I have been having problems with the iPod touch for awhile now and rather then have a million work arounds and a bazillion tutorials I have decided to do what any decent Linuxian(Ubuntuian) would do. Complain constructively on the Apple forums, email, or phone.

I want to encourage anyone that has their 2 cents to spend it at this thread and send an email or make a phone call. I have personally done all three.

It would be nice if all emails had a similar subject : "Linux support to iPod touch!".

Thread : http://discussions.apple.com/message...65662#10665662

Email
iPod Touch : http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipodtouch.html
iPhone : http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html

Phone
Apple Public Relations
408 974-2042

If anyone has any input on the subject please come forward. I hope that our voice is heard, but if it isn't I hope everyone is willing to take a stand and not only speak the truth about Apple, but stop buying Apple products if they choose to not support us.

Thanks.

Very nice initiative. I too have an iPod and I will support your thread. I wonder what would've happen if every time I had hardware problems because of linux incompatibility, instead of working them out like a good geek does, I had annoy them like you did(sorry for the grammar).

That would be great, but I hate to break it to you, Apple will never do that. They sell the iPod because it makes money, and people buy it, so they do what works. They make a significant amount of money from the apps store, and from selling memberships to being an Apple Developer. I wish that they would open it up for linux installation, but it wouldn't make monetary sense for them to do so.

I wish you luck in your campaign, but I just thought I should warn you that this is fruitless.

Apple and Microsoft will (probably) NEVER move to a linux-open-source-style model of doing things because their profitability as a company depends on people's concept that they have to pay for software. You can agree or disagree with them, but that's kind of the way it is.

A caveat: this isn't to say that open source isn't viable for business, it's just not what apple and microsoft are going to support because it would disrupt their control over the market.

I agree with you, but this is also a matter of rights. Is it not a right for you to use whatever operating system you want for a device you bought. If they don't provide support for every OS, at least they have a moral obligation to open the specs and api so that others can.

Moral obligation? yes and no. Does apple need to make gazillions of dollars? No. Software should be free, but we need some model for supporting programmers (like the "music tax" people are proposing to support the industry) before we can argue that all software should be free. It would be ideal, but we're a ways away.

So yes, I agree there is a moral obligation, but since when have companies ever cared about morals?

from another viewpoint, why should apple bother supporting Linux? IF you don't like the iPod OS, then don't buy an iPod The ipod, in terms of hardware, isn't much. It's just a touch screen, and I imagine there's some other touch screen player out there that supports linux.

I'm not sure, but my understanding of the whole linux-ipod thing was that it doesn't doens't work because of encrypted firmware. So, if we wnat linux on the ipod, let's get decrypting!

I actually didn't buy my iPod. It was a gift. Either way someone have paid for my iPod, so apple is already winning.

The thing that bothers me the most is not that they don't support Linux, on their hardware for example. The Mac's computers are made for their operating systems, and they are sold together, so they don't have any obligation of supporting Linux on their hardware(or even release the specs).

That is not the case with iPod. They already have money for my iPod and it seems to me simple greed that they try to force me to use either Mac Os X or Windows to work with MY iPod. That's not fair, and if there's anything I can do to annoy them, I will do. It's not that I'm being naive on thinking that they will change their attitude, but It is worth the try.

I thank you for the reply, but honestly there is a market for it and they could make money. Even if they released a closed source alternative for iTunes for 5 to 20 bucks I would buy it. Honestly I am sure a developer could have it compiled and out the door in less than a week with at least a release candidate version.

Ouch taking a stab at my GEEKNESS that was a low blow. Honestly I am going to school now for Computer Science and program in several languages, but I don't have the time to do everything. I do see a need for fair treatment. I think Windows had to come to grips with the fact they can't keep a strangle hold on their software Apple will have to come around as well. There is a matter of rights here.

Sorry friend. I did not intend to put your GEEKNESS at stake. I was only trying to show my own.

I guess you've seen the ipod linux website. I like their rather optimistic way of looking at things:

... So, in fact, if I'm not mistaken, it only works on the 1st generation of iPods


It doesn't cost me a penny to email apple, so I'll do it for the sake of it, but I agree with other LQ members
saying that because of the nature of their business and their history, Apple is one of the least likely companies to open anything to the open-source community.

edit: the source of quotation http://www.ipodlinux.org/wiki

Haha that is a great quote you got there. Keep it forever. Thanks for the support.

Yeah, I'll stop being a debbie-downer...

Anybody want to help desing/build a better open-source ipod/player?

The iRiver and Zen players (IIRC) support Linux usage natively. At least they did the last time something like this arose.

I don't think that's the case here.

Apple makes money (as far as iPhone/iTouch/iPod's go), on the hardware. iTunes is free....the music they sell via iTunes costs the same, if you're on Mac, or Windows. Supporting another OS platform is trivial...the latest generation of Mac OS is unix-based, and has been. Porting such code to Linux would not take much effort at all.

If anything, people who are Linux users, would spend MORE money on Apple products, if they knew they didn't have to jump through hoops, or keep a Windows box running, to make their device work. That's one big complaint from Linux users now...lack of Linux support. It's not that the device sucks, but the software that let's you control it does.

Does iTunes suck? Yep....but if they had a Linux version, I'd still load it, for the very limited use I give it. And for Joe User, who might dual-boot Ubuntu/Windows, they WANT 'plug-and-play'...not everyone wants to play with editing config files, etc, or be on the bleeding edge. And, since I run Linux, *I* control my firewalls/security/etc/, so if it did ANYTHING I didn't like, I could lock it down, or otherwise circumvent it. I don't have that option with Windows or Mac.

Companies don't have "moral obligations" to do what you think they ought to do. They built the box in order to sell bezillions of units ... and, they did so. They don't "have to" provide you any detailed information about it other than what they choose to divulge (which is, actually, "quite a lot").

This is, simply, "the way that things work." And, if things didn't work that way, you wouldn't have an iPhone/iPod in your pocket right now.

Oh yeah, having a version of iTunes for linux would be great, and I don't think that's inforseeable. But having the iPod API opened so that linux can be installed on the ipod itself? less than likelhy...

just out of curisotiy TBOne, other than the fact that it's closed source, what do you have against itunes?