And here I am being modded a troll because I'm offering my opinion on *not* using itunes. FYI: I've never had any problems, at all with my music collection because I choose to control my reality.

But not the users or musicians. See that's the thing with the whole fanboi attitude - someone has to loose for their choice to win.

Sure it can be hell if it isn't done right. I can't say I've ever used a mainstream window manager where I've thought "Gee there are just too many options for me here, I wish there were less". Sure it can become a clusterf-ck if not done right but it isn't really that hard.

If Apple had done it properly, they would have built it so the same track could appear on multiple albums.

An album is not a property of a song, it's the other way around. So in order to keep my collection albums (i.e. "compilations" by a single artist) working, I am forced to have multiple copies of the same tracks, wasting space.

"Did the really, really obvious"

It doesn't happen until you SELECT MULTIPLE SONGS.

I didn't have to do that unnecessary extra step in Winamp or AIMP2 - it's called a fucking ID3 tag, and if Apple had them done PROPERLY a "This is a compilation" checkbox wouldn't be fucking necessary.

So it's not smart enough to realize that being in the same folder likely means it's on the same album.

As if it couldn't fucking scan the ID3 tag and learn this?

I don't use itunes so I wouldn't know how the music gets on the device, I thought it was streamed AAC, my mistake. I don't understand what the complaints are about however I do like to maintain control over my music collection.

So as long as you have an itunes to manage it, I don't think it is so easy to step out of the walled garden once you step into it.

I've heard lots of stories that went both ways there. As someone who has owned a piece of Apple hardware with a known and admitted hardware bug which Apple closed wontfix and told people to buy more hardware to get around the problem, I have my own opinions about the value of Apple support.

Huh? Are we talking about the same window manager which steals your input focus with modal windows? The one where I'm typing at a terminal and just when I'm about to hit return some warning message pops up and I don't even get a chance to read the message because the timing was just right for me to notice it flashing and think "fuck, what the hell I've done now again"?

Yeah, top notch fucking usability nightmare.

That's the Apple way.

User asked for a feature then get flamed for wanting the feature. Nobody should want features not in Apple software.. Until Apple puts in the feature, then it's the greatest since sliced bread.

Don't know what the hell you are talking about. I have an iPhone and nothing is streamed. Any music I listen is stored on the device.

but are they available on the most popular Safari browser used, mobile Safari?

In case you're wondering, I know why you don't get invited to parties...

Right. Because the Macintosh was exactly like the Xerox Star, right down to the three-button Mouse and Smalltalk commands. Which Jobs licensed for a very agreeable amount

Apple didn't license anything from Xerox. In fact, Xerox sued Apple over the Lisa (and lost) for Apple's use of "their" technology, despite the fact that the mouse and windowing were created much earlier by Doug Engelbart.