LINUX on iPod?!? Rumor or fact???

Hi, Dave.

The iPodLinux project has been around for a while, and yes, it does allow you to install Linux on the iPod.

Just a few things, though:

The benefits are there, although they come with some negative factors. There are other (arguably cooler) games. As a matter of fact, if you have the patience, you can install Doom on it. That's very cool.

You can technically play video on it. However, from my understanding, the support is very limited.

You can read text files, without the 4kb limit of the iPod's Note reader.

The cons:

Although you can run iPodLinux alongside the iPod software, it may be a warranty grey area.

The music support is total crap.

The picture/video support is severely limited.

The battery life is not great.

It's a choice for you to make. I ceratinly wouldn't do it while in warranty, the drwabacks are not worth the risk.

hudgie

Hudgie is right. There are definitely pros and cons. I've had it installed on my 3rd gen for a long time, but, have never tried video. Mostly, I just boot into it when I'm in the mood for games, which is somewhat rare. Music actually doesn't play well in it on my 3rd gen. I don't know if that has improved as I haven't updated the version for ages.

I've also heard before that iPods previous to the 5th gen iPod do not have the physical capabilities of playing video... I find that hard to believe. I think a simple software update would allow video because if you can store thousands of photos and play music while viewing them, what more is video???

Well, video requires to display about 30 photos per second (a greater resolution than the current iPod Color Display / Photo models), along with audio, and you have to decode the video, which is encoded in a specific format that reduces its disk size but requires more processing than just what is necessary to display the image. For example, the new video iPod decodes video encoded in h.264 or MPEG4, which offer a very good quality for a small file size, but require a lot of processing. The iPod can decode h.264 with a resolution of up to 320 by 240 pixels. For a better resolution, such as 1920 by 1080 (HD), you would need a G5 Mac (!!), although some people have managed to playback 1080i HD on their G4s, personally I've never been above 720i (1280 by 720) HD ...

So you can probably gain video by using 3rd-party firmware / software, but the performance may be quite poor, and you will likely not be able to playback h.264, although other formats which often have a larger file size for the same duration and offer a quality below that of h.264 could play.

From what I understand, there is a risk to installing it as it needs to modify firmware. Again, that is my understanding. On the flip side, I've been running podzilla on my 3G 40 GB for quite some time without issue. Unfortunately, should anything happen... you're on you're own. I'm pretty sure Apple wouldn't cover it.