[Blarg]

Depends: you can get a flash player, which hold much less(8 gigs tops right now) but are far more durable, or a disk-based player, which can go up to 80 gigs for now.

I wanted something I could bonk around without worrying too much about it, so a flash player was for me. I got an 8 gig Sandisk Sansa e280 and am really happy with it. I got some 2 gig microSD disks to put in it, too. Also found an outstanding belt/arm clip integrated with a case for it too. Pretty happy with it except that standard earphones are pretty average, like most standard earphones.

Just got in the Ultimate Ears super.fi Pro canal earphones, and am digging them a lot. I can really hear things I couldn't before, even music I've listened to for years. However, they say good earphones means you often wind up dissatisfied with music you have recorded at low bitrates. I'll see as I go through my collection and compare to the same song at a higher bitrate.

You definitely don't need iTunes, and there is no shortage of people who think the ipod is overpriced and poorly built. Look around and see what you like.

My two choices were the one I got for flash, the Sandisk Sansa e280, 8 gig, and the HD-based Creative Zen Vision M 80 gig. So far so good on the first choice, and I may get the second one too, just not right away. FWIW, rumor is they are coming out with a thinner version of the latter soon.