HappyEvilSlosh wrote: > Courtesy of the recent WGA I've managed to pimp out Linux to a few > nontechnical friends. However one of them is looking at buying a > portable mp3 player and I have no working knowledge of them so I'm going > to assume at least one person here knows what they are talking about and > ask advice. I'd like an idea of what will/won't work with Linux > (specifically Ubuntu) and is good at a price range of somewhere between > $100 and $200. > > --Slosh > > > For a birthday present I was given a Samsung YP-U2, this is a 1gig mp3 (only) player which resembles a large pen drive with small screen, with socket for headphones in the side and 2 small buttonson the side. Next to screen is 4-way controller (up, down, left, right) and centre "enter" button to contol volume or navigate through folder structure of songs. I believe it will be in your price range. Battery time is 5 and a half hours. Use with suse (and no doubt any other recent distro) is as hard as: a) plug in b) wait a few seconds c) view konqueror window displaying files d) drag and drop or delete songs into whatever folders you create.
Screen and control not nearly as cool as an ipod. Meets my needs just fine though - sounds great, lasts through several gym workouts or nearly a whole day skiing. Cheapest ipod nanos (1gig) are around $250 - about to get one for youngest daughter - this is enough for 200 or more songs, so around 10 hours or more of music. Out of the price range you specify but far better useability than the samsung from the plays I've had with my other daughter's one. Ripping MP3s from CD - kAudioCreator - rips to mp3, ogg, flac. Easy... hth - roger
