Get That Xmas iPod to Work with Linux

I have little doubt some variant of the iPod will be a hot gift this year, and no doubt the Linux heads among you will instantly look for ways to to start synching it with your Linux boxen. Hopefully I’m about to save you some trouble.

GNUPod is a collection of Perl scripts designed to manage the music on your iPod (which begs the question: is there anything Perl can’t do?). While it’s all command-line driven, it appears easy to use and configure and the extensive documentation includes tips on setting up the kernel and configuring your system for FireWire and HFS+ filesystem support.

A similar, though possibly not as extensive, package is SyncPOD. Another Perl package, SyncPOD synchronizes a local folder with your iPod. This greatly simplifies things, but may not allow for the flexibility some users are looking for.

If you’re looking for a GUI, check out gtkpod. This one appears to be very popular, and there are comments about the package being ported to multiple distros (it’s even included in the FreeBSD ports system!).

If the features of GNUPod appeal to you, check out one of the front ends: there’s GUIPod leveraging Qt on KDE and there’s Whale using GTK (for some reason there’s no actual site, just a download for Whale). You could also start fresh with a Java implementation called myPod.

I found these through the news that GNUPod has been updated, and the sites contain several snowballing links to other resources. Play around a bit, find the one you like, and start downloading. After all, the last thing you want to do is disappoint Aunt Madge by telling her the shiny new geek toy she bought you won’t work with your computer!