[BowerR64]

My friend got an ipod for christmas and he only has windows 98, the software says it will only work on windows 2000 and up. Can he upload them to the ipod without using the software? He would have to format his drive just to install the software. That would suck

 

[chia-pet]

There's alternatives to iTunes. I'm not positive whether there are any alternatives for Windows 98, but go ahead and try searching www.ipodlounge.com for some.

 

[Zaied]

Use ephpod, the best alternative to itunes out there. Much better than iTunes in my opinion. Has all the features iTunes does (except the iTunes store), without being intrusive and annoying, plus it's freeware.
ephpod does have a stable Win 98 version out @ www.ephpod.com

 

[easypeasy]

EphPod 2.58 (98SE/ME)
so you can use this instead, there is a reason why custom software is needed, otherwise we wouldn't get the sorting and playlist abilities we chose the iPod for. If you copy MP3s directly to the iPod drive, they wont be indexed inside the playlists so wont appear.

 

[Turnaround]

I used ephpod before apple released iTunes for PC, when iPods came with Musicmatch Jukebox for PC, which was painfully slow. Ephpod was really fast, if bare bones compared to what you can do with iTunes.

I did run into a few problems which I couldn't figure out. If your friend is not computer saavy (hey, he's still using Windows 98), problems may frustrate him to no end.

Also, I don't know how much room your friend has on his harddrive, but when I had problems I ended reformatting my iPod to start from scratch. He should have a back-up plan for his music until he gets ephpod or whatever alternative he uses down pat.

 

[blessingx]

ephpod is a very good alternative for this case, but it doesn't have 'all the features that iTunes does'.

 

[Michael1980]

Self updating playlists is enough to keep using iTunes! With Win98, this is not option.