New shiny...

I'm admittedly a geek and proud of it. Few things are as enjoyable as getting a new piece of tech to play with, shiny as it were. Thus the highlight of this weekend was spending a little of my bonus money to replace my 2GB iPod Nano with an 8GB Zune.

So far I am quite pleased with my Zune. The UI on the device is slightly clunkier than I'm used with my old iPod, however it's still strait forward and elegant, especially for a Microsoft product. Most of all I'm exceedingly happy to be rid of the blight that is iTunes. In the two years since i first bought an iPod I have come to really despise iTunes. Frankly no software should consume as much system resources as iTunes did performing simple tasks like downloading a file from the internet.

Now the Zune software is by no means perfect. It's UI design is again good, but it's not as flexible as iTunes is. Still I'm willing to forgive some lack of flexibility, since it meets my needs from a media library stand point and seems to run in the background without overly taxing my system. I think the main feature missing is automatic play lists, which is certainly something that could be added as the Zune software continues to evolve.

Long and short of it, Microsoft has succeeded in making an alternative to the iPod, at least as far as I'm concerned.

Sometimes I feel like I've become a huge Microsoft fan boy as I've gotten older. I no longer revel in compiling my own Linux kernel, I love my Xbox 360, I'm super happy with my Zune, and I'm tickled because IT is going to allow me to install Vista on my notebook.