:54AM
        • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
      • Re:Finally!!! by dnahelix (Score:2) Wednesday August 04 2004, @07:07PM
    • Re:Finally!!! by Zelet (Score:3) Tuesday August 03 2004, @08:43AM
    • Re:Finally!!! (Score:5, Interesting)

      by schussat (33312) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @11:12AM (#9869350)
      (Last Journal: Saturday August 18 2001, @10:14AM)
      The story doesn't mention the hardware side of things, but it's an important issue: Will I be able to sync my iPod through Codeweaver/iTunes?

      -schussat

      [ Parent ]
      • Re:Finally!!! by Jim Hall (Score:2) Thursday August 05 2004, @01:42PM
      • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
    • Re:Finally!!! by cerberusss (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @11:20AM
    • Re:Finally!!! by Hatta (Score:1) Tuesday August 03 2004, @01:16PM
    • Re:Finally!!! by cameraman_ben (Score:1) Tuesday August 03 2004, @01:42PM
    • Re:Finally!!! by Lours (Score:1) Wednesday August 04 2004, @01:43PM
      • Re:Finally!!! by sydsavage (Score:2) Friday August 06 2004, @01:39AM
    • Re:Finally!!! by Anonymous Coward (Score:1) Tuesday August 03 2004, @08:27AM
      • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
    • 2 replies beneath your current threshold.
  • Futurama Quote applicable (Score:4, Funny)

    by CrackedButter (646746) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @06:54AM (#9868012)
    (http://web.mac.com/crackedbutter | Last Journal: Monday January 01 2007, @07:57PM)

    Bender: What better way to celebrate our success than by me showing Bubblegum this globetrotters uniform I made myself.
    BubbleGum: Let me see.
    Bender shows him his uniform.
    BubbleGum: Hello lawsuit *rubs palms*.
  • Wow. (Score:3, Insightful)

    Now I finally have a reason to buy a copy of CrossOver office. iTunes is really a killer app, and using gtkpod to manage the songs on my desktop was almost insulting to the ipod itself.

    Wooohoo.

    • Re:Wow. by dcstimm (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @08:45AM
  • This is a good thing (Score:5, Interesting)

    by tourettes (97445) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @07:13AM (#9868062)
    (http://www.linuxhelp.ca/)
    I have been in love with iTunes since I first used it in Windows late last year, I have all my music in it, and allow it to keep everything organized. While in Windows, everything is nice and neat and tidy, however, as soon as i switched to Linux and loaded up my tunes in XMMS, or Juk, or Kaffeine or any other multimedia player, all the titles and ID3 tags would look messed up.

    While some of the open source projects out there have been doing a great job emulating iTunes, none have yet to duplicate the easy of use and great interface that Apple gives us. I wouldn't say this is the only reason why I use Windows, but I would say that while in Linux, I rarely listen to any of my music because I find it too difficult.

    Thank you code weavers, and I will be looking forward to the release.
    • Waaaaaa! by spotteddog (Score:1) Tuesday August 03 2004, @07:49AM
      • Re:Waaaaaa! by greed (Score:1) Tuesday August 03 2004, @10:18AM
    • Re:This is a good thing by IamTheRealMike (Score:3) Tuesday August 03 2004, @09:18AM
    • Re:This is a good thing (Score:5, Informative)

      by dirkdidit (550955) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @09:21AM (#9868622)
      (http://www.dirkmonson.com/)
      The reason your ID3 tags look messed up is because you only put track information into the ID3v1 tags and not the ID3v2 tags. ID3v2 being what most players use for song information nowadays

      All is not lost however, you can turn off ID3v2 support in XMMS under the MP3 decoder options. XMMS will then read the song information from the ID3v1 tags and your problem will be fixed in a snap.
      [ Parent ]
    • Re:This is a good thing by civilizedINTENSITY (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @10:58AM
    • Re:This is a good thing by tourettes (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @08:08AM
    • Re:This is a good thing by Matthias Wiesmann (Score:1) Tuesday August 03 2004, @08:20AM
    • Re:This is a good thing by Joe Enduser (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @08:34AM
    • Re:This is a good thing (Score:5, Insightful)

      by _|()|\| (159991) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @09:00AM (#9868515)
      are you retarded?

      And this is why the gulf between Linux and Mac OS is so wide. "It's so easy, just do this and this and this. Oh, you mean you want it to just work?"

      Whether it's because iTunes tagged the files unconventionally, or because the XMMS is broken /inferior, the simplicity of iTunes didn't translate to the original poster's Linux environment. iTunes has plenty of room for improvement, but it's a solid app., both on Windows and OS X. I don't blame the OP for missing it.

