My daughter has just been gifted a new iPod Nano, and the thought of installing iTunes along with it's equally bloated sibling Quick Time, fills me with a deep unhappiness.

Googling has indicated that it is possible to use an iPod without iTunes, although none of the alternatives I've found are really anywhere near as slick and easy as the bloated monster itself.

It might just be bearable to install iTunes as a 60mb standalone application, but when it needs a 70mb install of it's evil twin Quicktime to make it work, then it really is a royal pain to even think about it.

So all you iPod users out there, is there a viable alternative to iTunes, or is it's convenience and user friendliness worth biting the bullet for?

As always, thanks in advance.

Even though I love Windows and will most likely will never buy a Mac, I don't mind the iTunes/Quicktime install. It makes syncing everything easy, and you can delete the items that want to start with Windows, because they are unnecessary. And, when they come up with new firmware/software for the iPods, I don't know of another way to get it on to the iPod outside of iTunes.

AJ

Or just buy her a Techniq turntable, Fisher amp, Teac reel to reel, Advant speakers, and 1000 vinyl records.

Hi AJ, thanks for the input. That was my next question. Can these services be removed from startup etc without spoiling her iTunes experience?



I have no idea what the mDNSResponder is. It's just appeared so I'm asuming it's part of iTunes. I'll have to Google it.

DNSResponder is a Service in XP. I don't know what mDNSResponder is.

Don't know if this will come in handy Dennis

http://www.raymond.cc/blog/archives/2008/0...nsresponderexe/

Thanks Hazel, I've disabled that service, but I've bookmarked the link for when I find out for certain it's not needed.