Just placed my order for a Rio receiver on Amazon (which claims to have stock again). Sorry everyone, but everytime I buy the "superior" and/or "open" solution for MP3s it gets deprecated.

PJB100 - the first (and still the best sounding) portable hard disk player. Sold by Compaq to Hango and now for all purposes EOL. Although units continue to be available for sale, all manufacturer support has gone. Its down to the hackers, thank God they GPL'ed the SDK.

RioCar - nuff said. Again, thank God for open standards and hackers.

Rio Receiver - soon??

Hope not, but the price drop and giving them away with Rio Central's smell like EOL stock clearance moves. Did they announce the RioCar EOL before or after the price drop?

I agree completely. I have been more than frustrated with the lack of support for these units. I have the Dell model, but gave up on it a few weeks ago. It now sits on the shelf with my other unsupported technology. The TurtleBeach AudioTron I am using now is really nice. And most importantly... NO LINUX. I am trying to think of a good use for the Dell at this point. Perhaps I will stick it in my daughter's room with a couple small speakers.

If anyone is interested in it... Make me an offer.

-Dana

Did they announce the RioCar EOL before or after the price drop?

Before, as I recall.

Linux is the reason that I bought this. Sure I am concerned that it will be EOLed soon. But with a Linux kernel, as a group we can keep it going for as long as we need. And from what I have seen of Empeg support, I think that they will help us all keep them going on the hardware level with repairs.

How much do you want for the Dell? If it is cheap, I'd love to have it.

Hey, I PM'd first, so I get dibs! Actually, I just made an offer, but I'm sure you'll beat it cuz it wasn't much.

The TurtleBeach AudioTron I am using now is really nice. And most importantly... NO LINUX.

I'm replying because I am curious about the last part of that statement. To me, the OS of a device like this dosen't matter much as long as it works.

I do agree though, Turtle Beach has done a better job of supporting the AudioTron compaired to the support from Rio on the RioReceiver. Many bugs still plague the RioReceiver that have existed since day one, while other Rio products including the RioCar, RioVolt, and other lines have seen the support they deserve. Honestly I think Rio has spread empeg too thin. From the hints dropped by the people there, they have quite a few projects in development, along with the need to maintain 3 released products. It's been said that the RioReciever will see an update after 2.0 is released for the RioCar, but 2.0 has been in public beta for many months now. It could still take a few more months before the empeg folks have enough time to pay attention to the Receiver.

On the other side of the fence, Turtle Beach has released many updates to the Audiotron, adding web control, and fixing tons of issues.

The recent low prices from several places, lack of a non US rollout, and no huge push for an update has me worried an EOL is nearby as well.

I don't mean any of this in a harsh way against any of the empeg people, it's just that it seems Rio expects way too much out of a small UK office they bought.

Crap its bad enough getting sniped on eBay trying to get a tuner for a Rio Car. Now it even happens here. LOL. ;-)

Don't mean to be hard on Linux... It's a good operating system. Though my company uses Unix to run our Oracle servers on HP N class towers. We also run Unix on a V class for our backup system. We can't really use Linux for enterprise, as it really has no corporate support.

As for our application servers, everything is Windows2000 Server... Which is what my servers run at home. And XP Pro for all the desktops, at home and at work.

I never bash Linux, though I get really sick of Linux heads (and apple for that matter) that have to constantly rip on microsoft. It's funny at first, but after a while, it just starts to sound like penis envy. To them I say, if you don't like microsoft, don't use it. As free operating systems go, Linux is clearly the best thing going. (I like the Marduk version)

So, with that said... My reason for not wanting the Dell anymore is not because it runs Linux... It's simply the lack of support, the absense of a tos-link output, and the fact that the software is lacking (plus it does not run well as a service).

It is in perfect condition, and will include all it's original remote, cables, manual, cd, and even the original box. I will also pay for shipping anywhere in the continental US. $110 will be the magic number, but I am not sure how to do the payment thingie... Think of it... No tax, no shipping, and in the more-attractive(imo) Dell branded shell.

I have one friend here interested in it, but he seldom coughs up the money when he says he wants stuff...

Going once..........
-Dana

Sorry. Its the "War of Religions" and I can't let that one go.

Background. National IT Manager for a major multinational. Backoffice is a combination of UNIX (Tru64, HP-UX and SCO), Windows NT and Linux (Debian). Home systems are XP. MCSE and CCNA.

IMHO. Best enterprise class OS (free or closed) is BSD. Yahoo has always been hosted on BSD and it is the most natively secure and reliable OS I know of. Why I like any xNIX over MS server crap is the inevitable reboot. Change nearly anything on a MS server and you have to reboot. When you are measured against 99.99% availability, too many reboots and there goes your bonus out the window. I haven't authorised a xNIX reboot in a year. In that time we have added hard disks, changed UPSes, updated OSes. All without a restart. When your bonus is 40% of your base pay and it is linked to uptime, believe me when I say that Gates, Ballmer and Muncie are the Three Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Thus endeth the rant. If you will all now turn to hymn 143 "Oh Lord, Thou Art So Big."

As far as your unit goes, I would think that you would only get that kind of money on eBay for a used Dell unit. If you would consider $70 USD I would be interested. If not; thanks anyway and good luck.

Looks like you know what you are talking about... I just saw your bid on eBay. I was going to bid on it until I saw it was you. Hopefully no jackass will snipe you.

A scholar and a gentleman. Thanks. I cancelled my order on Amazon as it looks like I can score one or two on eBay for less (nice change). Amazon still hadn't shipped or tried to my authorise my card after 36 hours. I think they aren't in stock yet, but are "expected" to be.

Well, it's gone. Enough said about that.

As for the OS wars... I don't think there really is one. Use whatever works for you, I guess.

As for my background. I have been in what is now known as 'IT' since 1984. I work for Corporate Services (IT) for a Fortune100 international coporation. Until recently, we WERE the largest corporation in the world, but have recently slipped to 3rd... We use Microsoft. If we ever moved away from it, I would go to a different company.

Finally, for the group as a whole... Keep up the good work. I'm sure it would be nice for those with the 'unsupported' Empeg/RIO/DELL receiver to have hopes for better software. I think it's a cool little product, and had some features that are even better than the AudioTron (the gap between tracks is less noticable, for one). I did get a lot of good information from reading this message board. So thanks to all.

-Dana

Oh yeah. My dad can beat up your dad.:0

If that is who you work for; then I know you have *NIX for your ERP and EDI implementations, not just Oracle. MS is for office app support as far as I was told.

MS rules the desktop, no question about it. But, as a rule, the enterprise still belongs to *NIX, OS/390, MVS and sometimes (heaven help us) VMS.

Congrats on the sale; but as new Rios (with HPNA card for the server) sell for $145 at Amazon, that seemed a little steep to me.