[vox] Linux Equivalent to IPod?

[Bill Broadley]

On 04/16/2010 12:28 PM, Bob Scofield wrote:
> I seem to recall a couple of years ago that there was a discussion here about
> Linux devices that were similar to IPods.  I didn't pay attention to it
> because I don't like walking around with ear phones.
>
> But I've recently jointed the Woodland YMCA gym, and when I'm on the exercise
> machines I don't like the music played over the load speaker.  I'm thinking
> about getting an IPod-like device and maybe listening to podcasts or
> something.
>
> I don't like the fact that (the last time I checked) you couldn't download
> from ITunes on Linux because they wouldn't give you Linux software.  I know a
> lot of Linux users like Apple, but I think Apple sometimes cooperates with
> Microsoft to suppress Linux.  So is that a non-Apple Linux device that's like
> an IPod?

Yeah, the apple situation is frustrating.  They make quite nice 
hardware, charge a premium for it, then try to lock you into their whole 
ecosystem.

So on one hand the ipod nano is pretty much unmatched for fit, finish, 
size, and battery life.  On the other hand apple has taken to encrypting 
their metadata database.  Of course so far the opensource drivers have 
been updated and now it works fine.  I keep hoping that by buying apple 
the competition will realize it's worth paying a designer a bit more and 
to work on fit and finish a bit more.

I had an ipod video for 3-4 years before it died, never had a problem.

Seems like the justification for a dedicated music device is dropping by 
the day, these days PDAs and cell phones often have a sound jack and 
micro-sd slot.  Considering a cell phone any time soon?  I'd rather 
carry one device instead of two.  I've used my nokia n800 (PDA/table) 
that I bought for $200 or so and it was a good ebook reader and mp3 
player (mostly audio books).  My current android g1 is a decent Mp3 
player but annoyingly it requires either custom earphones or a $1 
converter cable.  AFAIK almost all new android phones include a standard 
audio jack.

I bought a sansa sense, it was terrible for audio books, but fine for 
music.  The fit and finish were poor, there was a gap in my case, the 
forums weren't particularly pleased with it either.