Well I'm still waiting for a PM from Jake as I'm not convinced that libimobiledevice is able to substitute any of the store and / or sync functionality and certainly appears to lack any consolidating interface. I'll need some advice as to the correct version upgrade procedure for Mint v12/13. Couldn' find the musik/ musique site(s). As much as I despise the apple business model I had to think long and hard before investing in this device and the main clincher for me is that "it just works". I'm happy to tinker with my desktop console at home but I rely more and more on my ipad as my main device for everyday use. I'm certainly not threatening to pull the pin but full sync functionality is simply a make or break for me to decide whether to stick with linux or run a dual boot with windows. I'd seriously consider falling back to the iBook G4 for sync but again I invested in a more expensive tablet for a reason, and for better or worse now that's what I'm stuck with. Is the story any different for samsung/Nokia/windows phone users anyway?