      [ Parent ]
    • 2 replies beneath your current threshold.
  • on Linux? (Score:4, Informative)

    by SvendTofte (686053) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @07:13AM (#9868064)
    he'd purchased from iTMS using iTunes on Linux.

    You mean that he purchased from iTMS using iTunes on Windows on Linux?
    • Re:on Linux? by benjamindees (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @07:50AM
      • Re:on Linux? by pecko666 (Score:1) Tuesday August 03 2004, @08:34AM
        • Re:on Linux? by ananke (Score:3) Tuesday August 03 2004, @09:36AM
          • Re:on Linux? by TuringTest (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @11:10AM
          • Re:on Linux? by Minna Kirai (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @02:07PM
        • Re:on Linux? (Score:4, Interesting)

          by AstroDrabb (534369) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @02:03PM (#9870760)
          which was running on
          emulator running on Linux! So we still have no Linux iTunes. We have only emulator support for Windows version of iTunes on Linux.
          According to Wine [winehq.com]
          Wine is an Open Source implementation of the Windows API on top of X and Unix.

          Think of Wine as a Windows compatibility layer. Wine does not require Microsoft Windows, as it is a completely alternative implementation consisting of 100% Microsoft-free code, but it can optionally use native system DLLs if they are available
          Then name Wine stands for Wine Is Not an Emulator. Wine does not emulate windows, it is an implementation of the Win 32 API. So iTunes running on Linux is not being emulated at all. It is running natively, though it is not using default Linux API's or traditional Linux GUI tool kits. Instead it is using Windows API's that were ported to Linux. This is no different them me writting a Windows applications using GTK+, QT or wxWindows. All three of them run on Windows, they are not the default Win32 API and they do not emulate. An API is just something you program to, a set of functions, etc that you use to make a program do something. Again, repeat after me, Wine Is Not an Emulator.
          [ Parent ]
          • Re:on Linux? by geoffspear (Score:2) Tuesday August 10 2004, @02:46PM
          • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
    • Re:on Linux? by IamTheRealMike (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @08:30AM
    • Re:on Linux? by civilizedINTENSITY (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @11:10AM
      • Re:on Linux? by plj (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @11:32AM
      • Re:on Linux? by SvendTofte (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @11:59AM
        • Re:on Linux? by tornado2258 (Score:1) Tuesday August 03 2004, @01:34PM
        • Re:on Linux? by AstroDrabb (Score:3) Tuesday August 03 2004, @02:23PM
    • Re:on Linux? by Geoff-with-a-G (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @12:54PM
    • 3 replies beneath your current threshold.
  • gtkpod? (Score:2, Informative)

    by bach37 (602070) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @07:29AM (#9868101)
    What about gtkpod [sourceforge.net]?
  • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 03 2004, @07:36AM (#9868115)
    Serious question, as I have no system capable of running iTunes smoothly. What's so good about iTunes? If you don't intend to buy an iPod or music from the iTMS, is there anything special about iTunes that other music players don't have?
  • AirTunes? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by mccalli (323026) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @07:52AM (#9868161)
    (http://www.eruvia.org/)
    Any news if this will work with the Airport Express? I'm guessing yes, because I'd imagine AirTunes to be a rendezvous (err... I mean OpenTalk)-based service working at the application level, rather than requiring any extra low level networking code. Still, worth a check.

    Cheers,
    Ian

  • by jerky42 (264624) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @07:58AM (#9868197)
    What is a good program to use to batch change all ID3 tags to match the file name, or better yet, to match the file name minus the ".mp3"?

    Suggestions?
  • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 03 2004, @08:00AM (#9868211)
    Ummm... yeah. Great screenshot.
  • Screenshot Confusion (Score:5, Funny)

    by Nutcase (86887) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @08:03AM (#9868227)
    (http://www.ryanabrams.net/ | Last Journal: Thursday May 08 2003, @04:57PM)
    I looked at the screenshot and saw the OS X like buttons... my first thought was "Wow! They ported Crossover to OS X so now I can run iTunes on my mac!!"

    Then I realized what I was thinking, and felt dumb.
    • Re:Screenshot Confusion by plj (Score:3) Tuesday August 03 2004, @11:39AM
    • I had a dream! by Eric_Cartman_South_P (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @01:28PM
    • haha by mewphobia (Score:1) Tuesday August 03 2004, @05:04PM
  • Hidden Significance (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ajs318 (655362) <[ku.oc.dohshtrae] [ta] [2pser_ds]> on Tuesday August 03 2004, @08:23AM (#9868320)
    Don't tell anybody, but this must actually break the iTunes DRM good and hard. CrossOverOffice almost certainly uses a standard Linux sound driver to get the sound data to the sound chip. This is bound to mean /dev/dsp, which is "hackable" in the sense that anyone with root access can snarf the digital audio data between when it gets decrypted by iTunes and when it gets sent to the sound chip. You can then make unlimited unencumbered copies. Additionally, knowing that the file was uncompressed from lossy AAC compression, it should be possible to recompress it in such a way as exactly to recover the original compressed file, just sans DRM encumbrance.

