iTunes, let go of my computer please…

I am really curious about something. iTunes is a media player, right? QuickTime is a codec and a browser plugin for the most part, correct?

I mean, iTunes plays MP3 and other media files, I can see there being file associations to open iTunes with certain file types. I know that it’s meta-data is all stored in XML.

Can someone please explain to me why I would possibly need to reboot after updating iTunes? What kind of hooks are you installing on my computer Mr. Jobs? I don’t understand….

So when iTunes originally shipped it was a cute little media player with I would say at least 60% of the functionality it has now. That was 2001 and I remember it weighing in at around 20.1MB. It’s 2008 and it’s about 70MB. That’s quite the growth considering that the only big changes have been video playback and iPhone management.

Size doesn’t really bother me that much, it’s good software, it could be 200MB and I wouldn’t really care, I just wonder when I am forced to reboot, what else is Apple trying to force into my system.

We already know that they will stop at nothing to trick you into installing Safari for Windows, and they blackmail you into installing QuickTime, but what is it? Mobile Me support?

I am not sure, but I have to say that I am pretty much in love with my Zune lately and the Zune 3.1 software is a much more complete and interesting experience these days. I can learn about bands, who influenced them, who sounds like them, find other uses that like them and see what else they are listening to, and get a regular stream of new music that the iTunes store is too cumbersome to show you easily.

I would have balked if you had told me I would be saying this six months ago, but the truth is even with 3 Macs in my setup, I listen to the Zune device all the time and use the Zune software as my music player. Why you might ask? Zune Pass. Today I open it up and it knows me and says, "Hey dude, the new Nickelback is out and you might also like this David Cook fellow…" I pretty much get all you can eat music (even sweeter with the keep 10 addition) and I download the two albums and crank them as we re-arrange the house today. Who could ask for anything more.

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