iPods blocked from synching with Linux

According to the blog iPodminusiTunes, Apple has blocked the new iPods from synching with third party applications (i.e. anything that isn't iTunes). The most significantly affected userbase in all this is the Linux community, who've been able to upload songs to their older iPods using free software such as gtkpod and Amarok for a while now. The tweak to the new iPod database files doesn't appear to be incidental either, with a number being added to the front of the database file causing the iPod to be exclusively tied to a single copy of iTunes. Fortunately, the problem isn't beyond a little bit of reverse engineering, so Apple's rather pointless meddling could be reversed given time.

[Via BoingBoing]

[Chou @ Sep 15th 2007 8:23PM]

woah... that aint cool

[dj-kenpo @ Sep 15th 2007 9:12PM]

I second that, the my way or the high way attitude can be side stepped via hacks, but it just annoys me.

and honestly, if I'm annoyed, then mommas gonna hack even more.

stevo, you don't want to declare war on the open source community. you're in over your head kiddo.

[Niz @ Sep 16th 2007 3:19AM]

I don't use Linux but this ain't cool, why would you lower your user base, the iPod really only took off when a windows version of iTunes came about, Linux users are part of the user base too!

[anervoustwitch @ Sep 16th 2007 9:52AM]

this is not about blocking linux. this is about blocking 3rd party clients. remember the patent apple filed about disabling the ipod from charging when connected to a computer? thats not going to work with 3rd party clients. this is about responding to the calls for doing something about ipod theft.

[o rly @ Sep 15th 2007 8:27PM]

If Steve Jobs & Apple did it, they obviously did it for a good reason (does anyone know one?) Apple knows what's good for everyone...

[Mike @ Sep 15th 2007 8:32PM]

I really hope that was a joke.

[Mr. B @ Sep 15th 2007 9:38PM]

Check the batteries in your sarcasm detector.

[o rly @ Sep 16th 2007 1:30AM]

You guys apparently aren't real Apple fans.

[Ashish @ Sep 16th 2007 5:27AM]

Correction: They aren't real apple fanboys.

[Dhanik @ Sep 15th 2007 8:30PM]

They should just release a version of iTunes for Linux. My roommate uses Ubuntu and he agrees iTunes is awesome at organizing music.

[Daryl Herbert @ Sep 15th 2007 8:54PM]

The problem is implementing DRM within an open-source OS like Linux. Apple doesn't want to take the risk that hackers will be able to leverage that to a good look inside iTunes and thereby figure out how to break Apple's DRM or learn other secrets about iTunes.

[AndrewNeo @ Sep 15th 2007 9:13PM]

Daryl: What? You can see as far into binaries with Linux as you can with Windows.. besides, the DRM was already broken on Windows.

[Rob @ Sep 15th 2007 9:14PM]

Allow me to share with you what iTunes is good at:

On the positive side: organizing your music and videos on your computer, iPod, and getting nice album covers.

On the negative side: slowing down your system and running little applications in the background even when iTunes is closed and you don't have any iPod-type connected, messing with your music library and sometimes erasing some of your content without any notification, and lot of other horrible things.

I enjoy using my iPods, but never use iTunes for other than adding content into my library and/or updating my iPods. That's it. Other than that, I stay away from iTunes and make sure that there aren't any "services" running in the background for no reason at all.

And unfortunately, Apple is not alone here. Yahoo Music's player is just as bad. They're cpu hogs and like to run in the background. Why??? Don't tell me to expedite the loading process. Please. I don't mind giving an application the extra time to get started. But, when I have you closed, you better be "closed."

[zoo @ Sep 15th 2007 9:33PM]

This doesn't just affect Linux, this affects ALL 3rd party programs and anyone that doesn't want to use the invasive iTunes (mediamonkey, foobar, winamp etc.) I took off iTunes way back when after it screwed up my system and never looked back.

[David Clark @ Sep 15th 2007 9:52PM]

Jobs wants you to drop your linux box and buy a mac. That way you get to pay for what you've been getting for free all this time.

[bruckwine @ Sep 15th 2007 10:26PM]

He's a nice roommate - he knows better than to tell you the truth. Me on the other hand....

Seriously iTunes sucks as a digital media organizer - maybe tops at selling music but not much else.

