Since I have been migrating my environment from Windows XP to Ubuntu Linux I thought that one of the difficulties that I would have would be to find an iTunes like application to play my podcasts.
I already have a solution for the music. I have been re-encoding my CDs in the Ogg Vorbis format. I may still need to come up with a way to update my iPods but I suspect that this issue my never come up. If it does, I will then look for a substitute.
As for the podcasts, I realized today that Google Reader can play a podcast just as easy as an RSS feed, so I migrated the majority of my podcasts over to Reader. This evening, when I went to play my first podcast, Google Reader just hung. My first thought was that it had to download the complete podcast before starting. This would be quite annoying. I like the fact that iTunes downloads first and then allows you to play anytime in the future.
I then realized that Ubuntu does not come with an MP3 encoder! This has something to do with the fact that MP3 is not an open source format and Ubuntu is comprised of software that is completely open source. This means that I will have to download an MP3 encoder, install it, and give this test another shot tomorrow.