    The same would, of course, also go for any successful attempt to run Windows Media Player under Linux.

    DRM is a pipe dream. There is a fundamental physical reason why it will never work, though a formal mathematical proof escapes me right now. It's time to stop trying to do the impossible, even if that means having to swallow the unpalatable.
    • Re:Hidden Significance (Score:5, Informative)

      by Graff (532189) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @08:34AM (#9868382)
      (http://slashdot.org/)
      Don't tell anybody, but this must actually break the iTunes DRM good and hard. CrossOverOffice almost certainly uses a standard Linux sound driver to get the sound data to the sound chip. This is bound to mean /dev/dsp, which is "hackable" in the sense that anyone with root access can snarf the digital audio data between when it gets decrypted by iTunes and when it gets sent to the sound chip.

      Don't tell anybody, but this happens under Mac OS and Windows also.

      Just because you can re-route audio that doesn't mean you are breaking the DRM. Apple knows about all of these methods and has only done a pro forma job at closing them off. Basically, Apple needs to be able to tell the RIAA "We're making sure the music is uncopyable." so that the RIAA will continue to sign distribution contracts with Apple.

      Don't make a big deal that you can create DRM-less copies of iTunes Music Store Music and its most likely that Apple won't bother you. Remember that Steve Jobs was the one who said [macobserver.com], "Every security scheme that is based on secrets eventually fails."
      [ Parent ]
    • Re:Hidden Significance by _|()|\| (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @08:41AM
    • Re:Hidden Significance by DavidLeblond (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @08:50AM
    • Re:Hidden Significance by Mant (Score:1) Tuesday August 03 2004, @08:57AM
    • Re:Hidden Significance by foo23 (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @10:39AM
    • Re:Hidden Significance by kistral (Score:1) Tuesday August 03 2004, @01:05PM
    • Re:Hidden Significance by FauxPasIII (Score:3) Tuesday August 03 2004, @04:49PM
    • Re:Hidden Significance by illumin8 (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @05:23PM
    • Same as burning then ripping! by CreateWindowEx (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @10:24PM
    • Re:Hidden Significance by ShavenYak (Score:2) Sunday August 08 2004, @10:39PM
    • 3 replies beneath your current threshold.
  • by dcstimm (556797) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @08:23AM (#9868324)
    (http://keanmarine.com/)
    Why Apple Needs iTunes for Linux.. PHP-Nuke As of Late, I have been looking into buying an ipod, they are so cute and sexy, but I cant get over the fact that I cant download music legally for it. You might ask me, why cant you go onto Apple's iTunes and pay for your music, well because THEY DONT support Linux! I have been using Linux for the last 5 years and I feel that it is the perfect desktop for me. It has loads of functionality and it always seems like things are getting updated, so it feels like a new experience every time I turn on my computer. (most people don't like that, but it keeps me productive). I have everything I have ever wanted in Linux, except a legal way to download music. I have even gone as far as buying a ibook to play around with macosx and use iTunes, but I was soon disappointed that I couldn't transfer my iTunes collection I had just purchased to my Linux computer. Now there is a very cool open source project called playfair, that takes the DRM (Digital Rights Management) Software out of the AAC file that you download from apple and allows you to play it on your Linux computer. But this is again not legal, and it could be used for wrong doing. Apple doesn't understand if they would have supported the Linux community in the first place, they wouldn't have programs like this all over the Internet. The only thing they have done to support Linux at all is creating a ton of open source software that helps the open source community, but not Linux in general. I would even go as far as saying there are probably more Linux users out there than Mac users and it only hurts Apple not to create a Linux version of iTunes. Come on apple help stop Piracy and come out with iTunes for Linux!
  • First Real makes their player compatible with the iPod. Now someone makes iTunes available on Linux.

    Apple hardly needs to do a thing to improve iTunes. Their competitors are doing it all for them.

