So far I have talked a lot of people into using Linux. however, today I had someone ask if Itunes worked with Linux. Since I don't listen to music and I have never used Itunes, I could not answer that question. A short google search later I found that it is possible. Have any of you ever tried? If so, what flavor of Linux did you use? Right now I am just interested in the actual itunes app and not an alternative.
You are out of luck. Apple has not made a linux version of itunes and the general feeling is they will not in the foreseeable future. There are limited options for some releases of itunes running under wine or crossover, which are windows runtime emulation layers for linux, it is unreliable at best. There are ways to manage ipods but that is not your quest. Jim
I have never been successful. My workaround is to install a flavor of Windows as a virtual machine (I use Virtualbox) and then run windows and iTunes in a window on my Linux install. Apple encrypts the itunes sync data so it's nearly impossible to get a fully functioning alternative although there are a few amazing music players in Linux that can read from the ipod, ipad, iphone.
I am running PCLinuxOS 2011.6 with kernel 2.6.38.8 and the repository shows: minitunes firefly-media-server ipod-sharp and others.... I don't partake of iTunes but it looks like you can do this directly under linux. One of the above apps loads your IPod. GB
That works to manage and play music off of your device (many distros do this now) but if you have to rely on iTunes for syncing/updating of a device Apple Style, you're still out of luck. Then again, with iOS 5 and 'PC-less' use (backup to iCloud), this may become a non-issue. I've recently begun to research solutions for combining all of our home iTunes libraries into one on either my wife's mac or on a Mac Mini or other Windows based machine, then just using the wifi sync to keep all 4 ios devices in line. I current;ly use WiFi sync to my Windows 7 running in vbox.
Over the Christmas vacation I gave this another whirl... I could not get Itunes to actually work with WINE. It would install and load, and then freeze. So, I used melbo's suggestion. I build an XP image in virtualbox and it works very well. It was a nice learning experience. I have not had a need to use a VM before. Thanks again melbo!
The free version of Media Monkey is the best alternative that I have found. It syncs with every device.
