Whats the big Deal with iTunes?

[Epilonsama]

We all know it, theres ppl saying that iTunes is the best media player out there, and then i start thinking wait a minute theres lot of better media players out there in Windows there's Winamp and in linux theres even more options like Amarok, so im asking myself why the hell ppl use iTunes?

[Frak]

Because, ist form teh bst comp. evr. Apple si teh cooolist.
Seriously, I think its just advertising. People seem to think everything made by Apple is the defacto standard cool.

[FuturePilot]

I'm not sure myself. It's slow and it's a resource hog. It's also one step away from spyware IMO.

[Adamant1988]

I personally enjoy iTunes. The interface is nice, and the integration with the iTunes store is also nice.

[NoSmokingBandit]

when ipods first came out you had to have iTunes to use it. Apple loves being proprietary i guess. Now, of course, people have used iTunes because they had to for so long they think it is the best without any knowledge on any other program.

[super breadfish]

It's the default iPod software so it's bound to be popular.

As for for the store, I don't actually know. All the iPod users I know get their music off torrents......so much for ease of use.

[Ultra Magnus]

I have a personal vendetta against itunes! - I got it with my ipod so I'm reasonably assured it came from a reputable source but when I realised that I disliked it and tried to uninstall it - It wouldn't let me!

You know when you used to find a virus on windows and it would take you all day trying to delete it and get rid of it completely off your machine, well that was my itunes experience - Even after I uninstalled it, Searched for all possible itunes related files and deleted them, itunes was still there in the form of messages telling me to update it! - Garrr - I couldn't get rid of it! - Windows was in need of the biannual reinstall anyway so I just decided to hose my system and vowed never again to be tempted to use itunes ever again!

[Nezing]

I came across this site.Please dont do anything!!! until you have read all the site info.


http://ipodlinux.org/Main_Page


Just for the record,my ipod was pre-loaded,off a family pc using Windohs.All the media tracks are owned by me however.Honest. :)


In Ubuntu,I use Songbird to play my HDD stored media files:

http://www.songbirdnest.com/

[Ozor Mox]

I don't like iTunes very much. I used to like Windows Media Player, but the new version is just horrendous.

I do however love Rhythmbox. Very simple and efficient interface and it works flawlessly. If I wanted something more full-featured I'd download Amarok, but I don't.

[eljoeb]

I don't like iTunes very much. I used to like Windows Media Player, but the new version is just horrendous.

I actually kind of liked the new windows media player. I hadn't ever upgraded and then when I reformatted to put Ubuntu on, I found it on my system. It seemed very polished and I liked the way it did things. I do prefer Amarok though. Windows media player is what I use for music on my windows install. But then again, I've never had the windows nightmares that apparently this entire forum has had.

[aysiu]

I didn't like it at first, but then I got used to it. It's not really as bad as some people make it out to be. It does what it's supposed to. It interfaces with the iTunes Music Store. It syncs with the iPod. It rips CDs. It keeps track of playlists and such.

Of course, now that I've moved to Ubuntu, I've gotten used to Rhythmbox and Quodlibet, and I like certain features that iTunes doesn't offer me (lyrics fetching, folder scanning--i.e., being in control of the folder structure, queueing songs, global keyboard shortcuts).

I don't see why people see the need to bash iTunes, though. It's a fine music player.

[SunnyRabbiera]

I agree aysiu, itunes is a great app.
I like it better then say winamp, but dont like it as much as core music player on windows.
but amarok on linux beats it in my opinion, I think amarok is the best music player I have ever used.

[starcraft.man]

I don't see why people see the need to bash iTunes, though. It's a fine music player.

Come on now I don't think it's that complicated.

1) iTunes is the single largest vector for online distributed DRMed music onto any PC via the music store (third largest in the US now). It has served now over 3 Billion DRM filled songs to it's customers, minus a handful of EMI that are DRM free. That in itself is enough to warrant some ire from folks who despise such schemes and restrictions.

2) Secondly, it's Apple. Lot's of people simply don't like them or any of their products for numerous reasons, not least of which is point 1, as well as hardware lock in via their OS.

That said, I don't think everyone should go around bashing zealously iTunes and Apple constantly... nor are those reasons/defenses for doing so. I do think they are sound reasons for not using Apple products in entirety if that's what you think (like me, happy to have been Apple free all my life. I just don't like them as a company, as well as the choices they've made.) and promoting alternatives to other people when possible. Oh and yes, I really have been 100% Apple free including no iPods, some people don't believe me when I say that.