    Peace be with you,
    -jimbo

  • Takeover??? (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Performaman (735106) <Peterjones AT gmail DOT com> on Tuesday August 03 2004, @08:44AM (#9868445)
    I think this makes iTunes the first mainstream online music store to run under Linux. Apple should really try a native port, 'cuz if they did they would own the Linux market for music stores.
    Step 1: Port iTunes to Linux
    Step 2: ???
    Step 3: Profit!
    • Re:Takeover??? by cbirdsong64 (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @11:15PM
      • Re:Takeover??? by aristotle-dude (Score:2) Friday August 06 2004, @05:35PM
  • One step forward, and two behind (Score:4, Interesting)

    by QCompson (675963) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @08:55AM (#9868493)
    Great... now only if I could get firewire to work easily and reliably on linux.
  • Why iTunes? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by m5brane (322163) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @08:59AM (#9868512)
    (http://www-personal.umich.edu/~ramcnees/)
    I'll admit to keeping a Win partition on my machine, so that from time to time I could boot into XP and play with apps like iTunes. I was pretty taken with iTunes at first, but the only thing it seems to offer over any collection of similar Linux apps is convenience. Why not use apps like rhythmbox (for gnome) or juk (for kde)? While neither app is as mature as iTunes (yet), they both do a great job. And both have better .ogg support than iTunes.
    I would argue that ITMS, while convenient, isn't that great a value. Why not opt for one of the other services that lets you download files encoded at a higher bitrate? Or in multiple formats? Or from Linux? This is exactly the kind of application where Linux users should be looking to innovate, in the interest of offering more choices, and not just waiting for the CrossOver port. There are plenty of great projects out there doing just that, and they could all use the attention that CrossOver's iTunes work seems to be getting.
    • Re:Why iTunes? by 2nd Post! (Score:3) Tuesday August 03 2004, @09:45AM
      • Re:Why iTunes? by 2nd Post! (Score:2) Thursday August 05 2004, @12:00AM
      • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
    • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
  • Dang! (Score:1)

    by Solilok (791022) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @10:00AM (#9868844)
    I just switched from Linux to Windows and installed cygnus just because of iTunes!
  • Good clone (Score:1)

    by alain1234 (540592) <alain@onesite.org> on Tuesday August 03 2004, @10:08AM (#9868888)
    (http://www.onesite.org/)
    Juk [kde.org] is a quite good clone of itunes for KDE (not the shopping stuff, just a library manager)

    You can transfer files to your ipod with gtkpod [sourceforge.net]

    Better prefer to launch a proprietary software with a windows emulator.

    Avoid the ID3 tags !
    • Re:Good clone by fungai (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @10:37AM
    • Re:Good clone by Chucker23N (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @01:57PM
  • what good? (Score:2, Funny)

    by TheUser0x58 (733947) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @12:32PM (#9869903)
    (http://www.wprb.com/)
    What good is this when we already have Linspire's lsongs [linspire.com]?
  • No iPod support yet (Score:4, Informative)

    by gyrojoe (600717) <<moc.liamg> <ta> <todhsals+eojoryg>> on Tuesday August 03 2004, @02:47PM (#9871149)
    Looks like they don't yet have iPod support.
    http://crossover.codeweavers.com/pipermail/announc e/2004-August/000026.html [codeweavers.com]
    The iTunes Music Store should work fine, but we don't currently support iPods or CD-burning.
    Hopefully it will be added soon so I can rid myself of Windows once and for all.
  • by thmclean (590355) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @04:55PM (#9872543)
    Just downloaded the latest alpha, and installed iTunes, but the pulldown menus are kinda b0rked (common with not-quite-there Crossover/Wine apps). It's a step forward, though. I find XMMS perfectly useable, and with the LongPlayer companion app, i have a great random jukebox, on par with iTunes w/ Party Shuffle.
  • Is it just me? (Score:1)

    by otterpop378 (254386) on Wednesday August 04 2004, @04:03AM (#9876876)
    Or is this the kind of roundabout plot that Zim would use?

    Now we can run iTunes on every PLATFORM!!!!
    Gir... why is there bacon in my ipod??
  • Thanks but... (Score:2)

    by juhaz (110830) on Wednesday August 04 2004, @08:52AM (#9878378)
    (http://www.saunalahti.fi/voas0113)
    You can keep it, I won't touch iTunes with a ten-foot pole ever again.

    Maybe it fits nicely and works well in OS X, but the Windows version of iTunes is ugly, looks and behaves differently than any other app in the desktop, and same goes for running it in Linux. That's matter of taste, of course, the real problem is that it's SLOW, I mean, changing a song takes about a second on 2GHz machine, what the hell are they smoking?

    If you like the dynamic playlists of iTunes and have any geek blood left in you, try wxMusik, what could possibly beat doing SQL queries into your music library?
  • Rhythmbox (Score:2)

    by AvantLegion (595806) on Wednesday August 04 2004, @09:35PM (#9885584)
    (Last Journal: Sunday January 11 2004, @03:55AM)
    Rhythmbox is just a shameless iTunes ripoff, in GTK. Except it lets you add new streaming radio stations without having to resort to little "tricks".

