I've successfully got gPodder running by installing some of the 'similar' packages for SuSe... but the iPod Sync just stumped me.
It's not that the alternatives are unusable, I'd just like to see whether it offers some of the 'missing featuresw' of gtkpod - like monitoring directories, or a scheduled sync.
You might try Dopi as well...
http://www.snorp.net/log/dopi
If you've installed banshee, you already have the ipod-sharp library it'll need.
Still searching for the perfect app :-)