[Dhanik @ Sep 15th 2007 10:42PM]

@ Bruckwine: My room mate uses both linux and windows (coz engineering college students need apps which will never be able on linux). He knows what he is talking abt.
Also, i have used linux, mac and windows OS. There are cool things about all of them and i'll never solely rely on one. So don't think i m a apple/windows fanboy. despite the fact tht iTunes is resource intensive, its really cool.

[grr @ Sep 15th 2007 10:47PM]

Well, my experience with iTunes couldn't be better. In fact, my library was totally screwed up by WMP, Winamp and similar programs; with iTunes, everything runs smooth and I never had any problems with files suddenly disappearing or anything like that. And I know a lot of people that actually feel the same way - and I'm not talking about fanboys here!

[Tom @ Sep 16th 2007 7:03AM]

I'd disagree with that, it's terrible at organizing music! You need to get it all set up properly, it just doesn't seem to be that clever at working that stuff out.... yet. I'm completely hooked on iTunes now though, I love the gapless track playing (even with mp3s), the high res album artwork, and of course, cover flow! It's a brilliant piece of work, and it's really reached quite a mature stage now. Can't wait to see what they come up with next!

[John @ Sep 16th 2007 7:37PM]

Uh, I don't know what WMP you've been using, but the way WMP works is that it goes through your "My Music" folder looking for files it can read, then groups together them all based on ID3 tags... rather like iTunes does. WMP however also allows for a lot of other nice organizing things that iTunes doesn't. That said, I still use iTunes despite its penchant for erasing album art, breaking up albums, and deleting files, if only because I've used it for a year and a half now

[fr0mundacheese @ Sep 15th 2007 8:38PM]

Jobs, the next Gates

[Ellianth @ Sep 15th 2007 9:05PM]

Care to explain that statement?

[Vexx @ Sep 15th 2007 9:22PM]

Steve Jobs, according to the fr0mundacheese, is the next Bill Gates. He's the newest bully in town; the next tyrant.

As for my opinion, I always thought Steve Jobs was that way. Contrary to popular belief, Steve doesn't care if you have a tattoo of his face on your butt.

[MARSHAK @ Sep 16th 2007 12:51PM]

jobs is more of a weiner tho. he had to wait for bill to get ready to retire to be an asshole.

[Samurai Jack @ Sep 15th 2007 8:41PM]

Boy, spin is everything.

There was never any official support for iPods/iTunes on Linux. Now that Apple has changed to a hashed database format for iTunes people are complaining about not being able to use the players with an OS that was never officially supported. It's more work for the F/OSS community, but really, why is anyone surprised that a vendor with a proprietary file format has opted to change that format without notice? We don't know why they made that change and we might never know why. But to say that Apple is suddenly locking out Linux users is a misrepresentation of the facts. The iPod was never supported on Linux to begin with.

[Dave @ Sep 15th 2007 10:23PM]

Can you think of any reason why Apple would hash the database file other than to make it a pain in the ass for third parties to update the device? I sure can't.

[johnzilla @ Sep 15th 2007 11:22PM]

@Dave:

Speed/Performance? Future software enhancements to be disclosed at a later date?

Seriously, who cares? I'm a UNIX "graybeard" from way back (over 20 years experience) and what bugs me about the F/OSS community is this strange notion they all seem to have that they're entitled to anything and everything they demand from every company in business. Well, they aren't. iTunes and iPods are Apple products. Apple is entitled to do whatever they want with them, at their discretion. Done deal. Worrying about it and imagining grand conspiracies behind every action is just a waste of time...life's too short.

[Mark @ Sep 15th 2007 8:44PM]

next step: Forcing iPods to only sync with a Mac.

[TheShadowOfX @ Sep 15th 2007 8:49PM]

Thats how they use to and still should be.

[rene @ Sep 15th 2007 9:47PM]

yeah right! and instantly loose about 80% of market share... steve give green light to wintel itunes because the 80% of his potential buyers happens to use Windows and a PC ... the number 1 reason of the ipod popularity is that it runs on windows.

(PD: I own to macs, one PC, and my iphone is my 5th ipod... been the first a G1 mechanical whell ipod)

[Ian @ Sep 15th 2007 8:46PM]

Does the whole linking iPods to a specific copy of iTunes include manually managing songs?

[DogGunn @ Sep 15th 2007 8:52PM]

No offence to Apple, but what's the point of making the iPod work with only one copy of iTunes?

It seems rather odd to me, as if they are trying to fix music piracy, but I doubt that it's a useful measuer.

[Eugene @ Sep 15th 2007 8:56PM]

Apple has always been about controlling the end user's experience, because the end user can't be trusted to choose their own stuff, like OS, hardware or software. Make it apple, or go home, that's the steve jobs way.

[strider_mt2k @ Sep 15th 2007 8:54PM]

What I said earlier about that new iPod?

I take it back.

[derek @ Sep 15th 2007 8:59PM]

From my comment on TUAW...

I'm going to get flamed for this but.. get over it! Don't use some unsupported OS with your iPod then complain that it doesn't work! Apple can do what they want, and you shouldn't buy an iPod product if it won't work with your computer!

[Ellianth @ Sep 15th 2007 9:08PM]

It worked with their computer when the bought it. How were they supposed to know apple would pull a stunt like this? Maybe now people will buy one of the far superior players that other companies make.

[derek @ Sep 15th 2007 9:34PM]

It wasn't officially supported in the first place. They should haven't have boughten it and expected it to work. Period.

[Tacticus @ Sep 15th 2007 9:46PM]

There is a slight difference between using something unsupported and making something deliberatly prevent other methods

[derek @ Sep 15th 2007 9:54PM]

"There is a slight difference between using something unsupported and making something deliberately prevent other methods"

So, with no proof whatsoever, you are saying that Apple only did this to block it from syncing. Alright then...

[metal @ Sep 15th 2007 10:17PM]

if we're going to play THAT game lets put it this way.

What proof do you have that they DIDNT do it on purpose?

[derek @ Sep 15th 2007 10:26PM]

Well there is no proof either way.

[yahoo @ Sep 15th 2007 10:53PM]

hehe lawl... "boughten" ^.^ how can you use that "word" and expect any measure of respect?

hehe boughten

[David Clark @ Sep 15th 2007 11:39PM]

This is exactly why there's system requirements printed in small text on the box.

That's like buying the newest version of some software and expecting it to work because the previous versions did. Really irresponsible of these "freetards"

[damjan @ Sep 16th 2007 7:27PM]

> Don't use some unsupported OS with your iPod then complain
> that it doesn't work! Apple can do what they want, and you
> shouldn't buy an iPod product if it won't work with your
> computer!

It's true that Apple can decide to screw you at any time, and to control your hardware and software.

And this story on engadget is a one more reminder of the ways of proprietary companies - not complaining.

I concur, noone should buy a product from Apple or any other proprieary vendor.

[Kevin Gass @ Sep 15th 2007 9:02PM]

Hmm, couldn't you just run iTunes under WiNE? (I have no experience at that what so ever just a thought)

[funkyou52 @ Sep 15th 2007 9:30PM]

yes it is possible, although possibly not with newer versions. i ran itunes 6 under wine to use with my airport express...worked like a charm. my ipod worked too. i don't recall trying itunes 7 but it barely runs on supported operating systems...let alone linux.

[Max @ Sep 15th 2007 9:02PM]

I think part of the reason for the change may have to do with transferring songs purchased on the Wi-Fi music store back over to the computer, so there may be a legitimate reason. Then again, by that logic the change should only affect the touch, not the classic/nano.

[Andrew Harrison @ Sep 15th 2007 9:12PM]

so, after an update, unsupported software doesn't work anymore?

what's everyone up in arms about? Apple doesn't support the use of iPods or iTunes on linux, for whatever reason.

They can do whatever the hell they like with their software. If you're using software that's unsupported, get the devs of that software to fix it. It's not apple's problem, and frankly they've done absolutely nothing wrong.

[MEAT! @ Sep 15th 2007 9:20PM]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this isn't just affecting Linux users. Programs such as ephPod and SharePod won't work now, and we'll go back to being unable to take music from a friend's iPod or add new music onto it with a simple program.

This is effectively adding DRM into the iPod and locking users into using a program that, though good at organizing music, is restrictive and bloated.

[‹-cJr-› @ Sep 21st 2007 4:31PM]

Well to be honest you should be using iTunes is the first place! That's what it says on the box: "Requires iTuies 7.4".

So why the hell are you using another program!?!

iTunes is perfectly capable of managing your music library and, in fact, does it better than any third-party software.

Aside from performing better, iTunes also actually has a better user interface!

So quit your whining!!