ipod :)

ipod :)

Posted Nov 28, 2005 19:23 UTC (Mon) by vputz (subscriber, #5639)
In reply to: ipod :) by astrophoenix
Parent article: The Grumpy Editor's guide to music managers

> it is proprietary, but it is also very, very, very
> nice.

So was BitKeeper.

Don't get me wrong. I *like* Apple. I love my (wife's) iPod. I'm fascinated by the one company among tech design firms which actually puts some thought into the "design" side. I even admire BitKeeper, for that matter. No one says that all proprietary software is bad software.

That's not the point. The point is that NO MONOCULTURE IS SAFE--particularly when that monoculture owns your data. If you are dependent on a single proprietary source code version manager, things get nasty when the software is removed and you have to flail to get control of your own data. If all your music is controlled by a single proprietary digital music player, that digital music player has way more control over your data than it should.

A better solution would have an open, vendor-neutral repository format which could be accessed by various front-ends, with separate back-ends to upload to a player of your choice, supporting whatever players you may wish. I'm alarmed that RockBox isn't supported more; I don't have a player that supports it (I can't carry any digital storage device at work, so don't have a player) but it looks like a fantastic project.

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