iTunes syncing now works in Linux with Wine

Filed under: Developer, Linux, Apple, Open Source, iPhone

iTunes syncing now works in Linux with Wine

by Jay Hathaway Mar 4th 2008

Linux users aren't exactly known as big fans of proprietary software, but sometimes a big commercial app comes in handy. iTunes has been up and running on Linux for a while now, but it was missing one big reason to choose it over an open source music player: iPod Touch and iPhone syncing. These two Apple gadgets need to be unlocked to work with a third-party music player.

But now iTunes on Linux is reportedly able to recognize and sync all iPod models, including the Touch and the iPhone. Maarten Lankhorst recently alerted the wine-devel mailing list that he got iPod-iTunes syncing to work on a Linux system with Wine, iTunes 7.6, and minimal patches. Good news for anyone whose 'Pod wasn't supported by the available open source apps.

There's still a little more work to be done before this will work on unpatched Wine: direct access to the device in explorer is not supported, although it should be coming soon. For now, at least there's a solution for Windows users who also want to keep their iPhones and iTouches locked - even if it's still proprietary.

[via Tombuntu]

Tags: iPhone, iPod, iTunes, Jailbreak, Linux, Sync, Wine

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Alex M said 4:23PM on 3-04-2008

I thought most linux users by now would have unlocked their iPods or otherwise use any other mp3 player.

But it's good to know Wine keeps improving.

capicke2 said 4:56PM on 3-21-2008

How about the idea of downloading the songs from iTunes using wine...then using YamiPod to manage and sync the songs into the iPod?

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