No Zune for you!

so did someone try bootcamp this? just curious.. i heard so much bad stuff about zune marketplace.

I believe what Laurie meant to say was "no out-of-the-box Mac compatiblity." Yes, you could install Boot Camp, or run Parallels (although with Parallels, you'd be limited to USB 1.0 speed because of the limitations in Parallels' current USB support). However, the percentage of Mac users who use either Boot Camp or Parallels is not necessarily representative of a majority of the Mac-using public. And certainly, when Joe Citizen goes shopping for holiday presents this season, they won't be pleased to hear the salesman say "Yeah, it will work with a Mac... if you install this special piece of software, and reboot the system into Windows, and oh by the way, if you're using Parallels, it won't transfer as fast as it would on a real PC..." etc. Us Mac folk come to expect "plug and play" (to ironically borrow a Microsoft phrase) out of our devices. Plug your digital camera in; iPhoto fires up and offers to import your picture. Plug in your USB data device (storage class based MP3 player, flash disk, etc.); it mounts on the desktop, no questions asked.

Zune's DRM is likely to remain limited to Windows, *but* you don't necessarily have to blame USB Media Storage Class (MSC, commonly known as "USB mass storage", though that's technically incorrect). Microsoft's Media Transfer Protocol could work and may even be adopted by the USB implementers:

http://createdigitalmusic.com/2006/07/31/mtp-portable-player-standard-microsofts-mclauchlan-sets-us-straight/

... with support on Linux, to boot (though spotty). The main issue is a chicken-and-egg problem, in that mostly Windows users are buying the MTP-supported devices because there isn't robust support on other platforms, and there isn't robust support on other platforms because everyone is buying iPod. But it's theoretically feasible, and it's as much Apple's lack of desire to support anything other than iPod as the gradual shift from USB MSC to MTP.

As for the DRM stuff, though, Parallels won't work, either, because Microsoft has explicitly said DRM is not allowed on virtualized Windows installs.

There you go, more information than you probably wanted, since I doubt anyone here is lusting after Zune. ;)

Soup nazi.. awesome.

Microsoft is...uneducated! (tee-hee) I wonder how many people would switch over to Mac if Apple stopped making Windows-friendly iPods...

Damn. That's my life ruined. Not. Because a Zune was top of my shopping list for 2008. Ah well, Apple UK can rest easy knowing I'll continue to purchase Cupertino's finest ;)

I believe what Laurie meant to say was "no out-of-the-box Mac compatiblity." Yes, you could install Boot Camp, or run Parallels (although with Parallels, you'd be limited to USB 1.0 speed because of the limitations in Parallels' current USB support). However, the percentage of Mac users who use either Boot Camp or Parallels is not necessarily representative of a majority of the Mac-using public. And certainly, when Joe Citizen goes shopping for holiday presents this season, they won't be pleased to hear the salesman say "Yeah, it will work with a Mac... if you install this special piece of software, and reboot the system into Windows, and oh by the way, if you're using Parallels, it won't transfer as fast as it would on a real PC..." etc. Us Mac folk come to expect "plug and play" (to ironically borrow a Microsoft phrase) out of our devices. Plug your digital camera in; iPhoto fires up and offers to import your picture. Plug in your USB data device (storage class based MP3 player, flash disk, etc.); it mounts on the desktop, no questions asked.

And by that defintion, the Zune ain't Mac compatible out of the box.

John Allen: LOL That was quite amusing I must say, -2 Stars worth of humour no less.

Anyway I knew Zune would not be mac compatible but was surprised to learn that you could not use it was a hard disk to put music and photos on it.

Jeff,
I wouldn't say Bootcamp or Parallels were ignored just for a theme, I think it was ignored because the point of the article was a lack of support for the Mac platform.
Note I said the Mac platform, not Windows running on Mac hardware - which is a workaround and a hack at best for an application such as this. As a sidenote, I would say that this WAS covered in the article, simply by stating XP SP2 was a requirement, it doesn't take a large leap of imagination to determine that bootcamp and parallels would enable you to run windows via those programs. This would still be considered having the Zune supported on the Windows Platform, not the Mac. It still wouldn't be running on the native operating system.
(I'm normally much quieter and lurk more, but the recent influx of trolls is getting quite ridiculous.)

Johnny. Go wash your mouth out with soap and go to bed early! You're being very naughty, and to be honest, you're really not funny. Your father and I are GREATLY dissapointed in you.