  • Re:Linux is about open standards (Score:5, Informative)

    by byolinux (535260) * on Tuesday August 03 2004, @07:01AM (#9868030)
    (Last Journal: Friday December 08 2006, @04:28PM)
    Apple haven't sued Codeweavers over QuickTime under GNU/Linux so why would they do it over this?

    It's running whatever software Apple offer. No DRM is being tampered with.

    I think they will worry far more about RealNetworks than this.
    [ Parent ]
    • Re:Linux is about open standards by sotonboy (Score:1) Tuesday August 03 2004, @08:37AM
    • Re:Linux is about open standards by ArbitraryConstant (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @09:34AM
    • Re:Linux is about open standards by Anonvmous Coward (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @10:12AM
      • Re:Linux is about open standards (Score:4, Insightful)

        by plj (673710) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @10:54AM (#9869212)
        Insightful my ass. Could parent or parent's moderator please explain, how the hell it is supposed to affect Apple's bottom line if Apple's customer using iTMS with iTunes for Windows client is actually some other os, which just happens to provide the same interfaces iTunes for Windows needs? That customer is still shopping on iTMS, and DRM is still effective. That customer may still own an iPod, too.

        Theoretically one could explain that it is easier to bypass DRM on Linux than on Windows, but as we now have things like a commercially licensed PowerDVD for Linux [slashdot.org] and Hymn [hymn-project.org] for Windows, I think that argument won't really hold any water.
        [ Parent ]
  • Re:Well, it saves Apple some work! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Ford Prefect (8777) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @07:06AM (#9868046)
    (http://www.hylobatidae.org/minerva/)
    I think iTunes on MacOS X is a Carbon application, ie based on an updated version of the old Macintosh APIs. If it's anything like Quicktime for Windows, the Windows version of iTunes probably makes use of what's effectively a Carbon layer for Windows.

    Just because there might be BSD stuff underneath everything on MacOS X doesn't mean everything directly uses the BSD APIs...
    [ Parent ]
    • Yuck... by oliverthered (Score:1) Tuesday August 03 2004, @07:18AM
      • Re:Yuck... (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Otter (3800) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @08:03AM (#9868228)
        (Last Journal: Wednesday November 21, @10:04AM)
        Sounds like Apple are embeding the UI layer and the Application layer, that's what you get from a single vendor solution....

        Uh, no. I'm not sure how you reached that conclusion. The point is that MacOS isn't FreeBSD with an Apple window manager slapped on top, as Slashbot dimwits all seem to believe.

        Well.. maybe not.. but how hard can it be for Apple to do a carbon copy for Linux, like they've done for Windows.

        Probably just about as hard to make, although a lot harder to support. But for 1% of the desktop market instead of 97%, "no harder to make" isn't necessarily a winner.

        [ Parent ]
        • Re:Yuck... by oliverthered (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @01:13PM
          • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
    • Re:Well, it saves Apple some work! by mjj12 (Score:1) Tuesday August 03 2004, @08:51AM
    • Re:Well, it saves Apple some work! by nuggetman (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @10:57AM
    • Re:It's still all unix (Score:5, Informative)

      by GregChant (305127) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @07:44AM (#9868133)
      (http://www.gregchant.com/)
      It still only needs the right layer in there. OSX still uses a BSD interface which is alot similar, and OSX's fancy graphics are still X11 based,

      No, they aren't. X11 is completely separate from Aqua/Quartz. One of the many reasons why you need either Xfree86 or Apple's modified X11 to run X applications. Additionally, like the grandparent said, iTunes is based on Carbon, which is separate from the BSD subsystem. For the most part, OS X uses BSD for its kernel and services only: all Mac OS X native programs are written in Cocoa, Carbon, or Java.

      [ Parent ]
      • Re:It's still all unix by LEgregius (Score:3) Tuesday August 03 2004, @09:22AM
      • Re:It's still all unix by keytoe (Score:3) Tuesday August 03 2004, @11:32AM
        • Re:It's still all unix (Score:4, Informative)

          by GregChant (305127) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @11:39AM (#9869516)
          (http://www.gregchant.com/)
          PS - Interesting tidbit: The Finder was initially a (badly) modified Carbon application when OS X was first released. It was re-written in Cocoa for 10.2, and I believe it is the ONLY Apple application that has made that transition. It's either a testament to the simplicity of the Finder (right) or the power of Cocoa (likely) that they were able to change so easily. Not that I don't have my gripes...

          Actually, it's still in carbon. Very easy test: attempt to execute an operation that would normally hang Finder (emptying the trash, etc.). Notice the wait cursor you get (hint: it'll alternate between the pinwheel and the stopwatch). Unless the developer has added the stop watch resource into the program (which Apple hasn't), the stopwatch is a legacy wait indicator from OS 9 and Carbon.

