Rich: > My wife has an iPhone and would like to rip CDs and store them on it, > for which she'll need (by my limited understanding of such things) > iTunes. iTunes is, of course, a proprietory Windoze and MacOS app, > neither of which we use here. And using iTunes on Windowze inside > VirtualBox is a non-starter because VirtualBox still doesn't support > USB on Solaris hosts. > > So, given that we're using SXCE 101+, what's our best option? Free > (as in $0) options would be best of course!
I do not have any experience trying to use iPod's on OpenSolaris. However, I probably can still offer some advice. Note we do not ship libgpod or gpod on Solaris. If you built these, I think you would be off to a good start. Also note that many media programs (such as rhythmbox and elisa) can work with iPods also. However, you may need to also rebuild these programs to enable iPod support, so they link against libgpod. One problem that you would have, though, is with ripping CD's. Solaris does not support ripping CD's to MP3 or AAC. There are libraries you could build to enable GStreamer to support encoding such formats, or other standalone programs you could build that would allow you to rip CD's to such formats. However, there may be legal issues with using such code since people should pay the licensing fees to encode with such encumbered formats. Fluendo provides a licensed MP3 decoder, but they do not sell a MP3 encoder yet. I am not aware of anybody who sells a licensed MP3 or AAC encoder for Linux or Solaris today. Since I assume you are a lover of free software, a better approach would be to use a free audio format like Ogg with your iPod, and thus avoid the above MP3/AAC issues. http://www.simplehelp.net/2008/06/11/how-to-play-flac-and-ogg-files-on-your-iphone-or-ipod-touch/ Brian
