Do I Really Need iTunes?

[DioFan]

Hi! Just got a new iPad 3. What I would like to know is, do I still need a computer that needs iTunes installed? I'm not going to buy a Mac and I HATE Windows with a passion! My OS of choice is FreeBSD/OpenBSD. I know the downside is that I will have to buy my music/movies from the iTunes store instead of uploading from my computer, any other reason, that I may need a computer that runs iTunes?

Thanks...

 

[Rodster]

Nope you don't need iTunes. I hate iTunes myself so I don't use it. You can happily exist without iTunes. If you wanted to backup your iPad data to your PC or Mac then you'll need iTunes.

You can purchase and download anything from the App Store without iTunes.

 

[Fruit Cake]

So long as nothing happens to your iPad, is fine, but iTunes is good for backup purposes.

 

[shyam09]

and transferring files through certain apps will be mediocre, but with a bunch of free cloud storage that would be easily remedied

 

[Fattytail]

If you sync photos, then you'll need iTunes. I find it the easiest way to keep and maintain my photo collection on my iPad.

 

[barjam]

Hi! Just got a new iPad 3. What I would like to know is, do I still need a computer that needs iTunes installed? I'm not going to buy a Mac and I HATE Windows with a passion! My OS of choice is FreeBSD/OpenBSD. I know the downside is that I will have to buy my music/movies from the iTunes store instead of uploading from my computer, any other reason, that I may need a computer that runs iTunes?

Thanks...

Wow I didn't know people used FreeBSD/OpenBSD as a desktop. Cool.

The only time I sync is if I am doing music or photos. Not sure if there are other options there. Itunes on windows is awful so I use it *only* for syncing with my ipad/iphone. My music library in itunes is just what I want to have on my iphone at the time (no music goes to the ipad) and this only represents a tiny fraction of all the music I own.

How is the virtualization on bsd? If I were in your shoes I might be inclined to run Itunes in a stripped down VM so you could use some of the sharing features and wifi syncing (there are apps that can read smb shares instead for streaming your movies and such so this isn't required).