          [ Parent ]
    • Re:It's still all unix (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Senjutsu (614542) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @07:59AM (#9868202)
      OSX still uses a BSD interface which is alot similar

      iTunes doesn't, so you're wrong here. It uses Carbon, a completely different and very large API ported to Mach from MacOS. I doubt highly it touches the BSD server much.

      and OSX's fancy graphics are still X11 based

      Wrong. Quartz is essentially a display PDF renderer, written from scratch and having nothing to do with X11.

      and music devices and disks are still /dev/whatever/ so I don't see any problem

      Wrong. 0 for 3. Thanks for playing "Slashdot pundit who doesn't know what he's talking about".
      [ Parent ]
    • 3 replies beneath your current threshold.
  • Re:Well, it saves Apple some work! (Score:5, Informative)

    by Shisha (145964) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @07:31AM (#9868109)
    (http://david.djsiska.cz/)
    iTunes is not an X windows app. That's why porting it to Linux won't be much easier than porting to Windows.

    Oh and the parent is moderated interesting! No it's not it's rubbish. Repeat after me Aqua is not X! CoreAudio is not ALSA (or OSS)!!!

    Yes Mac OS X has got BSD kernel, but 95% of things above that level (exlcluding OpenGL) are proprietary Apple stuff and so a nearly full blown port is requeried from Mac OS X to Linux! Nowadays programs like iTunes use more then fopen(...); and printf(...).
    [ Parent ]
  • Re:Why would I use it? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Quobobo (709437) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @07:45AM (#9868136)
    You are not the only Linux user in the world. Some of them might even have these "iPods" you mention.
    [ Parent ]
  • Re:Hmmm (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Valar (167606) <robertprehnNO@SPAMyahoo.com> on Tuesday August 03 2004, @07:45AM (#9868140)
    You know, I've never found artists not getting a very big cut as a good excuse to not pay them at all...
    [ Parent ]
    • Re:Hmmm by anonicon (Score:3) Tuesday August 03 2004, @08:07AM
      • Re:Hmmm (Score:4, Insightful)

        by FuzzzyLogik (592766) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @08:35AM (#9868393)
        (http://www.unlogikal.net/)
        i've bought 140 songs from itms. probably a good 40 or 50 of them were from the pepsi promotion. but with my klipsch pro media speakers they don't sound bad either. my monsoon stereo in my car seems to like them too because it sounds like any other cd. ya.. i agree 128kbps is kinda low and i wish they'd raise it to 160kbps or 192kbps but oh well. this gives me a way to buy single songs from those cd's that have 1 or 2 good songs on them and not spend $10-15 to get those 1 or 2 good songs. even if they quality isn't cd quality i still saved myself a crap load of money by buying them this way. if you looked through my itms smart folder you'd notice that it's all 1 or 2 songs by an artist and not full cd's. I still buy the full cd's from a store like best buy or cdnow.com. but when it comes to a couple songs on a cd that sucks other than those couple songs.. i'll take the DRMed low quality than paying $10-15 for them.
        [ Parent ]
        • Re:Hmmm by MetaMarty (Score:1) Tuesday August 03 2004, @12:40PM
          • Re:Hmmm by Smurf (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @08:55PM
      • Re:Hmmm (Score:5, Funny)

        Repeat after me: "iTunes is not just a music store."

        Good, I knew you could do it.
        [ Parent ]
      • Re:Hmmm by nuggetman (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @10:47AM
      • Re:Hmmm by sabNetwork (Score:3) Tuesday August 03 2004, @11:45AM
    • Re:Hmmm by mcc (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @07:39PM
  • Re:Linux is about open standards (Score:5, Informative)

    by Mant (578427) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @08:09AM (#9868248)
    (http://www.mants-lair.org.uk/)

    Contrary to popular belief, you don't have an inherent right to music, just like the RIAA has no right to sales. Listen to non RIAA bands, or go out and make your own music.....

    I should have a right to the music I have paid for though. That's what anti-DRM people are usually complaining about.

    [ Parent ]
  • Re:Hmmm (Score:1)

    by FuzzzyLogik (592766) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @08:20AM (#9868313)
    (http://www.unlogikal.net/)
    that whole page is full of rubbish. the problem isn't the artists getting zero money, it's the contract they signed with their record company. now the record company dictates how much money they get. that's their own fault.
    [ Parent ]
  • Re:SWEET...? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 03 2004, @08:29AM (#9868349)
    Umm your it was such a terrible program line is missing a few things - like what was so terrible about it.

    I have used every music jukebox app available and prefer itunes over all of them because it is easy, efficient and well organized.
    [ Parent ]
    • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
  • Re:really (Score:5, Insightful)

    by PhoenixFlare (319467) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @09:05AM (#9868539)
    (Last Journal: Wednesday September 08 2004, @11:02AM)
    I personally have no interest in paying apple $1/song for a proprietary format; reencoding in ogg is not an option. Really, $1 per song is very, very expensive - considering a cd is about the same and you get a nice semi-permanent media, far higher quality audio, with artwork lyrics, etc.

