I avoid updating iTunes because every time I do Apple has introduced some new gimmick that's taking another 256mb of ram and making it less useful to run in the background. On my netbook I can barely use iTunes and open a Google Doc because the scrolling causes the music to stutter. I've actually started using WMP when I have a lot of work to do in Docs as it's the only way I'm not hearing stammering music.
Strange how the only thing I've changed on my netbook in literally a year is iTunes and it never used to pull this shit before that Genius and DJ thing appeared.
The worst thing about iTunes on the Mac is that it's absolutely killed the market for any kind of alternative player. I started writing a simpler, leaner player a few years ago but gave up when I realized nobody was going to use it.
The best thing they could do is enhance playback from the Finder a little bit, so you could play not just one track but a whole 'folder'/album. Maybe you can do this on Lion.
iTunes is an abomination at this point. I prefer using Spotify even just for local files.
I strongly advise you to try foobar2000 or pretty much any other music player but iTunes if you're on Windows. Once I switched, a good deal of my computer frustration was gone. iTunes on Windows is a freezing, memory hogging, constantly updating, useless feature adding piece of crap. Virtually all its major competitors are much, much better. I hear it's not so bad on a Mac, but avoid it like the plague if you're on Windows.
Strange how the only thing I've changed on my netbook in literally a year is iTunes and it never used to pull this shit before that Genius and DJ thing appeared.