I've heard (and read) some stuff about being able to play Ogg Vorbis on iPod (not iRiver), something about putting a Linux distro on it, and similar things.

Does anyone here know whether it is possible, what are the advantages and disadvantages of the Linux on iPod, and how does this behave (sound?) overall?

Many thanks.

You should find answers to your questions here: http://www.ipodlinux.org/Main_Page
I have not used it myself, so cant say anything about the sound quality.

iPod Linux is not usable. It does not play MP3, let alone AAC with any reliability (read: usually garbled, sometimes crashes). I did not test Ogg, but I do not expect good results.

Wait for QT7 for Windows and the subsequent iTunes 4.9/5.0 release and re-rip your CDs to VBR AAC.

Depends on encodings quantity. In my example it would be much easier to buy Rio Karma or iRiver iHP. Anyway IMHO there is no player which will force me to change my codec preference.

You'd rather buy a new player than re-rip your albums?

In my situation yes - I store my encodings on CD-Rs (Taiyo Yuden or Mitsubishi). I come with about 200 CD-Rs. If you count the COST of 200 CD-Rs + time to spend to rerip, recode, retag and reburn and all the fuss + preference of my chosen codec (no matter what is it) - may be you'll agree with me.

sorry couldn't resist - 200 cd's is really not that much:) (i'd say ~3days with test&copy in eac )

depends, if the 200CDRs are filled with mp3s or vorbis files, than I wouldn't consider reripping ^^

Not 200 CD's, 200 CD-Rs with ENCODINGS on them!

Perhaps it's time to buy a hard disk?

Spill the beans...what bit-rate?

People! Stop mocking at me! I just bought a new one FOUR days ago due previsious hard drive had died. Luckily, as I mentioned before, I store my music on CD-Rs and I often make backups of important info so I lost not so much info.
By the way if I had followed your advice I would lost all of my encodings. I realy prefer optical media solutions. Especially now.
The best thing is if you accidentally scratch or broke one of them - it's just the one, it's easy to rebuild it while others are safe. IMHO.

The average comes to about 210 kbs. I should explain. Actually it's not just my collection. There are 5 owners: my father, two brothers, my wife and me. I believe I have rights to encode and listen to my wife's or father's CD's . My taste covers only abou 35% of the collection. But since nobody except me likes computers I am nominated as KEEPER of collection. Of course there are some duplicates as original and remastered versions, there are lives. So this way I come to that quantity.

Perhaps the Short re-encoding blind listening test would interest you:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/lofive...php/t32440.html

Perhaps this newly developed decoder can do what Tremor cannot, and play Vorbis on the iPod? Does anyone have more details about it?