Using a Pocket Audio Recorder with Linux?

Michael asks: "I'm in the market for one of those portable, pocket audio recorders, to use primarily for dictation and spoken-word recording in the field. Previously, I used microcassette for this purpose but it's time to go digital. My only two prerequisites are that it use SmartMedia cards (as with my digital camera), and write a file format that can be used with Linux. To my surprise, this is turning out to be a difficult request."

"The Olympus series of digital voice recorders seem to be the most popular hardware in this category, and they're cheap, but they write files in a proprietary DSS ("Digital Speech Standard") format that can't be converted under Linux. It looks like people have been wondering about this format for years, but as of today it remains inaccessible for free software users.

Solutions I've come up with are (1) to get a pocket MP3 player that can also record, like the MPIO DMG MP3 Player (expensive for my task, though, at $200); and (2) the handheld multi-track recorder, the Korg PXR-4. An ideal setup would have a headphone or speaker jack for playback, and a mic/line input so that it could be used to make digital recordings from another hardware source (like TV or radio), and used with special microphones like a parabolic mike."