Non-iTunes software

[Tim Burton]

Can anyone suggest a non-iTunes program that can connect to the iTouch or the Nano 3G that doesn't have the DRM issues, but doesn't cripple iTunes with regards to the programs and games install?

[Alathald]

I only rip my music to FLAC (a free lossless audio compression format) on Ubuntu with SoundJuicer because it sounds grrrrreat! and use another program to either burn a cd or move to an mp3 player (believe it's called Brasero but I'm not at my computer ATM) because it does on the fly compression. For a music player I use RhythmBox which is a LOT like iTunes insofar as the layout.

Of course all this stuff is Linux so I'm guessing you'll need some Windows apps Lets see here...
CDex - uses same basic ripping algorithm as SoundJuicer
CDBurnerXP - Great alternative if you don't have Nero
WinAmp or MediaMonkey - if you want to try something other than iTunes, both these are pretty good and have iPod plugins

Should free you up from DRM, though you'll still have to rerip all the songs that already have DRM on them as there's no easy way to remove it.

[Tim Burton]

Yea, I use Winamp for my music library, but I was wondering about programs to upload to the iPod. My old iPod I used Anapod, but they don't support the newer ones.

[martini161]

drms can be removed by burning all your songs to an AUDIO cd if you want, but NOT by burning the FILES to a data disc, that wont work

[Alathald]

Here's a list of iPod Managers, might want to check the miscellaneous features first and make a note of which managers support your iPod [link]

Floola (from the above list) looks promising, might give that a looksee [link]