What was keeping me using it was its ability to rip audio files into MP3 format. I downloaded CDex, free software, which enables me to do that, and then uninstalled Musicmatch.

Musicmatch, after “uninstalling,” left behind about half a ton of cruft on my hard drive and in the Windows registry, of course. It took me the better part of an hour to really get rid of it, and I know there’s still orphaned traces of it here and there in the Registry.

This is why people give up on Windows altogether and move to Linux. Why I, a professional UNIX system administrator, am still running Windows XP at home is either one of the mysteries of our age or (more likely) a testament to my innate laziness and sloth.

I don’t share your anti-Mac sentiment, but I dislike the price tag, which is what keeps me in the Intel world.

I would think either iTunes or Windows Media Player should be able to do all that stuff (with the possible exception of disc-to-disc; I only have one CD drive anyway, so I’ve never tried that).

Between those two, iTunes is probably preferable, even though I hate Macs. It takes a bit longer to start up than WMP, but it seems to burn CDs MUCH faster.

The only drawback that I can see to iTunes is if you have a portable MP3 player that isn’t an iPod; it doesn’t seem to work with those.