iTunes For Linux
- August 03, 2004
- 2 comments
There’s an article at Slashdot that says iTunes on Linux will be available shortly, but with no thanks to Apple. A group called CodeWeavers is releasing their next version of Crossover Office, which supports iTunes.
Here’s a user’s screenshot of iTunes on Linux.
I’m not sure why Apple never released iTunes for Linux. They would’ve gained some popularity points and support from the Linux and Open Source crowds. Now we’ll see what Apple’s response is to this. Hopefully Apple will either support this or come out with their own version for Linux.
Well since Apple doesn’t charge money for iTunes, there can’t be a monetary reason for keeping it off of Linux.
The Linux userbase is as large as the Mac userbase, or will be soon, so they’re cutting out a potentially large part of the market by not supporting iTunes Linux.
Linux is in no way competitive with OS X in terms of all-around kick-assness. Yes, Linux is stable and looks ok, but it’s a ##### when things go wrong. It’s a hassle to get everything working right. It’s nowhere near as user-friendly as OS X. And OS X Tiger is only going to widen the gap.
That said, the latest versions of SuSE and Mandrake are looking decent. Decent enough to convert some Windoze users. Their system management apps look and run well and make system administration much easier. I think Linux is more (much more) competitive with Windoze than OS X.
I’m sure this has all been well discussed at /., but I haven’t read that yet. Plus, I can post my comments here and be guaranteed to have the entire community see them, so here goes
Why no iTunes on Linux? Well, remember, the only reason they have iTunes on Windows is so that they can sell their service to a market about 20 times as big as they would get if they stuck to Apple alone. But there is a downside for them: once again, Windows users have no great incentive to “Switch”, because the awesomest music service/player/whatever-the-hell-iTunes-is is available for their platform.
Now move on to Linux. The competition rule applies here, except that the increase in iTunes usership that a Linux version would provide would not offset the potential increase in competitiveness of Linux in the consumer OS space (hey, now Linux has iTunes, maybe it’s worth checking out!).
And if I’m wrong about that, well, porting an app to another OS is a non-trivial task. Probably less of a chore than porting to Windows, which isn’t even a Unix, but the X Windows and Quartz are completely different. Doable, yes, but where is the incentive for Apple to go through such an effort?