iTunes for Linux?

DarkSign wrote:
I so want an Itunes for linux. It could be just a light version, that would allow management of musics/photos/videos. Really, the other features like update of iOS, or App installing wouldn't need to be there.

Another approaching would be for Apple to kinda open just the USB specification. You know, it's not like Linux doesn't have softwares to manage iPhones/iPods. It's just that the community doesn't have the USB specification to communicate with the devices.

ok this is what I see is that people do not use Linux because there is no ITunes for Linux the so much people say that they would move over to Linux if there was ITunes for it must people just find it to hard or just could not be stuffed trying to mount there apple iPod/iPhone etc. any other way and people know with out real ITunes they can not do any updates to there apple products. Linux would have more users if ITunes was made available for Linux.

to esteban erufailon darksign,

why don't you go to the linux forums to see how to get software that is not (yet) available, many software is not available for linux.

If you want to ask Apple about iTunes for linux, go to Apple and ask.

We here are not Apple.

Success,

Lex

Linux is free, that could be why Apple only allow Mac or Windows, they care not for the people who are not sheeple 🙂

You CAN run Linux on a Mac: use Parallels Desktop and have Linux run in a virtual machine...

Crazy_Bear wrote:

Linux is free, that could be why Apple only allow Mac or Windows, they care not for the people who are not sheeple 🙂

Linux has only about 1% of the desktop market. That's a much more likely reason why Apple hasn't spent the money to port iTunes and all the underlying software (it's much more than just the iTunes application) to Linux.

And I would suggest not insulting people who choose to run Mac OS X or Windows by calling them "sheeple". There are many good reasons why people choose one of those operating systems over Linux or another OS. Just because you chose Linux doesn't make everyone else wrong.

I believe it would take ... maybe a week to get an almost-releasable version of iTunes for Linux. Mac OS is Unix-based. As in.. the complicated part is the same on both systems.

Because of IOS 5 & iCloud our chances to have iTunes on Linux are nearly impossible I mean the amount of users that use a Linux distro are nothing compared to Mac and Windows users. Plus I don't know a of Linux user that doesn't have a dual boot to be able to use windows as well. Let's face reality, it is naive of us to think that big companies have any interest in sharing their technology for free. open source is a nice idea but money is the driving engine of any business.

Granted, Linux is a small percentage of the desktop market but... It's a growing share. Users are converting from Windows at increasing rates and they are converting without purchasing new hardware.

Apple has, in addition to a fine stable of laptop, desktop, and even server systems, a very impressive array of portable devices.

My primary arguments in favor of Apple moving forward with iTunes for Linux are:

• These small devices provide a market opportunity for content sales from the iTunes store
• Competing small devices booting to Android and other OSes already have content store interfaces for Linux
• I personally know several people who are looking at competing platforms for their portable devices because iOS device management interfaces are not available for Linux.

iTunes for Linux does NOT need to be open sourced. A proprietary, closed source binary distribution is adequate to gain acceptance by the Linux user community. Additionally, a closed source distribution helps to ensure system and application security, as well as DRM.

I would encourage Apple to distribute in the Debian .deb package format used by Ubuntu, Debian, and other popular desktop Linux distributions first. Addition of the Red Hat .rpm package format would be the second most popular distribution method.

When 99.99% of your computing needs are met by one OS it is a rediculous waste of resources to dedicate 2 to 4 GB of disk space to either a dual boot or VM configuration. Add to that scenario that iTunes running in a VM - if you can get it to run - will not mount USB attached devices on the host OS.

The next sub-optimal scenario I hear from people is to have a separate Windows or Mac system on which you do all of your iTunes work. Even via remote desktop connection this is expensive and wasteful.

The absence of iTunes for Linux is one of the front line considerations I make when evaluating devices for my next phone, tablet, and / or media player.