The end of the world's infamous bloatware (iTunes) is nigh!

[VK3DRB]

Yep, it is finally about to happen... iTunes is about to die . One must feel sorry for the poor bytes that were sentenced to a life of being part of the iTunes application. When iTunes is finally deleted, the hard disk should be treated for PTSD .

But will Apple have learnt their lesson? 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-31/apple-s-future-ios-13-macos-10-15-watchos-6-tvos-13-mac-pro

[NiHaoMike]

I really hope some computer manufacturer (hey, listen, Intel NUC team) can roll a mini computer with 65W CPU, high end PCIe NVMe SSD, latest WiFi and 10GbE and most important, a custom and highly optimized Linux kernel with multiple distribution compatibility (at least Ubuntu and Fedora and their forks), so PC buyers can enjoy the same hardware quality as users from the Mac world.

Sounds like a Ryzen APU based mini ITX system would work nicely. Or probably don't even need mini ITX for that, since you could just mount the PC on the back of the monitor or the underside of the bench.

[tggzzz]

I was "forced" to use iTunes by my daughter for a while ~7 years ago.

It was the worst flagship program I have come across: a baroque kitchen sink that frequently acted as a disposal unit.

While having had an admiration for Apples's usability since 1984, that admiration evaporated. No Apple, a "sync" operation that destroys your data when trying to download music isn't acceptable.

[VK3DRB]

After they neutered Server App, they are now attacking iTunes.

I have a feeling that my current MacMini will be my last Apple computer.

I really hope some computer manufacturer (hey, listen, Intel NUC team) can roll a mini computer with 65W CPU, high end PCIe NVMe SSD, latest WiFi and 10GbE and most important, a custom and highly optimized Linux kernel with multiple distribution compatibility (at least Ubuntu and Fedora and their forks), so PC buyers can enjoy the same hardware quality as users from the Mac world.

There are lots of people willing to pay top money for a good PC, just there are few manufacturers making them, to the level of a Mac.

iTunes should be attacked. It is dreadful software. The cost of it (free) is far too expensive. The intuitiveness of the HMI gets 1 out of 10. The popup ads for the latest Justin Bieber Christmas Album gets 0/10.

If your Apple dies, you are out of action for several weeks. If your home brew PC dies... maybe a day's downtime at most. You can build a decent PC. I built all mine over the past 20 years, spending many hours doing research each time on the sweet spot of quality/cost/performance/edge. I tend to go advanced but not too leading edge as the technical risk increases and the cost effectiveness diminishes. The only bad quality I have found it in building my own was from IBM's 20GB Deskstar ("Deathstar") hard disk in the early 2000's.

I like Linux too. Unfortunately, Altium does not run on it.

[VK3DRB]

I was "forced" to use iTunes by my daughter for a while ~7 years ago.

It was the worst flagship program I have come across: a baroque kitchen sink that frequently acted as a disposal unit.

While having had an admiration for Apples's usability since 1984, that admiration evaporated. No Apple, a "sync" operation that destroys your data when trying to download music isn't acceptable.

Ditto! iTunes deleted all the files off my wife's iPod. It also destroyed the firmware on the device.

[German_EE]

So, if they kill off iTunes then how do users reformat the hard drives on their iPods?

[tautech]

iTunes should be attacked. It is dreadful software. The cost of it (free) is far too expensive. The intuitiveness of the HMI gets 1 out of 10.

Yeah it's HD hog alright but works well for what I use it for, just syncing my phone from time to time so if it dies i can easily build another and without losing any data.
It's played OK with 3 versions of Windoze I've used it with.
It is a PITA until you get used to it though however what it will be replaced with has me more concerned. 

3 new platforms apparently, one each for music and video streaming and IIRC a TV streaming platform. 

[EEVblog]

I was "forced" to use iTunes by my daughter for a while ~7 years ago.
It was the worst flagship program I have come across: a baroque kitchen sink that frequently acted as a disposal unit.

Yep, when I was forced to use it I found the experience terrible.

[EEVblog]

If your Apple dies, you are out of action for several weeks. If your home brew PC dies... maybe a day's downtime at most.

I can't speak for Apple, but yeah, I can have a PC back up and running for my main tasks in a matter of hours from scratch.
Does it really take weeks to recover an Apple?

[JPortici]

nah, one day at most, such as with any pc.

[Electro Detective]

I'll believe it when it happens 

I reckon they'll keep the cash cow going, add or subtract something, give it a new skin and call it something different,

like... iChunes ? 

[amyk]

Meanwhile almost every other media player just uses USB mass storage, meaning you don't have to bother with any software to use it.

[NiHaoMike]

For me, being extreme is very important, and that includes being as compact as possible. I consider myself an engineering artist, and I appreciate engineers with the same opinion.

Should be able to get a mini ITX Ryzen platform and install NVMe SSD and Wifi on that. Then for the 10G Ethernet, a PCIe card with a right angle adapter to keep the profile low. Shouldn't be too difficult to get it to basically the size of the mini ITX board, with some clever engineering for the thermal solution.

Meanwhile almost every other media player just uses USB mass storage, meaning you don't have to bother with any software to use it.

Back in the day, Rockbox (for iPod and quite a few other audio players) did just that - do away with the proprietary database nonsense and just use the filesystem itself to organize the files.

