graystrickland said:
I guess I show my naivete with every question. I see friends who use AOL and wonder how they can put up with it. And the answer is, because they just don't know any better.
Hey, I have an AOL account!
There are so many solutions out there it's dizzying. If you want an all-in-one, go with Media Center 9.
If you are looking for a toolbox approach (what I personally do), my toolbox consists of the following:
Tag & Rename for tagging
CDex for ripping MP3's
XPlay for manging content on the iPod
Winamp 2.9.x for playing MP3's
KaZaa Lite for... just kidding...
But seriously, the three main all-in-one's are so similar yet so different. MusicMatch Jukebox is hated (even by Mac users) for a variety of reasons, although, it does (usually) work with the iPod.
Windows Media Player 9 does work with the iPod but requires XPlay's plug-in. A bit more powerful than Jukebox, but it does need an MP3 plug-in and an iPod plug-in (both are commercial software) to work with the iPod.
Then you've got the iPodlounge favorite of Media Center 9. Powerful software with tons of features (one of the more recent big ones being iPod support).
Oh, why Winamp 2.9.x instead of 3? Well, Winamp 3 is basically done for. Nullsoft is going to merge the two seperate code bases into one unified product. For now, 2.9 is the fastest and most stable build of Winamp available.