iTunes Linux

I wonder if Microsoft are paying Apple to not make iTunes for Linux.

I also wonder how much.

You can only access the iTunes Store through iTunes and there's no Linux version of iTunes. There are software solutions for using an iPod with Linux but none will overcome the issue of not being able to use the iTunes Store. You might be able to get iTunes for Windows to run on Linux using a helper program such as WINE but the expertise you need is probably not to be found here on the Apple discussions. You'd be best advised to post in one of the Linux forums for ways to manage an iPod on a Linux distribution. Begin by posting in the forum for Ubuntu. Here's a page I found by putting "iPod on Linux" into a typical search engine, it's a bit old but it's a start, you'll find many more: Ubuntu and Your iPod

Hi, I'm a linux user too, I recommend Virtualbox to run iTunes on a Windows Virtual machine. You're able to install the latest iTunes, use the store as well as sync with my iPhone/iPod this way.

Only snag is getting a copy of windows... although Windows RC is free so you can try that out for now.

But my question is will Apple support Linux? even just a distribution like Ubuntu. 😟

will Apple support Linux?

Apple will not support running iTunes under Linux at this time. Whether they will ever decide it makes business sense to port iTunes, QuickTime and the rest of the software to Linux and does so, no one here can say.

joaowojwicz wrote:
Well, i cannot find a session for "open-discussion", so i'll post here.
Hello, i recently won an iPod nano 3g, and i use Linux, because i don't have money to buy a Windows or a Mac. How i can sync my iPod with my library? And iTunes Store?
Please, give me a solution, and please, don't reply "buy a windows".
Thanks a lot,
joaowojwicz

Perhaps you need to arrange to win a Mac as well 🙂

Other than suggesting you consider buying a second-hand Mac, from a Linux perspective you could look at WINE (Wine Is Not an Emulator) which allows running some Windows applications under Linux without actually installing Windows itself. WINE is free.

Have a look at http://appdb.winehq.org/appview.php?iAppId=1347

In theory and to some extent in practise you would be able to use WINE to run iTunes for Windows under Linux. Typically WINE cannot cope with the latest versions of applications since it always has to play catchup with application changes.

For your information, apart from the standard Linux version of Wine, there is also a free version for Mac OS X called "DarWINE" (Unix/Linux people love their puns). There is also a commercial version for Mac OS X called CrossOver. Obviously in this case neither is needed to run iTunes on a Mac, and equally obviously there will never be a version of WINE for Windows!

Finally you could look at Songbird see http://getsongbird.com/ there is an add-on for it to allow it to manage iPods.