There is plenty of good music playing software; furthermore, one may end up saving money by not paying the itunes store =]

I like this unofficial solution.

Um, you have to use the iTunes store? Why does everyone always assume that as soon as one uses iTunes, music is also bought that way? I used iTunes for a long time without ever buying anything there.

You're right, I shouldn't assume that; however, I bet that the majority of the users of itunes use the store because the itunes store has the most buyers of any music store (that fact was true when I read it, but it may have changed, but if it did change, itunes would still be one of the leaders)

Syncing to Apple devices not using iTunes works at best and is a nightmare at worst.

Depends how old your Apple device is. I've got 4 ipods of various vintages (mostly given to me after their owner upgraded or some part of them broke), and they all work fine to sync to Linux boxes using gtkpod.

(Newest one is a 3rd Gen 30Gb, so I don't know about newer ones, but I suspect it's not too terrible)