[ebastler]

For me, being extreme is very important, and that includes being as compact as possible. I consider myself an engineering artist.

iTunes on Windows/macOS is pretty good, if you are used to its "media database" concept. Coming from a Zune background, I'm totally fine with it.

I sense a disconnect here. 

[jonovid]

put iTunes on a PC, in 2013 just to get one free audio download from a website, been there done that, never again.

[james_s]

I quite liked iTunes at one point, must have been around 2006? I had an iPod I got after trying out more than a dozen competing devices and finding that the iPod Nano (1st gen) was the only one that didn't have anything I hated about it. Anyway it worked well aside from making the mistake of trying letting it manage my library which would have been a catastrophe had I not had a backup. Then with each version it started to get worse and worse, more and more bloated. I think I quit using it when they changed it to no longer display the album artwork I had carefully curated. Then at some point I discovered MediaMonkey which works really well, just wish there was a Linux version.

[bloguetronica]

You would be amazed by the quantity of bloated software out there. If iTunes was the only evil, I would be happy. Anti-viruses! Firefox!

The problem is not only the software, it is the code and the tools that are used for compiling it. In that respect, .Net fails miserably. Basically, inclusivity in exchange for lessened efficiency.

Kind regards, Samuel Lourenço

[Bassman59]

If your Apple dies, you are out of action for several weeks. If your home brew PC dies... maybe a day's downtime at most.

Awww, bullshit. Clearly you haven't used a Mac in, well, ever.

If you use Time Machine (and you should) --- for which there is STILL no such tool for Windows that's free and just works without any bullshit -- all you do is start up the new machine and when it asks if you want to "Restore from Time Machine backup," you say yes, navigate to the backup (either a locally-connected hard disk or network-attached disk), click "OK," and then get lunch and when you get back, the new machine looks just like your old machine.

When your Windows machine dies, you're fucked for a couple of days as you try to re-load Windows and then re-load all of the applications and configurations and such that you were using. It's a total clusterfuck.

[Bassman59]

If your Apple dies, you are out of action for several weeks. If your home brew PC dies... maybe a day's downtime at most.

I can't speak for Apple, but yeah, I can have a PC back up and running for my main tasks in a matter of hours from scratch.
Does it really take weeks to recover an Apple?

No.

[Bassman59]

After they neutered Server App, they are now attacking iTunes.

I have a feeling that my current MacMini will be my last Apple computer.

From what a friend who works in Apple Support says:

Apple has recognized that users have been bitching about iTunes for a long time, and the question was always how to fix it without screwing the people who've paid for music downloads and all that.

The problem is that iTunes has become more than just a means to upload songs to an iPod and buy songs or albums from an online source. They added the streaming service, Apple Music. And it does movies and television shows, each with its own peculiar needs. You can rent movies or buy them. You can buy a season pass for TV shows, or buy one show at a time.

So the thinking is that Apple will replace iTunes with more than one application, just like they do on iOS. There will be a Music app to manage streaming and downloads and your existing iTunes music libraries. There will be a TV app to manage TV shows and deals with a cable or satellite TV provider (which is how a lot of current cable TV channels handle their rights management). There will be a Movies app.

I think this all makes perfect sense, and is long overdue.

[james_s]

Their mistake was letting it get bloated in the first place. iTunes should have never been anything but a music application. They should have had a separate podcast application, a separate video application, etc. These are all distinctly different purposes that I rarely if ever want to do more than one at a time.

[tooki]

If your Apple dies, you are out of action for several weeks. If your home brew PC dies... maybe a day's downtime at most.

I can't speak for Apple, but yeah, I can have a PC back up and running for my main tasks in a matter of hours from scratch.
Does it really take weeks to recover an Apple?

No. On the contrary, one of the features of the Mac that many professionals appreciate is Time Machine, the built in backup software. If you use it, you can be up and running again within hours, with everything exactly as it was on the old machine. And I mean exactly.

So if a Mac dies or is lost or stolen, you can go to a local shop, buy a new one, hook up your backup drive, and within a few hours be back up and running with little to no manual intervention. From what I’m told, Windows and Linux still don’t have anything quite as seamless.

[tooki]

Their mistake was letting it get bloated in the first place. iTunes should have never been anything but a music application. They should have had a separate podcast application, a separate video application, etc. These are all distinctly different purposes that I rarely if ever want to do more than one at a time.

It made sense if you look at the development of iTunes and the iPod. It began as a music player, then they added video to it. There was no streaming video back then. (Youtube hadn’t even been invented!)

The mistake wasn’t in putting those things in to begin with, it was in not separating them soon enough.

[NiHaoMike]

It made sense if you look at the development of iTunes and the iPod. It began as a music player, then they added video to it. There was no streaming video back then. (Youtube hadn’t even been invented!)

Youtube was founded in February 2005, while the video version of the iPod was first released in October 2005. I recall there was even a "Youtube edition" iPod with a red front. Watching videos on a 2.5" screen was really just a novelty, however.

[VK3DRB]

When I said with Apple you are out of action for a few weeks, I meant when the motherboard fails. You just can't go down the local store and get another one. What about sending back under warranty? Repair it maybe? Good luck.

I do admit that Mac hardware is very reliable, so the risks are relatively low. Unlike IBM... now Lenovo. Or the low end Dells. In any case, no Altium support on platforms other than Windoze makes Mac OS and Linux a poor choice for anyone developing PCBAs using Altium.