It's A Binary World 2.0

iPod Shuffle

For years I had been saying that I would not buy an iPod product.  After all, they sell music in the iTunes music store with DRM on it.  All of my music on my Linux computer is in the OGG format and it can’t be played with iPods.  However, when it came time to buy an audio player I did a bit of research.  It had to be something I could buy at the local Best Buy because I had a coupon and gift card.  Of the players sold at Best Buy, the players which supported OGG were, ironically, not well supported on Linux.  In fact, the best supported and integrated player in Linux was the iPod.  That’s important to me since I use my Linux computer for serving my main audio needs.   All of my podcasts come in through Rhythmbox.  The second requirement I had is that it had to be of the same form factor as the 2nd Generation iPod Shuffle so that it could use it at the gym clipped onto my shirt or shorts and not weigh me down at all.  I used to work out with an iPaq in my pocket and it was not very comfortable at all. 

First I installed gtkpod onto my computer.  Then I plugged the Shuffle into Mario, my main Linux computer, and Rhythmbox promptly crashed.  I tried a few different combinations such as plugging in the iPod first or starting Rhythmbox first.  Then I ran gtkpod and realized that something was not setup correctly on the file system of the Shuffle.  So I plugged it into my Windows computer and ran iTunes and the first little setup wizard.  I named it 1UPMUSHROOM to go along with my Mario theme. 

After that everything worked perfectly.  So even though everyone was scared that with the latest updates, iPods wouldn’t work with Linux, the gtkpod people got it working – at least it worked for me with an iPod I just bought from the store.  I’ve been enjoying it for the past week or so and am able to listen to my podcasts at the gym instead of those stupid radio programs they usually play.

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Eric Mesa

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6 responses to “iPod Shuffle”

  1. Wha? Why not just use Amarok? Amarok has iPod integration, does podcasts, and is overall BETTER than anything else out there.

  2. Your evangelizing for Amarok is not without merit as I consider it to be one of the best Audio programs out there. I guess I have a few rebuttals.

    1) I’m a desktop environment purist. To the extent possible I only use GTK applications in Gnome and QT applications in KDE.

    2) Although Amarok has a lot of awesome features and plugins, I have grown to love what I call the “iTunes interface” where you never have to make a playlist with all of your songs because all of your songs are listed in a natural playlist. It’s part of the reason I hate where MS took the Windows Media Player in terms of design and have been contemplating trying Songbird again on Windows.

    3) My experience with Podcasts on Amarok is actually not that good at all, but it may have improved since then

    4) The iPod integration with Rhythmbox is actually pretty seamless. Apple has changed a lot of things recently with the iPods to prevent people from using them outside of iTunes so it may not apply to yours since the one you bought was one generation behind.

    Anyway, thanks for commenting and letting me know that there are people out there reading me. q;o)