    Only if you like and will listen to every single song on that hypothetical CD. If you'd rather pick and choose every track to make sure there's no dead weight that you'll always skip over, then $1 is a perfectly good price point.

    Come to think of it, $1 per song is a complete rip off. If they were ogg encoded, I might give it some consideration at .50/song.

    With how pervasive MP3 is these days, it's going to take a hell of a lot of catching up before anyone will give a damn that a relatively miniscule group of people won't listen to music that isn't ogg encoded.
    [ Parent ]
    • Re:really by Alsee (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @10:45AM
    • Re:really by kels (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @01:08PM
      • Re:really by scrypt (Score:1) Tuesday August 03 2004, @05:21PM
    • Re:really by tracker1972 (Score:1) Tuesday August 03 2004, @05:07PM
  • Re:really (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Mant (578427) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @09:05AM (#9868540)
    (http://www.mants-lair.org.uk/)

    If $1 a song is too expensive, it should come down, unless online operators start colluding. Still, it is cheap, in Europe we pay a lot more.

    Remember also Apple are only making a small profit at the moment. At $.50 they would lose money. If you have no interest, don't buy. I don't. Just accept you aren't part of their target market. I'm puzzled why people need to keep saying they wouldn't buy something, just don't buy it.

    [ Parent ]
  • Re:Why would I use it? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by 2nd Post! (213333) <gundbear@pa c b ell.net> on Tuesday August 03 2004, @09:35AM (#9868708)
    (http://nekobox.org/)
    You use it because it's the best music management app out there.

    People generally want to use the best if they can, right? Now you (and other Linux-folk) can.

    The real question is... Why wouldn't you use it? It's free, it's powerful, it's easy, it's simple!
    [ Parent ]
  • Re:big whoop (Score:2)

    by 2nd Post! (213333) <gundbear@pa c b ell.net> on Tuesday August 03 2004, @09:37AM (#9868730)
    (http://nekobox.org/)
    Well, see, with iTMS the artists will see the money, unlike allofmp3 :P
    [ Parent ]
  • Re:really (Score:3, Informative)

    by 2nd Post! (213333) <gundbear@pa c b ell.net> on Tuesday August 03 2004, @09:50AM (#9868794)
    (http://nekobox.org/)
    What does Juk have over iTunes as far as managing you music collection?

    iTunes is free (like Juke)
    iTunes is on v4.6 with the accompanying stability and polish
    iTunes has sound normalization
    iTunes has song ratings
    iTunes plays CDs, internet radio, and streaming music from other computers
    iTunes rips songs

    Unless there's a version of Juk I don't know of... Juk doesn't rip songs or play CDs?
    [ Parent ]
    • Re:really by wobblie (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @07:47PM
      • Re:really by 2nd Post! (Score:2) Tuesday August 03 2004, @09:33PM
  • by greed (112493) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @10:08AM (#9868886)
    I don't know about you, but I have yet to find a jukebox for Linux which (a) I can get to compile and (b) works anywhere near as nicely as iTunes.

    Every time I try a so-called jukebox program, I go back to xmms. For all its lack of "media management", at least it plays correctly (without clicks & pops) and doesn't crash part-way.

    I like iTunes (though, being non-American and non-European, have no iTMS music to worry about) because it is easy to use and works well. I don't want to program my computer just to listen to music.
    [ Parent ]
  • That is so silly. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SPYvSPY (166790) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @10:25AM (#9869051)
    (http://slashdot.org/)
    The claims on that website you link to are ridiculous.

    First of all, it claims that Apple basically does nothing to reap its one-third cut of the price of a song on iTunes. What about the front-end costs of bulding the iTMS backend, developing the client application (for multiple platforms) and the ongoing costs of the bandwidth? I guess that's "basically doing nothing"?


    Secondly, if a recording artist is making 11 cents per song on iTunes, isn't that 11 cents that the artist would never otherwise receive? I mean, an artists' overhead for selling on iTMS ought to consist of: (a) rehearsal and studio time, (b) mixing services, (c) hiring session musicians and maybe a famous producer or something, and (d) marketing. The label gives them an advance for all that stuff, and takes it back (and then some) in their 53 cents per song cut of sales on iTMS.


    So, once the artist has paid back the label for any advance money, every 11 cent per song sale on iTMS is pure profit, right? The artist has no ongoing expenses for selling on iTMS, right?


    And Apple has lots of really expensive ongoing overhead, right? And Apple says they're barely breaking even on iTMS today, right?

