Recently my parents, and my brother, have all been complaining that the computer downstairs is too slow…which…it is, I found out yesterday that it’s a 5 year old install of Windows XP – already things don’t look good.
Regardless, I had a think about what I could do. Reinstalling XP was the first thing that came to mind, but then I’d have to spend another 5 hours doing updates to it and reinstalling everything, which I abhor doing, as I’m sure many people can relate to. I then stopped and had a think about what they all *actually* use the PC for.
They use Office 2007, Internet Explorer/Firefox (the use of each varies between people), BBC iPlayer, and iTunes. That’s actually just about all they use. Now, Office can be replaced with OpenOffice.org, that isn’t really a problem, except for the huge UI change from the ribbon interface back to the menu’s etc. Firefox is natively installed, and they’re starting to use it more anyway. BBC iPlayer is web based, but the desktop client for Linux can be installed with Adobe Air…
This just leaves iTunes, and while I’m aware there are plenty of alternatives that can be used, they all lack the one massively important feature for the rest of my family. The iTunes Store.
They use it quite regularly, which presents a great problem. How can I switch them to Ubuntu but keep the iTunes store? A VM? A dual boot? Both would work, but a VM on a P4 isn’t the most practical solution, even with 2GB RAM. A dual boot would essentially take me back to step 1, and Ubuntu would never get used.
So I’m in a bit of a pickle really…I’ve said I’ll sort the computer out for them, but it’s just a case of how it gets “sorted”.
#1 by nixternal on March 6th, 2009
I will follow this post as I would like to know the answer as well. This same exact problem has plagued me for years now and I have been to lazy to really research it
This is all I need to get my mom off of Windows, my dad would be darn near impossible due to the fact he uses a lot of software that is Windows only such as Quicken, AutoCAD, and others he needs for his work.
#2 by tretle on March 6th, 2009
Amazon mp3 store.
#3 by Benjamin on March 6th, 2009
use WINE, its a windows emulation progam in the package repository, you can install the windows version of itunes and it will run in an emulator on the ubuntu machine
#4 by Pierre on March 6th, 2009
I’ve read that:
-experimental support of Itunes had been implemented as a patch against a Linux music app (can’t remember which)
-Google is sponsoring Itunes-oriented Wine-Developpment.
#5 by James Greenhalgh on March 6th, 2009
Sign them up for Amazon MP3. Not only will they be able to benefit from the higher quality DRM free tracks but they wont be tied into using a particular client for their music!
“The Amazon MP3 Downloader software bridge with which consumers are able to get their purchased songs off the Web and into their iTunes and Windows Media Player libraries, is now compatible with Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, and OpenSUSE systems.” – http://mashable.com/2008/03/01/amazon-mp3-linux/
#6 by Ahop on March 6th, 2009
If you find out LET ME KNOW! This is a true problem with the grasp the iTunes has taken. Back in the day, this would have been no problem when everyone used MP3’s. But, since iTunes uses its own files for DRM purposes, you really have no good fix.
One thing that may work (albeit a lengthy process if you have A LOT of iTunes store music) is to burn to Audio CDs and then rip them into some accessible format. Just be warned there is probably some music license violation with this.
#7 by Josh on March 6th, 2009
I feel your pain. I have only a few things keeping me from switching to Ubuntu for EVERY machine (currently I run my desktop on Ubuntu and have a MacBook Pro under OS X).
iTunes – for syncing to iPhone mostly, but also because I have some DRM’d music and video files. I don’t mind losing the support for these files, just need to make sure I can update my phone.
iPhoto – this is killer. iPhoto is easy to use, Picasa and other photo management apps I’ve used stink to high heck.
I still hold hope for Songbird, but I don’t like the way they handle Podcasts and have noted this on their feature request page.
#8 by Qhartman on March 6th, 2009
Not sure if it still works, but once upon a time I ran iTunes under Wine (maybe Cedega) and it worked fine. I didn’t own an iPod, so I don’t know if the sync-to-pod worked, but the core functionality and the store were functional.
