Advice on Ubuntu features

[betterspud]

I've recently got hold of a new-ish laptop, which runs Vista and I hate it. Have tried out Ubuntu in the past, but it wasn't practical to use it on my desktop, due to needing to run a lot of stuff that Ubuntu as yet does not support (mainly AutoCAD).
However, with the laptop, I am not quite so restricted and was considering giving it another go.

Can anyone tell me whether there is any support for iTunes on Ubuntu (Need it to update and sync podcasts to my iPod Touch) or whether there is some other music manager that has capability to connect to iPod?

Also, are there as yet any decent CAD alternatives, that can, at the very least, allow me to open AutoCAD .dwg files, purely to browse the drawings and maybe convert to PDF or print the layouts? Ideally, I would like to be able to edit the drawing and save it as if in AutoCAD itself, but am unsure whether this has been achieved on Linux thus far.

Any advice or links to information would be gratefully received.

Cheers

;)

[roquefilipe]

I think Autocad can work with wine but I am not sure. I consulted some pages and it seems to work.
About Autocad alternatives, www.osalt.com suggests Qcad, BRL-CAD and Archimeds ( http://www.osalt.com/autocad ). I have not try them but they might do the trick.

Check the same site for itunes alternatives: http://www.osalt.com/itunes

[ByteJuggler]

For reference here (http://appdb.winehq.org/appview.php?iAppId=86) is the Wine AppDB page for Autocad.

[kostkon]

Can anyone tell me whether there is any support for iTunes on Ubuntu (Need it to update and sync podcasts to my iPod Touch) or whether there is some other music manager that has capability to connect to iPod?
Most of the major media players - like Rhythmbox, Amarok, Banshee, etc. - have iPod support. For specialised iPod managers, you can try gtkpod or Floola.

You can also try running iTunes with Wine, check here (http://appdb.winehq.org/appview.php?iAppId=1347).

[django0909]

+1 for gtkpod, fantastic app, tonnes better than iTunes in my opinion :)

[betterspud]

Cheers guys. Sounds very promising. I'm gonna set up dual boot for now, just to see how things work out, then hopefully, I can rid myself of the cursed Vista piece of crap!

I've downloaded and burned off the latest Ubuntu distro, but it doesn't seem to want to play. Tried running it as a live disk, just to have a look-see, and it got so far, then simply refused to go any further. Sat staring at a blank screen for ages... Also had the same problem when attempting to install from it. Hmm... Gonna have to do some research methinks.

Hopefully, I'll be able to get it all set up ok soon.

Thanks again for all your advice. :D