iTunes For Linux, Thanks To CodeWeavers

pizen writes "The folks over at CNet have the scoop that a new version of CrossOver Office (3.1) now supports Apple's iTunes. The preview version of the software is being tested and is currently only available to current CodeWeavers customers. They expect a final version to be available later this year." Reader snowtigger contributes a link to this screenshot. White demonstrated iTunes on a Linux machine at OSCON as well; a rendering glitch marred that demo, but he was still able to demonstrate playing back a song which he'd purchased from iTMS using iTunes on Linux.

Comments

Finally!!!

[h4rm0ny]

This is has honestly been the only reason that I still boot up in Windows.

Also seems I not the only one:
"iTunes has been our No. 1 most requested application," CodeWeavers CEO Jeremy White said in a statement.

And presumably a free open source version cannot be far behind? Now, if I can just take this opportunity to ask the iTunes people to please add some (a lot) more to their back catalogue then the world will become perfect.

Re:Finally!!!

[pebs]

Lacking in what way exactly?

The Winamp playlist is much easier and more powerful than what iTunes has. iTunes' "Party Shuffle", gives you some of this functionality, though, but before they added that, there was nothing to match it.

Seriously, download Winamp and give it a try. I have compared with the latest iTunes, and I find Winamp to be more feature-rich and flexible. A bit more for "power-users" though, so I can see why some people may not like the interface.

Not to say iTunes sucks or anything, its a great player, and should satisfy most people. If I owned a Mac, I'd probably be using it. But I simply find Winamp 5 to offer more powerful features and a more useful interface.

As for the iTunes feature you mentioned...

BTW, Winamp does have ripping/burning in the Pro version, but that does cost $15 and I can't vouch for it. There is also an iPod plugin, but I can't vouch for it because I'm not willing to buy that overpriced, overrated player.

I don't particularly see having an online store integration as a good thing when you are locked into one store for that integration.

Re:Finally!!!

[2nd Post!]

Well, if you don't need it, you don't need it.

I love the search capabilities.
I love the 'smart playlist' which can filter songs by number of times played, last played, ID tags, and ratings.
I love not needing to worry about organization. It's like not caring which track, sector, and platter my data is on; there's no need to care when the OS takes care of that detail. All I need to know is enough meta-data for the OS to find the file.

Sharing is cool, streaming is cool, and so is the music store!

Re:Finally!!!

[schussat]

The story doesn't mention the hardware side of things, but it's an important issue: Will I be able to sync my iPod through Codeweaver/iTunes?

-schussat

This is a good thing

[tourettes]

I have been in love with iTunes since I first used it in Windows late last year, I have all my music in it, and allow it to keep everything organized. While in Windows, everything is nice and neat and tidy, however, as soon as i switched to Linux and loaded up my tunes in XMMS, or Juk, or Kaffeine or any other multimedia player, all the titles and ID3 tags would look messed up.

While some of the open source projects out there have been doing a great job emulating iTunes, none have yet to duplicate the easy of use and great interface that Apple gives us. I wouldn't say this is the only reason why I use Windows, but I would say that while in Linux, I rarely listen to any of my music because I find it too difficult.

Thank you code weavers, and I will be looking forward to the release.

AirTunes?

[mccalli]

Any news if this will work with the Airport Express? I'm guessing yes, because I'd imagine AirTunes to be a rendezvous (err... I mean OpenTalk)-based service working at the application level, rather than requiring any extra low level networking code. Still, worth a check.

Cheers,
Ian

Re:slightly off topic, but...

[mccalli]

What is a good program to use to batch change all ID3 tags to match the file name, or better yet, to match the file name minus the ".mp3"?

Which OS? I used to use Tag&Rename when I ran my music stuff under Windows - excellent program. Don't know for Linux, and under OS X I just use iTunes to manage stuff.

Cheers,
Ian

Hidden Significance

[ajs318]

Don't tell anybody, but this must actually break the iTunes DRM good and hard. CrossOverOffice almost certainly uses a standard Linux sound driver to get the sound data to the sound chip. This is bound to mean /dev/dsp, which is "hackable" in the sense that anyone with root access can snarf the digital audio data between when it gets decrypted by iTunes and when it gets sent to the sound chip. You can then make unlimited unencumbered copies. Additionally, knowing that the file was uncompressed from lossy AAC compression, it should be possible to recompress it in such a way as exactly to recover the original compressed file, just sans DRM encumbrance.

The same would, of course, also go for any successful attempt to run Windows Media Player under Linux.

DRM is a pipe dream. There is a fundamental physical reason why it will never work, though a formal mathematical proof escapes me right now. It's time to stop trying to do the impossible, even if that means having to swallow the unpalatable.

Heh I have been saying this for a long time

[dcstimm]

Why Apple Needs iTunes for Linux.. PHP-Nuke As of Late, I have been looking into buying an ipod, they are so cute and sexy, but I cant get over the fact that I cant download music legally for it. You might ask me, why cant you go onto Apple's iTunes and pay for your music, well because THEY DONT support Linux! I have been using Linux for the last 5 years and I feel that it is the perfect desktop for me. It has loads of functionality and it always seems like things are getting updated, so it feels like a new experience every time I turn on my computer. (most people don't like that, but it keeps me productive). I have everything I have ever wanted in Linux, except a legal way to download music. I have even gone as far as buying a ibook to play around with macosx and use iTunes, but I was soon disappointed that I couldn't transfer my iTunes collection I had just purchased to my Linux computer. Now there is a very cool open source project called playfair, that takes the DRM (Digital Rights Management) Software out of the AAC file that you download from apple and allows you to play it on your Linux computer. But this is again not legal, and it could be used for wrong doing. Apple doesn't understand if they would have supported the Linux community in the first place, they wouldn't have programs like this all over the Internet. The only thing they have done to support Linux at all is creating a ton of open source software that helps the open source community, but not Linux in general. I would even go as far as saying there are probably more Linux users out there than Mac users and it only hurts Apple not to create a Linux version of iTunes. Come on apple help stop Piracy and come out with iTunes for Linux!

One step forward, and two behind

[QCompson]

Great... now only if I could get firewire to work easily and reliably on linux.

Also don't forget

[Anonymous Coward]

that it allows you to use windows plugins in mozilla/konqueror etc. browsers in linux.

I love being able to use embedded quicktime in firefox in linux =) It rules.

Re:on Linux?

[AstroDrabb]

which was running on emulator running on Linux! So we still have no Linux iTunes. We have only emulator support for Windows version of iTunes on Linux.

According to Wine

Wine is an Open Source implementation of the Windows API on top of X and Unix.

Think of Wine as a Windows compatibility layer. Wine does not require Microsoft Windows, as it is a completely alternative implementation consisting of 100% Microsoft-free code, but it can optionally use native system DLLs if they are available

Then name Wine stands for Wine Is Not an Emulator. Wine does not emulate windows, it is an implementation of the Win 32 API. So iTunes running on Linux is not being emulated at all. It is running natively, though it is not using default Linux API's or traditional Linux GUI tool kits. Instead it is using Windows API's that were ported to Linux. This is no different them me writting a Windows applications using GTK+, QT or wxWindows. All three of them run on Windows, they are not the default Win32 API and they do not emulate. An API is just something you program to, a set of functions, etc that you use to make a program do something. Again, repeat after me, Wine Is Not an Emulator.