As for iTunes the program itself. Ya, it's a bit over hyped like a lot of other products... I've seen it in action and it's not that special. It does a lot of things right and completely misses some others (as pointed out by Aysiu). In the end, just another music player/organizer with the Apple logo and DRM added in. I'm sticking to my Banshee for music/netcasts**

**A little pet peeve of mine I picked up from listening to Leo Laporte. He calls podcasts, netcasts, in order for people to realize Apple doesn't own podcasting nor do you need Apple software to listen to them, all you need is the net and an RSS aggregator/player. That hasn't however stopped Apple from near monopolizing the term itself (through brand association with the word pod) or collecting all netcasts at the store. Whether or not that is a good or bad thing is debatable, I find it less than ideal that Apple has such strong sway over netcasting as a whole.

[Polygon]

i used to use itunes, its a pretty good music player.

, and i also dont feel bad about download itunes store music as i found a nifty little program which i wont name here (pm me if you want it) that strips the encrypted parts of the itunes m4p file so it becomes just a regular AAC mp4 music file, which you can convert to ogg or whatever.

[Frak]

Come on now I don't think it's that complicated.

1) iTunes is the single largest vector for online distributed DRMed music onto any PC via the music store (third largest in the US now). It has served now over 3 Billion DRM filled songs to it's customers, minus a handful of EMI that are DRM free. That in itself is enough to warrant some ire from folks who despise such schemes and restrictions.

2) Secondly, it's Apple. Lot's of people simply don't like them or any of their products for numerous reasons, not least of which is point 1, as well as hardware lock in via their OS.

That said, I don't think everyone should go around bashing zealously iTunes and Apple constantly... nor are those reasons/defenses for doing so. I do think they are sound reasons for not using Apple products in entirety if that's what you think (like me, happy to have been Apple free all my life. I just don't like them as a company, as well as the choices they've made.) and promoting alternatives to other people when possible. Oh and yes, I really have been 100% Apple free including no iPods, some people don't believe me when I say that.

As for iTunes the program itself. Ya, it's a bit over hyped like a lot of other products... I've seen it in action and it's not that special. It does a lot of things right and completely misses some others (as pointed out by Aysiu). In the end, just another music player/organizer with the Apple logo and DRM added in. I'm sticking to my Banshee for music/netcasts**

**A little pet peeve of mine I picked up from listening to Leo Laporte. He calls podcasts, netcasts, in order for people to realize Apple doesn't own podcasting nor do you need Apple software to listen to them, all you need is the net and an RSS aggregator/player. That hasn't however stopped Apple from near monopolizing the term itself (through brand association with the word pod) or collecting all netcasts at the store. Whether or not that is a good or bad thing is debatable, I find it less than ideal that Apple has such strong sway over netcasting as a whole.
All hail Leo the Laporte (bows down).
He's another reason why I want to move to Canada. (Just Kidding)

BOT, iTunes and Safari for Windows are way overhyped, in fact, I think for users of Windows and OSX, it may be the best. Yet I think those of us that use Linux have opened up enough to realize that there are better, faster alternatives that not only serve us what we want, but doesn't tie us down to DRM.
+1 for Linux... Again...

[izanbardprince]

iTunes is mediocre bloatware at best, amazing what marketing can do.

I love how, when you play WMA files in iTunes, it transcodes the whole file into AAC and stores it in another location on your hard disk.

[Polygon]

iTunes is mediocre bloatware at best, amazing what marketing can do.

no, amazing what the ipods popularity will do, as iTunes was for a very very very long time the only thing that can sync a ipod, there are other options now, but a lot of people who arnt very good with computers will never find them.

[juxtaposed]

iTunes was horrid for me. Nothing I liked about it. It didn't even play half of my music because it likes proprietary stuff...

[50words]

iTunes is smooth, but there are a few things I don't like. It runs an iPod service at all time, which is stupid because I don't have an iPod. It requires iTuneshelper.exe to be running in order to start iTunes. I don't like "helper" apps running, especially when I don't run the program very often. It's just a waste of system resources.

But more than anything, I hate that I can't easily play an album or qeue up songs. You have to create a playlist for everything, it seems.

I think WMP is a far better player. If only Apple would let it interface with the iTunes music store (now that the iTunes store is starting to non-DRM tracks, that is).

Exaile is pretty good, but still too "application-y" for me. I like the simplicity of WinAMP, but WMP actually uses less memory, so I stopped WinAMP. Still, I like the "player" interface of WMP and WinAMP better than the "application" interface of iTunes and Exaile.

[starcraft.man]

All hail Leo the Laporte (bows down).
He's another reason why I want to move to Canada. (Just Kidding)

BOT, iTunes and Safari for Windows are way overhyped, in fact, I think for users of Windows and OSX, it may be the best. Yet I think those of us that use Linux have opened up enough to realize that there are better, faster alternatives that not only serve us what we want, but doesn't tie us down to DRM.
+1 for Linux... Again...

