Leaving the Nest: Goodbye iTunes

I've long despised having to use itunes simply because I bought an ipod. This may seem contradictory but bare with me. I realize that in a way they go hand in hand. The actual itunes program isn't so bad. Its a bit of a memory hog and runs junk in the background, but many programs nowadays do(don't get me started on that). In any case, I deal with it. What really bothers me about what Apple has done here is they bundle software with it. I don't like quicktime. I use a quicktime alternative along with my media player classic and I'm very happy with it. It runs great, fast, small memory footprint, in my book an A+. However, each time itunes updates it forces quicktime down my throat again. I grit my teeth and accept it. Mainly I've been too lazy to find a new program.

This last update though put me over the edge. I get home and I see a download for itunes, I click it and to my horror it says, "now downloading safari". "Well eff that!" I exclaim out loud. I cancel it and promptly begin searching for a new program to manage my ipod that looks nice, runs smooth, and has the options I want. "If only there was an alternative to itunes like firefox is for internet explorer," I wonder.


Behold! Songbird. It is, in fact, by mozilla and looks kind of like an itunes clone. It has user made addons like firefox and will even import my old itunes library! Once again Mozilla has won my heart.