One of the things people complain about with the karma is the scrolly wheel on the side is cheap. They break easily and they wear out. A friend of mine went through 3 of them under warranty. He didn't use the vorbis stuff anyway, so he sold it and got an ipod mini instead. Personally, I love my ipod. One of the advantages to buying the ipod, is if you ever decide you hate it, you can get almost what you paid for it on ebay. This little app makes the ipod even more useful: http://www.kainjow.com/pod2go/ On Sep 6, 2004, at 1:01 PM, Eric Lambart wrote: > On Sun, 2004-09-05 at 01:22 -0500, Ian Stoner wrote: >> I would like to get an 128 or 256 MB mp3 player to take along while >> running or engaging in other forms of monotonous physical activity. >> It >> has to support GNU/Linux, which, as I understand it, means it has to >> function as a USB mass-storage device. It has to be reasonably >> durable. >> I'd prefer that it plays ogg vorbis in addition to mp3. >> >> I've been looking at the Creative Nomad/Muvo, which definitely meet >> the >> first criterion, dunno about the second, and they fail the third. >> Does >> anyone have experience with the Nomads? Are there players that people >> like better? > > I don't know about their flash players, but I've got the Diamond Rio > Karma 20GB player, and it is awesome. > > Not only does it do USB2 (not as file storage, per se, though for some > reason they are apparently planning to switch to a "normal" FAT-based > filesystem in the future), but the base unit has a built in ethernet > port (!), which makes it super easy to connect (and results in faster > xfer for those who only have USB1) to a linux box. You don't *need* > the > base unit to charge it. And though it doesn't use a standard file > system, it does have a "Rio taxi" feature that allows you to use the > unit for non-audio file transport. I've never used that. > > They have an officially sanctioned "lite" cross-platform (Java) player > that is (somewhat?) open-source, and works very well in linux (the > "full" software suite is Windows-only, and I've never used it). It's > intuitive and a breeze to use. I use the latest development version, > which doesn't have the official stamp of approval yet. > > The operating interface on the unit itself is fantastic. Oh, and it > does support Ogg of course. That's one of the main reasons I bought > it. > > I had one of the original Diamond Rios and as truly *useless* as that > unit was IMO, I was favorably impressed at that time by Diamond's > engineering--and VERY grateful for their having won the lawsuit that > legalized portable digital audio players. I didn't read any reviews on > the Karma until I already brought it home, but I found this one on the > web that sums up the Karma really well, and has heart-warming things to > say about Diamond's engineering team as well: > > http://lonelymachines.org/karma.html > > I believe Diamond also produces flash RAM models, and if that's what > you're set on getting, I suggest at least check out Diamond's > offerings. > If they're anywhere near as good as the Karma, you'll be stoked. > > Eric > > > > _______________________________________________ > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > Help beta test TCLUG's potential new home: http://plone.mn-linux.org > Got pictures for TCLUG? Beta test http://plone.mn-linux.org/gallery > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota Help beta test TCLUG's potential new home: http://plone.mn-linux.org Got pictures for TCLUG? Beta test http://plone.mn-linux.org/gallery tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list