iPod & iTunes: The Missing Manual, Second Edition

Linux on the iPod

When the Macintosh-only iPods appeared on the horizon, clever programmers created software like EphPod and XPlay that made them Windows-compatible, long before Apple created Windows-friendly iPods.

Not surprisingly, disciples of the Linux operating system weren’t far behind. Linux is an alternative operating system for personal computers, created in 1991 by Linus Torvalds of Finland. (It’s the system whose official mascot is a cute penguin named Tux.) Instead of starting his own company or selling his code to a large software corporation, Torvalds made his source code available for free on the Internet (as open source code) and invited other programmers to help him improve it, which they did.

Over the years, Linux has evolved from a hobby to a formidable operating system in its own right that runs servers and computers all over the world. Here are some of the iPod-related projects that the innovative Linux community has developed.

Note

Linux comes in several slightly different versions (called distributions in Linux lingo). Read the fine print on the Linux iPod pages about which distributions work with the software in question.

GNUpod

GNUpod provides a collection of free Perl scripts for power users, which make the iPod work with GNU/Linux systems, FreeBSD Unix, Darwin (that is, Mac OS X), and Solaris 9. Not for the technically faint of heart, the GNUpod tools can prepare an iPod for use with those systems, add and delete song files, make playlists, and carry out other ...