I have iTunes 4 on my Mac. With this new version, the AAC format was introduced, and the iTunes music store uses a protected version of the format. Once you get the latest Quicktime installed, then you can also rip CDs to unprotected AAC. It seems as though there is a free software project to encode and decode AAC. There is also an XMMS plugin which uses the previously linked library.

This is great, as I can listen to music which I purchased on my Linux boxes too. Woo-hoo.

Whatever you do though, don’t visit XMMS.org for the time being. The site has been recently redone and I really think you won’t like their new site design. It’s seizure-inducing. It’s atrocious. It’s probably the worst looking website on the Internet right now (or it should at least come close). Ouch.