#9 by Jim Campbell on March 6th, 2009
How about the Amazon.com Music Store? They even have a download client that you can install on Ubuntu. I think that would work well. eMusic.com would also be one that I would recommend, but I don’t think their collection is as extensive as Amazon’s.
Unfortunately, I don’t think that running iTunes under Wine is even an option. I tried it on the latest Wine builds, and had no luck.
#10 by aaa on March 6th, 2009
Just switch them to the Amazon MP3 store, its cheaper and much more open
#11 by Ste on March 6th, 2009
Linux iPlayer is fairly unstable. Not really parent ready.
Only choice for iTunes is to *try* and get it to work via Wine.
It’s pretty painful but you might as well put XP back on it.
#12 by Lial on March 6th, 2009
Tell them to use the Amazon music store maybe?
#13 by Trey Ethridge on March 6th, 2009
They really should be using the Amazon music store. It has a downloader for linux, the songs are typically cheaper, and the songs are encoded using mp3 which is playable on more devices. The biggest reason, no DRM. You don’t have to pay any more for the non DRM versions. I know iTunes is moving away from DRM, but Amazon has always been DRM free.
The only problem, the store might not have everything iTunes has in its store. Not really a problem in my mind, but something to note. I mean, iTunes doesn’t have the Beatles, right?
#14 by Jay on March 6th, 2009
I don’t know what exactly they use the iTunes Store for but Amazon has an MP3 store now that I think is every bit as good as iTunes. You can use Amazon’s downloader app to d/l the songs to their music folder and have something like Rhythmbox that constantly monitors that folder for changes. Then their music library will be up to date and they can still purchase new music. If they use iTMS for movies and TV shows I’m not sure of a replacement there.
#15 by Nathan Samson on March 6th, 2009
http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=14793
Try using Wine…
#16 by Joe on March 6th, 2009
Wow!
I didn’t expect so many comments. I’ll have to have a look and see how many purchased files. I don’t mind spending a day burning them to disc and back, it’s just the video files that concern me now.
The Amazon Music store has just launched in the UK, so thanks to all that suggested that, it looks very promising
I’ll try and have a speak with them early next week and post back how it goes
#17 by martin on March 6th, 2009
Spotify runs well under WINE, both the free ad funded version and the real premium music subscription service.
They are not available in all countries yet though:
http://www.spotify.com/en/
#18 by Joe on March 6th, 2009
Spotify sounds great,
It’s just the recent events in the news about it that put me off
http://www.macworld.co.uk/digitallifestyle/news/index.cfm?newsid=25279
#19 by Bane on March 6th, 2009
Nicotine, aMule, Deluge, Vuze, Limeware to name a few.
#20 by Joe on March 6th, 2009
They’re all well and good, but not entirely the most legal. Parents (mine at least) aren’t exactly big on the whole illegal thing :p
#21 by alex on March 6th, 2009
here in the US apple has a non-drm trade-in program. you can re-download your library in a non-drm format for a fee.
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2009/01/06itunes.html
apparently it ends on the end of march, so you will want to get on that.
this might be an expensive option depending on how large the collection is, but at least its legal.
#22 by lunarcloud on March 6th, 2009
upgrade all the songs to itunes plus and then strictly use amazonmp3.
I did that for a friend and he never looked back.
#23 by Roland on March 6th, 2009
There is no good solution to this problem, so I suggest you just stay out of it, or else you will be a victim of the blame game. They have chosen the proprietary way (apparently they insist on it), so they need to live with the consequences. They will not change until they get good and sick of the present situation.
#24 by Gabriel on March 6th, 2009
Sssh, I’m hunting wabbits
#25 by Paul on March 6th, 2009
I will 2nd (9th?) the Amazon mp3 music store. I think with most people this is more a matter of education than anything though. The whole idea that MP3s are more portable than anything from iTunes is sometimes hard to convey. Explaining to them that songs bought from Amazon can be played natively on many CD players, can be played in any brand of MP3 player, and not just the iPod, you can share them, etc. helps. My Wife, in-laws, and own parents are all converted. Burning the existing songs to CD and ripping back out to MP3s was the largest hurdle by far.
