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Speaking of old MP3 stuff, there was once Sonique but it went by the wayside after it was bought by lycos and the original creative team was disbanded.

Sometimes it's better for everyone if some big corporation doesn't buy an application because then the developers and creative people stay together simply for the love of the project and breakthrus can be made rather than pandering to profit margins......

Google is a very innovative and interesting company. But as soon as Terra purchased Lycos they got rid of most of the interesting and an innovative people. The point is that at time of merger Lycos was could have been successful if the new owners had had the right kind of imagination. As an example the original team for Sonique vanished after the merger...

I used Winamp2 until 2.91 started randomly stopping in the middle of tracks. I swear it was the upgrade to Dell GX240s around here-- everybody started having problems with Winamp. Winamp3 didn't appeal to me very much, so I went through Sonique, Zinf, and a few others too horrible to remember, and finally decided that foobar2000 sucked the least. Its interface isn't pretty by any means, but I keep it minimized unless I'm switching tracks anyway. Beware: It doesn't do ID3v2 tags, only ID3v1. I rip all my stuff to Ogg Vorbis anyway, so that's not my problem :)

My suggestions for the Windows side...

For email I'd definitely recommend Eudora as it can be used free (ad based, but small add window) and isn't suceptible to propagating the many viruses that target Outlook.

As someone previously mentioned, I'd also recommend Opera, again, ad based, but a solid browser and mouse gestures rule!

Someone else also mentioned AVG for antivirus, probably the best option for free antivirus.

CDEX is a great MP3 ripping program that I've always used.

We can't forget Sonique and WinAmp for playing your MP3's. I prefer Sonique but that's just me.

Then of course there's Winzip, Adobe Acrobat, QuickTime, VNC, and ZoneAlarm or BlackIce (all available at download.com). These are all (except perhaps VNC) must have utilities for a Windows box.

not using windows media player in the first place? Bet that'll fix most of your music problems. Don't like winamp? Try thisSonique Media Player instead.

A 2-second Google search yielded this webpage, the poster said "Kristian Wilson, Nintendo, Inc, 1989" said it.

Try Sonique

It was to be called Mantis, and used scripting language called Mantis Markup Language. It was enormously powerful, completely portable, and simple to use.

It's first use was to be in a MP3 player named "Sonique2" until Lycos hijacked the project from it's creators to use as a copy protected music distribution system. Mantis could have changed the world of UI design... Too bad.

Subject says it all really. Do you want to learn more?

One problem I've had with MP3 is that I have yet to find any player that will play consecutive MP3 files with absolutely no break in the audio stream between files

I find that Sonique does a good job at this.

My Aiwa car MP3 player does NOT and it's annoying.

"Firstly, use WinAMP for playing CD's" or XMMS

For something a bit different, try Sonique. It's pretty but a processor hog.

The free Vorbis will always be there. The availability of free encoders plus the standard plugin architecture of music players these days would make embracing and extending a real tough thing to do.

1. Sonique2 is extremely portable and modular.
2. We have had linux and BeOS versions compiling and running in the past. I think it's been a month or two since the BeOS version worked.
3. We're not even going to try to support MacOS versions prior to MacOS X. Hell, the memory management isn't even thread-safe in MacOS 9!
4. The linux version does not rely on libwine or anything dumb like that. Since we're doing all the Window stuff ourselves pretty much (except for the final blit to the screen) keeping things portable isn't so bad.

doesn't shove a bunch of annoying advertising and AOL Instant Messenger into your face.

Wimamp is now owned by AOL just give them some time. Because of the buyout I no longer use Winamp. Go Sonique!!

It's as simple as that. I've found it to be the best, most reliable, and open digital music option. Case in point, Real. I no longer use any Real products. I've also made it Company Policy (yup) that we not their products (that's also a bandwidth issue). Each site I visit that uses the format I send a concise, polite letter saying why I won't use Real and why I want MP3.

I also use Sonique and download MP3s streamed straight to 32mb files, which I then dump to a Rio. Simple, easy, open. Nobody messin' with my HD, nobody tracking me. And now I listen to a LOT more music (and NO fscking commercials), in wide ranging genres.

What the RIAA (and others) needs to realize is that the Internet makes control of digital media impossible. Their products have become (like software) inherently infinite. Pricing based on scarcity will become more and more difficult to maintain. The entire business model needs to change to take this into account. This is not being done. Enough ranting, sorry this is a bit off-topic, but if you have the bandwidth and sit in front of or near a computer for much fo the time, there are vast fields of interesting tones awaiting your inspection, don't let them be taken away from you. (/offtopic rant)

Ever hear of Sonique?

www.sonique.com

gotten pretty nice lately

you could check out Sonique... never used it, but i've heard it's good... that's www.sonique.com.

Ok everyone smoking crack and encoding mp3s in 128k formate can just stop now. (And I only say that is the nicest way) Crack kills, and 128k mp3s hurt. Just say no. I admit I have some 128k mp3s but that is before I saw the light. 192k mp3s is the only way to go. If you don't belive me just try it out. Take a CD (if you have not sold all you old CDs already) and pick a track without lots of base. Try something acoustic. Encode it in 128k and 192k. Then listen to it on your favorite player. Sonique, cough. Now unless you are running some ISA based card that you bought from the Quickemart one late night in the late 70's while searching for something to get a spill off your lesure suit at a party held by cousin/mother. You will see the differance.

Right now, yeah, the U.S. labels are successfully coercing their signees to keep MP3s off web sites. But I notice that in India they don't care. How long will it be before U.S. labels start being completely ignored? After all, MP3 publicity is great for small bands, and small bands are where the newest sound comes from. I think that someday my radio will be Sonique running on my computer, in tandem with a search engine, and if that means RIAA contributors don't get heard except via MP3 on servers in India, or wherever else that they don't care about copyrights, that's fine by me. I'll support an open system over a closed one, every day of the week.