LOL! Ya, Leo Laporte is the man. tWiT.tv (http://www.twit.tv/) for all the old screen saver/call for help folks, he's the man. Oh and he even does a FLOSS Weekly (http://www.twit.tv/FLOSS) Netcast. He even goes out and promotes creative commons while trying to get people aware of DRM and the reasons to be against it, he's great. :)

Too bad you guys in the states can't get his show. Currently Rogers (who owns it) has only found Canadian and Australian channels to air it on (I think that's it). Ah well, maybe he will find a digital distribution means to get it out there...

[phrostbyte]

Two words... iTunes Store

There is seemingly no way to play iTunes store music on Linux. This is really bad.

[FuturePilot]

Well it barely functions correctly on my laptop because of all the bloat. And I'm not just saying that. It almost always freezes especially if you use the fancy album art thingy.

[Earthwormzim]

iTunes blows. XMMS pwns iTunes.

My list of favs:
1) XMMS
2) Winamp
3) Audacity
4) Amarok
5) ...no number 5. The above-mentioned are all that exist.

[Adamant1988]

iTunes was horrid for me. Nothing I liked about it. It didn't even play half of my music because it likes proprietary stuff...

Complaining about iTunes not playing vorbis after you built half your collection in it is not exactly the best argument. That's sort of like using Ubuntu with a poorly supported ATi card and complaining about not having full functionality. It's your fault for not looking into it first.

[Dimitriid]

give me audacious over amarok or iTunes/Media player style anyday. People do not seem to understand that you already have a great organizer for your music collection: Nautilus, Thunar, Konqueror, etc.

[mrgnash]

Beats me. When I was running Windows, I wasn't able to stand having this wretched piece of garbage on my system for more than a couple of days... the interface is clunky and confusing, and apart from the store I just couldn't see the point of it all. This is worlds away from my experience with Amarok, which was like a revelation by comparison. Still, I use Exaile and Songbird now due to their Gnome-friendliness.

[Depressed Man]

The interface and bloatness (seriously..this thing was slowing down on a Core 2 Duo with 2 GBs of RAM) had me uninstalling it before the DRM and all the other issues even became a reason for uninstalling it for me.

[Frak]

LOL! Ya, Leo Laporte is the man. tWiT.tv (http://www.twit.tv/) for all the old screen saver/call for help folks, he's the man. Oh and he even does a FLOSS Weekly (http://www.twit.tv/FLOSS) Netcast. He even goes out and promotes creative commons while trying to get people aware of DRM and the reasons to be against it, he's great. :)

Too bad you guys in the states can't get his show. Currently Rogers (who owns it) has only found Canadian and Australian channels to air it on (I think that's it). Ah well, maybe he will find a digital distribution means to get it out there...
I have it, as I subscribe to channels from Mexico, USA, Canada, Australia, and England.
It cost alot.
But, Its worth it.

[vxd_error]

Tried Amarok, banshee and Rythmbox. I dont want an eyecandy ipod application. I just need something that 1) plays songs (so i can demo what I want) 2) uploads them to my ipod (correctly not hacked and reindexed like Banshee did) 3) ability to manage playlists on the ipod. Thats it, but nobody seems to be able to do this CLEANLY. Amarok chokes every so often. Rythmbox seems to be stable but lacking features. Sigh...

[strabes]

iTunes isn't even the best media player in windows. It takes forever to start up. Foobar is so much better. It has plugins for columns, media browsers, etc, which make it far more powerful.

I think people use iTunes for the same reason they use windows. It's what everyone else uses and is considered the standard. When I used windows people gave me weird looks when I say I didn't use iTunes; the same looks I get when I tell them I don't use Windows.

[Frak]

I agree, foobar is at least, IHMO, 10 Million times better than anything out there. It does what it's supposed too, thats all I care about. Plus it starts up in a millisecond, and is super light.
+1 for foobar. :)
I wished it ran under Wine, I would be grateful.

[Polygon]

you can play ogg vorbis files in itunes, you just have to install a quicktime plugin and then itunes will play it... but a ipod wont (unless you install rockbox)

[simonalpha]

I don't like iTunes, doesn't help my quest for global domination with it's licensing restrictions.
From the iTunes EULA:

You also agree that you will not use these products for any purposes prohibited by United States law, including, without limitation, the development, design, manufacture or production of missiles, or nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.

:frown:
Amarok all the way

[Frak]

I don't like iTunes, doesn't help my quest for global domination with it's licensing restrictions.
From the iTunes EULA:

:frown:
Amarok all the way
Curse you Apple, my plan for world domination has been foiled! :twisted:
:lolflag: