EFF berates Apple over open-source iTunes project

[MacBytes]

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Link: EFF berates Apple over open-source iTunes project (http://www.macbytes.com/link.php?sid=20081126210642)
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Posted on MacBytes.com (http://www.macbytes.com)
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[ZiggyPastorius]

These kinds of stories are hard to take sides on, I think. In one hand, I can see why Apple would want to keep a handle on all these things, but at the same time, I think it's a bit pointless to try, and Apple has a real problem with not letting people make choices for themselves.

[mkrishnan]

I'm not totally unsympathetic to their viewpoint, but call me when you create a digital music sales format that people actually support and use to the extent that it essentially saved the music industry from imploding due to plummeting physical CD sales.

[plumbingandtech]

Groups like the EFF will always whine and will never be satisfied with the likes of apple since any press release from them (EFF) that talks about apple gets them all sorts of press. (just like greeenpeace.)

Let then linux dweebs make their own software that is better, I mean its open source so its better right? :rolleyes:

But of course, the linux folks just copy instead of innovate, then whine when the thing they are copying is somehow opaque because the other company (apple in this case) has no reason in the world to make all their intelleculalt property "open".

Why should they if they do not want to.

To appease the .001% of the market that uses linux? 'cause you know, FREE AS IN BEER Dude and all that other stuff that does not pay the electric bill.
:rolleyes:

[ChrisA]

Apple is as bad as Microsoft. The only reason I use their stuff is because it's better not because I like Apple.

Let then linux dweebs make their own software that is better, I mean its open source so its better right?

Yes of course it's better that is why 2/3rds of Mac OS X is Open Source. Apple recognized it as such.

The problem here is someone was trying to write their own software and Apple complained. They don't like competition.

[oticon6]

The solution is simple: Apple needs to make the backend for iTunes for Linux, even just as a command-line tool. The user interface (since there are so many windowing system flavours) could be open source... but the idea that you cannot use an iPod in Linux is absolutely *pathetic*, especially considering OSX's foundations.

[nagromme]

Yes of course it's better that is why 2/3rds of Mac OS X is Open Source. Apple recognized it as such.

Better as an OS foundation (like in OS X)? Or better for user apps? Two different situations--and I see very FEW open source user apps that can compete in features and usability with the best commercial apps.

Open source is great of course. Invaluable in some cases. But you can't argue that there aren't ALSO benefits to commercial, paid software development. Both models have value, but at the end of the day, I usually--not always--find that a commercial app meets my needs better.

[Speedtoy]

Apple is as bad as Microsoft. The only reason I use their stuff is because it's better not because I like Apple.



Yes of course it's better that is why 2/3rds of Mac OS X is Open Source. Apple recognized it as such.

The problem here is someone was trying to write their own software and Apple complained. They don't like competition.

Perhaps you dont understand what makes iTunes work with the recording companies..

Dilute that control..and guess what happens.

Theres PLENTY of healthy competition to iTunes..but you cant have your contractual control of the DRM that you -have- to support, diluted.

[synth3tik]

It's simple.

It's called Songbird

It's out of beta and at 1.0

EDIT: Oh, yeah and it runs on Windows, OS X, and....wait for it............Linux

EFF needs to stop bitching and get on with life. iTunes is not all that great of a application after all.

[LethalWolfe]

I'm not totally unsympathetic to their viewpoint, but call me when you create a digital music sales format that people actually support and use to the extent that it essentially saved the music industry from imploding due to plummeting physical CD sales.
FWIW 'saving' might be too strong a word as overall music sales are still dropping even though online music sales continue to grow.


Lethal

[elppa]

It's simple.

It's called Songbird

It's out of beta and at 1.0

EDIT: Oh, yeah and it runs on Windows, OS X, and....wait for it............Linux

EFF needs to stop bitching and get on with life. iTunes is not all that great of a application after all.

Neither is songbird.

[mkrishnan]

FWIW 'saving' might be too strong a word as overall music sales are still dropping even though online music sales continue to grow.

Saving is pretty generous, but I think about it this way. If iTunes keeps its pace of the past, it is on the cusp of establishing itself as the top-selling music store in the US, ahead of Walmart and Best Buy, and making up a fairly significant chunk of all US music sales. That chunk represents growth. I personally don't think it's that clear that all of that growth is opportunistic -- I think at least some of it is organic. I certainly at any rate think a large chunk of the sales now occurring through iTunes would not occur at all today if iTunes did not exist. Meaning that music sales revenues would be hurting far worse, were it not for Apple.

For the music industry, there's a big difference between burning a little cash / losing a little money and burning a lot of cash and losing a lot of money. They're not standing next to Alan Mullaly asking for government handouts quite yet.

I think Apple is a big part of the reason why.

[synth3tik]

Neither is songbird.
Songbird is neither what?

[Sesshi]

Songbird is neither what?

It's not ready. However it is the only really viable alternative-in-waiting under OS X. Fortunately, for those of us working on other platforms as their main OS there's a bigger choice of better (or genuinely alternative) software.

The Songbird dilemma does however highlight the main problem with OS X as an app platform: Once you outgrow an app that caters to the technologically illiterate who don't want to progress further than their currently low level, there really isn't much else. Apart from the oft-done-to-death-quoted 'pro' apps in video and music production, the choices of viable applications pale in comparison with what is available under Windows, and in many more relevant niches there is no viable application at all. For all their 'better' posturing, the reason why Apple still reigns among those specific niches is that people have drunk the kool-aid and don't want to learn anything new, or look for it.

[ZiggyPastorius]

It's simple.

It's called Songbird

It's out of beta and at 1.0

EDIT: Oh, yeah and it runs on Windows, OS X, and....wait for it............Linux

EFF needs to stop bitching and get on with life. iTunes is not all that great of a application after all.

You mean that program that has been in beta since February of 2006? Songbird is an utter joke. I used it for about six months, and it is so unstable, it defies logic.

[elppa]

Songbird is neither what?

You made the point “iTunes is not all that great of a application after all”, so I replied, “neither is Songbird” as in “neither is Songbird [all that great of a application after all]”.

iTunes is stronger than Songbird at the moment.