iTunes revisited

September 29, 2010

Just for goofs I installed iTunes 10.0.1 and it works for me again. It turns out the problem with those several 9.x versions had to do with VirtualBox, which is the virtualization container I use to run Windows within Linux. VMware apparently does not have the same iTunes compatibility issue, but I never used it much because it's even more closed than VirtualBox (VirtualBox has an open source edition).

But I very rarely use VirtualBox or anything else to run Windows these days. The iTunes issue started about the same time my patience for Windows completely dried up. With a Linux solution for digital music purchases in place, I see little reason to keep the VirtualBox Windows image around. I used to help track down issues affecting Windows users in the open source projects I'm involved with, but that train has sailed. I don't have the patience for Windows.

softwarewindowsitunesvirtualbox
 

More Ubuntu

July 10, 2010

If a little Ubuntu is good, more is better. Now I have Lucid Lynx (10.04) installed on both the netbook and the main computer. I installed the i386 distribution even though the hardware is amd64 because I just don't feel like dealing with some of the 64-bit issues any more. Granted the amd64 support in Linux has come a long way since I bought this hardware, I don't have the energy to chase down working Flash alternatives.

And iTunes can still eat dirt. You can buy DRM-free (that's right, no DRM) MP3 songs (that's right, MP3) from the Ubuntu One Music Store. Chew on that, iTunes.

softwarelinuxubuntuitunes
 

Damn you, iTunes

July 05, 2010

If you haven't upgraded to iTunes 9.2 on Windows yet, don't. It's broken just like 9.1 is.

Some people reported success by disabling the Bonjour service, but that didn't work for me. I had to wait for 9.1.1 to get iTunes working again. If reverting back to 9.1.1 works, I'm not trying to upgrade for a very long time. This is frustrating.

Note: going back to 9.1.1 did not help. I knew after the 9.1 fiasco I should have left 9.2 alone. I only wanted to pick up one song anyway, but no, I had to mess with it.

softwarewindowsitunes