    So how is Apple screwing artists?

    [ Parent ]
    • Re:That is so silly. by Samhaine (Score:1) Tuesday August 03 2004, @03:22PM
    • Re:That is so silly. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by huchida (764848) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @04:53PM (#9872524)
      So how is Apple screwing artists?

      You're absolutely right, Apple is not screwing artists. To all you downhillbattle trolls, see if you can grasp this concept: iTunes makes their deal with the entity that holds the rights to the song. If the artist signed their life and rights away to the label, then they have no choice as to how the music is distributed and what cut they take. It's a terrible shame that the music labels do proudly and routinely screw over their artists, but it's not Apple's responsibility to take a stand and start the revolution, no more than it's Tower Records' or Amazon.com's.

      Now, there are artists on iTunes who aren't on a major label and take a bigger cut for themselves. If you support them-- or similar DIY business models-- then maybe, just maybe more and more will realize that they don't have to be a part of the RIAA machine.
      [ Parent ]
  • Re:really (Score:2, Insightful)

    by colanut (541823) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @10:28AM (#9869074)
    (http://www.unm.edu/~colanut/)
    Come to think of it, $1 per song is a complete rip off. If they were ogg encoded, I might give it some consideration at .50/song.

    I've always considered $1 for a good song to be a great deal when thrift store record shopping. If the album contains 1 good song (good being a relative term) then I've done pretty well. Even better if I average that ratio over the course of a day's finds.

    Now with iTMS, I am pretty much guaranteed that ratio. I know what song I'm getting and its usually one I've been wanting for a while. To me it is worth it. Also you don't have to buy a whole album or buy from RIAA members. It really is that easy. But if you don't want to do either, fine, but I get tired of those who pronounce judgment against those of us who do find it useful.

    [ Parent ]
  • by nuggetman (242645) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @10:41AM (#9869151)
    (http://www.deadkitty.org/)
    Where is their DRM being tampered with here? All this is doing is running a Windows app on a different platform
    [ Parent ]
  • by Ars-Fartsica (166957) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @11:14AM (#9869373)
    Why did you even post this comment? Well golly, if you don't own an iPod, this means nothing to you! What an astounding conclusion. And of course you are right that CodeWeavers should wait for you and you alone to jump on the bandwagon before they start work. My God, why didn't I think of that?
    [ Parent ]
  • Re:Hmmm (Score:3, Insightful)

    by sabNetwork (416076) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @11:49AM (#9869597)
    Saying that artists only receive $0.11 per song or less isn't just unperceptive, it's wrong.

    Most artists have up-front contracts with their labels, paying them millions in advance. Musicians don't make their profits from album commissions.

    --
    [ Parent ]
  • Re:really (Score:1)

    by xenoandroid (696729) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @11:53AM (#9869641)
    (http://www.xenouniverse.com/)
    An entire CD costs $10, a single song $1. If you only like certain songs on the CD you buy them separately, you save money from buying the entire album, that's the point. If you do like the entire CD, well most CDs on iTMS cost more than $10 if you buy the hard copy.
    [ Parent ]
  • by hkb (777908) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @01:26PM (#9870415)
    Uhm, I wonder what's wrong with your dual 2ghz G5, because iTunes absolutely flies on my dual 2ghz G5. You didn't downgrade the RAM to 128mb, did you?
    [ Parent ]
  • by pjludlow (707302) on Tuesday August 03 2004, @04:44PM (#9872448)
    The name iTunes refers to what it does - plays tunes (music). It has never been meant for video, although you can now have music videos through iTMS, and they could easily incorporate video because Quicktime is running the show underneath the GUI.

    Why the crap do you want to make a thousand folders to put each individual song/movie in so that you can search them? In OSX I could do the same and search in the finder for "Rated-G Animated Movies" following your method of approach and still come up with the same results possibly faster. Using tags or metadata is much better to organize then making folders.

    I can't say anything about your PC, but I have a Dual 2.0Ghz G5 and have iTunes running most of the time and it doesn't make a dent in slowing down what I'm doing. I work on Photoshop mostly and usually am not working on a file less then 100 MB. Buy some more RAM.

    I can't comment on the iTMS quality as I haven't purchased anything. I do have 65 GBs of music on my drive though, and a 128 kbps AAC is roughly the same as a 160 kbps mp3 to my ears. I rip at 192 kbps mp3 though for compatibilitys sake.

    And are people really asking for Ogg playback? Out of /. I don't hear much about it. The average person knows mp3, if I even try to explain AAC to them they get confused, so I tell them to think of it as mp4 and of course the higher number helps them see it as better (I do know what it is, so you don't have to tell me.)
    [ Parent ]
  • 22 replies beneath your current threshold.