Itunes has lost me now i discovered it can't use FLAC. Some albums just shouldn't be data compressed.

I have two questions for our more wise linux-audio community.

What's the best iTunes alternative?

And... What's the best open source iTunes alternative that will run on mac and GNU/Linux?

Because I'm kind of keen on sharing the same player on my mac as my GNU-top, but hosting my library on a flash drive. However if there is one distinct forerunner that happens to be Linux only (Amarok?) Then I might be happy to settle for two different players.

Thanks guys

what do you need in a music player?

I'm happy using Rhythmbox, but I'm not sure if it runs on Macs. From my research, Amarok is the best for Ipod synchronization and that sort of thing -- maybe try http://amarok.kde.org/wiki/On_OS_X? I thought Amarok 2.0 was worse than the previous version and downgraded it back, but maybe 2.1 is better. I've also heard Banshee and Songbird mentioned in discussions like this, but I haven't tried them.

Also, I hate that Itunes and Ipods don't support FLAC -- seriously, what kind of bullshit is that?

I managed my library "by hand" and use whatever player I have available on the distros I use.

On MacOs I use MacAmp Lite X since I found it has the best FLAC playback engine (dunnu why but VLC has some "glitches"). It is already opened so i also use it for Mp3 playback...

On Debian, I stick to VLC or Totem.

For the FLAC support on iTunes, I agree with ichabod, that's real bullshit, but that's proprietary software...and they try to impose their AAC format. But anyway my iPod just died a week ago and iTunes just is too resource-hungry for my laptop.

I'm on winxp, and since a couple of weeks i'm using foobar2000. it has an option to sync with your ipod and does flac and is quite fast too...