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Ditto. I also had mp3 player reservations and my iRiver ihp-120 (20gb) dispelled (almost) all of them.

1. it plays ogg vorbis
2. 20gb is $300
3. has line-in recording for mic or music; i interviewed gramps and stored hours of talk
4. fm tuner with great reception
5. plug it into an xp box and it just comes up as a drive -- no install cd BS
6. battery lasts longer than fidel castro
7. all accessories included, no cheap forced accessory purchase (earbuds, ac, remote)
8. plays winamp playlists, so i can use same ones on my pc as on iriver
9. pretty small (about size of gameboy pocket)
10. and it looks sexy too, just not quite ipod-sexy.

the only problems i've had are:

1. wait time between tracks (currently about 1 sec) but one day that may be remedied by Rockbox's open source firmware upgrade project
2. can't delete files directly on device
3. gui is a little counter intuitive--i like it fine but if my girlfriend wants to play a song she needs me to queue it up for her
4. needed to replace earbuds after 6 months, bought these sony fontopia earbuds which are awesome

I'm really surprised iRiver wasn't mentioned. I've got the 40GB HP-140 and it's a nice player with FM and the ability to record high quality compressed or uncompressed audio. The interface isn't as nice as the iPod, but with the open source Rockbox firmware being ported to several iRiver models, seems like a pretty serious competitor (especially for the Slashdot crowd).

love for open systems and rebellian against tyranny semms to be innate in me.

I see. That's why you had to wait for iRiver to add video support to your player, presumably in response to Apple upping the ante. That's not freedom, that's market competition. Unless you and I have different definitions of open systems. Or did I miss that day when iRiver went open-source?

You want freedom, try the really free open-source Rockbox. They even managed to add 30fps video playback to some of the 4-year-old Archos Jukeboxes, along with talking menu prompts, user bookmarking, and other goodies. And lucky for you, there's moves afoot to port the Rockbox code to at least some of the iRiver devices.

love for open systems and rebellian against tyranny semms to be innate in me.

I see. That's why you had to wait for iRiver to add video support to your player, presumably in response to Apple upping the ante. That's not freedom, that's market competition. Unless you and I have different definitions of open systems. Or did I miss that day when iRiver went open-source?

You want freedom, try the really free open-source Rockbox. They even managed to add 30fps video playback to some of the 4-year-old Archos Jukeboxes, along with talking menu prompts, user bookmarking, and other goodies. And lucky for you, there's moves afoot to port the Rockbox code to at least some of the iRiver devices.

is there a way, or am I relegated to getting another Zen?

Rockbox does user-defined bookmarks. For Archos, now being ported to iRiver.

Tap the power button to turn it on. Unfortunately, it does not require you to hold the key to activate it and as such, it tends to get accidentally powered up in your pocket.