iTunes sucks. I have much higher ambitions for my own software, but alas I haven’t hit the lottery quite yet. 😛 Anyway, the latest chapter of suckitude is iTunes’ pee-poor handling of remote files on a media file server. What a $(*#@ basic need. I can set up a samba share and see all the media files just fine from my MBP laptop. Then I “Add to library…”, being careful not to copy the GB’s of music down to the laptop by unchecking the iTunes->Preferences->Advanced->[Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library] checkbox. It takes over an hour to scan the directory (what the HELL), and then iTunes proceeds to lock up my machine, perpetually, trying to perform [Gapless playback detection], even though I have crossfading turned off. I get to repeat this process every time I add ONE file to my music collection. Or rather, I don’t, as I refuse to go through ANY of this bullshit ritual.
There was a slight reprieve in the suckitude when I discovered mt-daapd (aka Firefly?), which serves up all your media from a linux fileserver over DAAP, Apple’s sharing protocol. Wahoo, I’m back to loving you, Apple! My media server scans regularly, serving up the files with the greatest of ease, and iTunes is showing all my files under the SHARED tab. Happy happy joy joy! Until I try to drag a file to my iPhone. Strange, it won’t work. Well, not really strange. Kind of predictable. Welcome to the thin Aqua-colored veneer over Apple’s standard corporate behavior. Puke.
I’m mostly bitter because I certainly should have developed a better way by now. Shutting up and dusting off the old drawing board…