#26 by Stoffe on March 6th, 2009
You can’t actually replace Office with OpenOffice if you actually expect things such as elements keeping within the bottom margin and other simple things like that.
It was a constant and huge problem for me at my last job, where I was allowed to use any OS and program I liked due to a good policy, but had to fight OOo at every step on the way to create even the simplest of documents that didn’t come out broken in a printer. And this is even before attempting to use any MS format, this is when using the native formats to save and producing PDFs and printing. (The trick that should fix it, but doesn’t, is called “register true” but noone seems to know what that even means, it just helps on occasion to toggle that checkbox).
I made do anyway, since that meant I could use Linux without tricksing around with Wine or CodeWeavers. This was on both 2.4 and 3.0 and it was the same when trying the Windows versions.
The point is simply that Slashdot wisdom may say that you can replace it, but you can’t. OOo can’t be used by normal users. Sorry.
#27 by Joe on March 7th, 2009
I think the Amazon MP3 store is the way to go, having had a (very) brief look.
As for the previous comment about OOo Vs. Office. I beg to differ…sure there are compatibility issues between the 2, but when most of the documents on there aren’t needed to be edited again, I don’t think you’re going to have massive issues.
The only forseeable problem I have there is emailing to somebody else in .doc format and having word screw up the formatting when opened. Though because 98% of the emails my family send in .doc format aren’t required to be edited again, PDF’s will be fine.
I need to check how well OOo copes with Excel files, and if it works alright, then we’ll be even further along
#28 by Robin on March 7th, 2009
Virtualbox will work fine on that. I have it running XP for something on my eeepc 701 and it works well enough. Not a speed demon, but you don’t need it to be for one or two apps.
#29 by Jack Gutteridge on March 7th, 2009
I can’t believe you’d replace Office 2007 with Open Office. I used OOo for about two years and still hate the thing. The UI is a mess. Microsoft’s ribbon is an innovation, IMO. It works, and it doesn’t make me angry, that’s all that matters, and more than can be said for OOo.
#30 by Joe on March 7th, 2009
I agree that Office 2007’s ribbon interface is a lot better than previous years. Either way, we’ll see what happens
#31 by Kay on March 7th, 2009
I had this exact problem when I shifted from XP to Ubuntu. I went with VM approach and I am more than happy with it. I am using Sun’s Virtualbox and its cool!!
My system configuration is really old-age – 768MB RAM and 40GB hard disk. But I have created the .vdi file in my external hd of 500GB. And and I have given the guest OS i.e. XP 310 MB RAM and rest to the host i.e. Ubuntu. iTunes is installed in XP and believe me it works like a jiffy. I could browse internet, watch movies while my iTouch is updating and songs are getting copied. Now the best part is as XP will use your host’s internet connection hence you don’t have to configure that again for XP. So, you can browse iTunes Store as well from XP as you are connected in Ubuntu.
As far as office is concerned, I agree with rest of the people. OOo no match to Office 2007.
#32 by Klau3 on March 7th, 2009
Under OO its possible to change the pre-configuration to save files as .doc so your Parents don’t have to care about (Microsoft fonts can be easy installed too).
#33 by Joseph on March 8th, 2009
I don’t get what the “MSOffice is much better than OOo” people are saying. It’s great for all of what I’ve thown at it. I personally find the Ribbon annoying un-innovation.
Amazon’s MP3 store is great, but don’t forget Jamiendo and especially Magnatune, where you can choose how much a track or album is worth. If you think the artist did especially well, you can pay them more and if you think it was just OK, don’t pay as much. The artists also get a *much* larger cut of the proceeds. Plus, you can buy in FLAC, MP3. or Vorbis. Wewt!
#34 by Doug on March 8th, 2009
+1 For Amazon MP3
DRM free is alone enough to switch. After that there are plenty of players that look close enough to iTunes for them to use. Just make a sym link and say its really iTunes but since its on linux the store doesn’t work.
#35 by Jackflap on March 8th, 2009
Songbird 1.1 which is to be released in a week or two will be directly integrated into 7digital.com online music store.
If they can face the change, perhaps this is a feasible solution.