Latest Version of iPodLinux Reviewed

Demolition writes "The latest release of the iPod-Linux Installer has been reviewed on Accelerate Your Mac!, a popular Mac performance/modification site. As mentioned in previous Slashdot articles, the iPodLinux Project is an open source venture devoted to porting Linux to Apple's iPod. In a nutshell, the reviewer finds that the iPodLinux Project has progressed a long way from its early proof-of-concept days."

Comments

Re:This has to be...

[tepples]

you can now easily play .ogg files on iPod. and also .wma and other audio formats supported in linux.

Not necessarily. Is the iPod fast enough for the Tremor decoder? And isn't the .wma decoder written in x86 assembly language, which the ARM processors in the iPod do not run at full speed?

Re:This is quite exciting.

[seanadams.com]

I disagree - probably the only things that would be developed on top of iPod linux would be entirely new apps. Porting things like audio codecs or rewriting a work-alike of Apple's simple UI is trivial in comparison to the task of getting an OS with complete hardware driver support working on a custom embedded system.

It would be simpler to reinvent those things than to try and get Apple's code to run atop Linux (through emulation of Apple's underlying firmware).

The only reason not to GPL it is if you want to make it easier for Apple (or others) to reincorporate your improvements. That might be a good thing depending on your goals. I'd say porting Linux to the hardware is interesting per se, and could yield a groundswell of other OSS support - Apple has bigger fish to fry right now.

Also realize: there are some generally accepted (but not explicit) rules that differentiate "derived" vs "aggregate" works when it comes to GPL. It is unlikely that using a GPL'd OS would preclude higher level apps like phone books from being offered under whatever license the author chooses.

Re:Only cool until Apple lowers the axe

[DiscoOnTheSide]

Hmmm... Let's see...

Safari, their own web browser... I seem to recall they took code from Konqueror, made it better in terms of rendering things better and more compatible... released Safari (closed-source), then gave their changes back to the Konqueror people

Rendezvous. You may know this as ZeroConf. Yes, it existed before they did Rendezvous, but no one did it well. and they released their code back to the ZeroConf people to make the implementation and API better. They also made SDKs so people from every OS can use Rendezvous technology and work with Macs. Did MS help the Samba people?

No company that shoots to make a profit is going to be 100% open source. No one has found a reliable business model on how to do it and stay alive more than a year. Apple does make closed software (and protects it, rightfully so, thats where their INCOME comes from. thats what keeps you on THEIR Unix, instead of taking their stuff and running off to any Linux distro that runs on PowerPC.) and ok, so you can't see the code, but the APIs are so well written, that just about anything Apple makes, I can plug into with my OWN software. How does MS let you plug into shit? With VB? Feh. They make things as easy as possible for developers, and give back to those they borrow from (the Watson thing was a load of crap, there was nothing "unique" about that, and the guy from Konfabulator is a whiny bitch cause someone else made widgets for OS X and did it in a way that doesn't eat up 95% of my CPU at idle.)

While Apple IS a for-profit company, and they HAVE at times used legal threats to keep their products "safe" its mostly out of the purity of the mac "experience", not "shit, we're losing money on that".

I don't see Apple getting too pissed off about this one though... If they aren't against people running Linux on their macs, why would they care about the iPods? Remember, the majority of the cash Apple sees is from hardware sales. The times when Apple gets pissy is when you meddle with their SOFTWARE. This keeps their software on the iPod intact (sort-of) so I don't see them getting their panties in a bind.

But if you want to demonize Apple for trying to make a buck even though they've done more to try and help open source software than most of the other major players in the industry... go right ahead. it just make YOU look like the rabbid zealot for anything anti-Mac.

Re:Only cool until Apple lowers the axe

[Mononoke]

Okay, so with your link you have proven my point... look at how many projects Apple *takes from* and look at how many they *maintain or contribute to*. How useful are their OSS projects to non-OS X users?

Ok, so where's your list of projects you "maintain or contribute to", and how much shorter is that than the list of OSS projects you simply use?

Re:Interesting, but why?

[Enahs]

I agree, but for a different reason: why Linux? Why not some lighterweight OS than the Linux 2.4.x kernel?

Don't get me wrong; I like the oh-look-someone-ported-Linux-to-a-toaster-isnt-tha t-neat stories as much as the next Slashdotter. But I do have to scratch my head on this one.

RE: The other replies covered most points, but

[King_TJ]

please, tell me this? Why would you think "Slashdotters" wouldn't/shouldn't like Apple in the first place, considering the size and relative diversity of this "community"?

The only machine I use anymore than runs Linux at all is my MythTV box in my home entertainment center, and I'm just about to can it (too much instability with my particular hardware configuration, and I lack time to fight with it any further right now). Nonetheless, I'm still pretty much a daily Slashdot reader.

With your logic (Apple is not our friend, simply because they build/sell a proprietary product), absolutely none of us should ever tolerate a game console. Sega, X-Box, Playstation, GameCube... all the same. Evil, proprietary hardware and software bundled together in all of them!

Considering my years and years of trying to run Linux, along with a long period of avidly using OS/2 Warp, a brief stint working with BeOS, and running pretty much every flavor of Windows (and DOS before that), I think I'm far from the stereotypical "Mac zealot" - yet I do own a total of 3 Macs now (one is an older beige G3 all-in-one, but it still runs!). I'd have to say my experience with the Macs and primarily OS X is more enjoyable overall than practically all the other operating systems I worked with. Sure, it's not "free software" and *far* from free/cheap hardware, but I feel like I got my money's worth.

Linux was just the thing when I needed dedicated servers (web, ftp, etc.), but as a workstation, it's still lackluster for me. I have no problem paying out some money for a commercial (proprietary, even) product when it works as-advertised. Macs generally do.

Recording audio and iPod-to-iPod sharing

[Linuxathome]

Possible iPod-to-iPod file transfer. This is currently under development, and is very possible. Not only will the iPod be able to access other iPods, running Linux or not, but it will be able to read from and write to Firewire and USB 2.0 mass storage devices.

Sounds like the iPod will trump the USB external master storage device that slashdot just recently mentioned to us. Wouldn't it be cool to be able to move media from a USB all-in-one media reader to the iPod directly without the need of a computer? You could be taking pictures with a 16megapixel Canon and not worry about storage space as long as you have your iPod around. I'm gonna keep my eye on the development of this program. On top of that, recording audio with the left earphone bud is also another cool feature.