Noobs negative opinion of the Rockbox homepage

[RockboxNoobie]

The list of supported devices on the home page contains a lot of devices which aren't for sale anymore because they are too old. It would be nice and convenient to have a list of players which are currently available for sale, say on Amazon, Best Buy, the manufacturer, whatever -- directly linked at the top of the homepage, with legacy, no longer for sale devices perhaps listed below that.

[saratoga]

The list of supported devices on the home page contains a lot of devices which aren't for sale anymore because they are too old. It would be nice and convenient to have a list of players which are currently available for sale, say on Amazon, Best Buy, the manufacturer, whatever -- directly linked at the top of the homepage, with legacy, no longer for sale devices perhaps listed below that.

I think just the Clip Zip and maybe the Clip+ if you can find it.  Its typically the case that devices aren't supported until after they are no longer for sale.

[[Saint]]

It might help if users had a better understanding of the classification system, then again, it may make things worse - I'm not sure. I'm not even sure how we would do that.

"Supported" targets and "unstable"/"unusable" targets, seem to confuse the users. Even with the blurb provided describing the target classification, it isn't clear to them that some "unstable" targets are actually really, really solid, or that some "unusable" targets are in fact very usable. Best case scenario is what is currently happening, and the port page for the devices is linked to - though that information isn't necessarily guaranteed to be up to date.

In regards to purchasing a device specifically for Rockbox, if there is an impression given somewhere that current devices are specifically targeted for development, that may be something worth clearing up - but again I am totally unsure how to do this. Fact is, developers work on whatever they want to, this usually seems to be governed by hardware and chance. I don't know of any developers that specifically buy "the next big thing" to hack on, as opposed to acquiring "a last big thing" cheap in a sale, or being given it, or acquiring it through other means (public donation for instance).

That being said, /most/ of the devices listed on the front page can still be purchased second hand. They are certainly out there. Although there are a couple of unicorns there indeed. A few of them can still be purchased new, Clip Zip, and Clip+ are still available I believe, as well as (scarily) the iPod Classic (which is one of those "unusable" targets), as well as a host of various refurbished Sansas.

Pawn shops are usually a goldmine. I can't stress that enough, if there are any pawn shops in your area, go have a look. I myself have picked up a few bargains from such places, its certainly worth a look.


[Saint]

[AlexP]

Are you willing to keep up-to-date what players are available from what shops in which countries?

[Julian67]

...A few of them can still be purchased new, Clip Zip, and Clip+ are still available I believe, as well as (scarily) the iPod Classic (which is one of those "unusable" targets), as well as a host of various refurbished Sansas.....
[Saint]

Also the Sansa Fuze+ is still available both new and refurbished (confirmed available new from amazon US and UK).  It's one of those very usable "unstable" targets and is even supported by the installer application.

RockboxNoobie might not be aware that Rockbox is also available as an Android app so the number of supported devices currently available new is actually a lot bigger and much harder to quantify than it first seems.

[saratoga]

We have this linked from the buyers guide:

http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/BuyersGuide

Which is on the front page, but its a pain to keep up to date.

[Primefalcon]

hmm if someone could be bothered porting it to DOS, it would work anywhere dosbox does

[saratoga]

hmm if someone could be bothered porting it to DOS, it would work anywhere dosbox does

To be clear, if you just want to run rockbox on a PC (which is fairly useless aside from development), it already compiles and runs on Windows/Linux.  No need for dosbox. 

[Primefalcon]

yeah but then there's BeOS solaris, heck dosbox even runs on android, ios and Amigaos.. just saying dosbox runs everywhere

[saratoga]

yeah but then there's BeOS solaris, heck dosbox even runs on android, ios and Amigaos.. just saying dosbox runs everywhere

You can run rockbox on most of those platforms as well.  If you really want, you can try and port it to dosbox (if thats even possible), but its probably easier to just port to whichever device you want to run it on.

[Primefalcon]

hmm I might give it a shot.... even if just for a fun project

[theuserofallusers]

I agree to disagree I think that rockbox should be for the older players because, lets face it the old ones are nice but with all the new improvements in technology the newer players don't really need upgrading cause most already have games video players...ect I have been trying to figure out rockbox for more devices but ii feel like there is really no point

[Primefalcon]

I don't know, I got an Ipod 1g nano when they first came out... and was considering sending it back to get a free upgraded to the latest nano, decided not to since rockbox supports everything and doesn't require using rhythmbox or such to transfer files plus.... with text editors, image viewers and video playback.... what more could you want really...IMO nano 1g with RB beats the hell out of the latest gen nano...

You guys have done such an outstanding job that the obsolete hardware.... kicks arse over the newest tech

[Primefalcon]

my wife actually saw me playing a movie on it... and she was like omg what did you do.... that is awesome...she replied by saying if I send it back to apple for the latest nano... I'd be a fool..... I agreed

[toehser]

I agree to disagree I think that rockbox should be for the older players because, lets face it the old ones are nice but with all the new improvements in technology the newer players don't really need upgrading cause most already have games video players...ect I have been trying to figure out rockbox for more devices but ii feel like there is really no point

The manufacturer's interfaces will NEVER be anywhere NEAR as customizable, flexible, and supportive of complex niche uses; so there will ALWAYS be enormous advantages to Rockbox, even if the newer players have games and video etc... I don't run Rockbox for the games and video play ability, I run it for the basic sanity of control, configuration, and customization.  Personally, I'm totally happy with a Sansa Clip Zip, my wishlist has one entry: a way to support more than 72GB.  Oh, I mean, line-input would be nice-to-have, 10x the battery life would be nice-to-have, bluetooth would be nice-to-have, more CPU and RAM would be nice-to-have - but the thing I would gladly pay much more for, or sacrifice small size for, would be a way to cram more flash into it.