I resisted Apple products for a long time for the same reason. As someone who was brought up with a command line OS and a basic knowledge of file structure I hate how Apple "tries" to take this away from their users.
I say try. I bought a MBP in 2009 because I loved the physical machine (aluminum unibody). With time I was able to use the OS without it controlling me. All of my music is ripped on EAC in MP3 VBR format. I add the folders to iTunes and do not allow it to "organize" the folders for me. I do not use iPhoto because of the way it treats the files. I maintain my own file structure. I can see how this would frustrate a lot of people. I put up with it because I think it's the best combination of hardware and software available at this time.
> All of my music is ripped on EAC in MP3 VBR format.
Why exactly? MP4 (M4A) is a less patent-encumbered format, and also has higher sound quality for the same filesize, and still plays on everything (except, I guess, decade-old MP3 players.) I can understand not wanting to use DRMed/fingerprinted songs downloaded from iTMS, but the file format itself is just better. Or are you one of those people who sticks to using RARs now that 7zip/libxz exists?
I haven't spent the time to stay up on codec development. I by all of my music in a physical format (usually a CD). I like the redundancy and the DRM free-ness of it. The last time I seriously investigated (and ripped the bulk of my library) was in 2005 when I was also active on Oink. The prevailing opinion then was that EAC with LAME and VBR was the best trade off of a secure rip, high audio quality and small file size. To let iTunes rip with it's default AAC codec produced to many errors. Also, at the time I was on a Windows machine and iTunes was so bloated and slow I refused to use it. I had an early iPod with Rockbox which freed me from the need to ever use iTunes.
When I got my MBP, I initially used RubyRipper. Then I found XLD and have been happy with it since (using LAME+VBR settings).
I resisted Apple products for a long time for the same reason. As someone who was brought up with a command line OS and a basic knowledge of file structure I hate how Apple "tries" to take this away from their users.
I say try. I bought a MBP in 2009 because I loved the physical machine (aluminum unibody). With time I was able to use the OS without it controlling me. All of my music is ripped on EAC in MP3 VBR format. I add the folders to iTunes and do not allow it to "organize" the folders for me. I do not use iPhoto because of the way it treats the files. I maintain my own file structure. I can see how this would frustrate a lot of people. I put up with it because I think it's the best combination of hardware and software available at this time.