iTunes

I am a big fan of Xandros on the Eee PC, but I’ve always said it has its limitations, especially when it doesn’t give me access to my favorite Windows programs. But when my editor told me earlier this week about Wine HQ, I nearly freaked. Wine HQ enables a compatibility layer that allows Windows programs to run on a Linux OS.

Wine isn’t the easiest to configure, but I figured it out with the help of the ever-informed Eee PC forum members. Check out my step-by-step instructions here.

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I’ll be up front about this right from the start: Besides the intrinsic nature of the Internet and cell phone services, I hate—no, loathe—paying for any form of technology that I cannot own. This is why I refuse to pay for cable; I’ll take Hulu over it any day. It’s why I don’t use Netflix. I buy DVDs (if the movie happens to blow, I pass them on to friends or eBay them).

This is why I don’t do subscription music services; the idea of giving up $14.99 per month (and a little bit of my dignity) to rent music from a service like Rhapsody To Go is something that would only happen if the proverbial gun was placed to my head. That’s $179 per year completely wasted should I decide to cancel, as the music files would be rendered unplayable. Sorry, folks, I just can’t do it.

So when The New York Times reported that Apple may be entering a partnership with Universal Music that would allow a person to buy a premium-priced iPod to receive all-you-can-eat access to iTunes, all I could do is stare up at the heavens and pray to the technological gods for this abomination to the musical landscape to be struck down before it’s made manifest.

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