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The port is, as yet, not officially supported like the one achieved on first-, second- and third-generation players, and so this is considered an experimental build, much like the one for fourth-generation players.

The iPodLinux project is an open source effort to install the third-party operating system on Apple's music players using the Podzilla core and programming interface

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to provide the GUI.

The developers admit that the default iPod firmware 'is quite good', and urge users to stick with it if it does all they want it to, but point out that by installing Linux on an iPod it 'unlocks the infinite expandability of a hard drive-driven portable device'. In the future they 'hope to make a fully functional Linux distribution available on the iPod platform that will be able to play a greater variety of formats, have better features, and even be compatible with external hardware like flash card readers'.

At present the Linux operating system used on the iPod is capable of playing Ogg Vorbis and MP3 files. An AAC player features in the current beta version. Support for existing platlists is said to be 'immature'.

The new port works on both Mac and Windows formatted iPods of 30GB and 80GB capacities. The port has its own page on the iPodLinux wiki.