> Certainly iPods were slicker and cooler, but I definitely didn't care. No SD card slot, had to be synced with iTunes, etc. Was not for me.
I got an iPod Nano when I was in 8th or 9th grade, and I loved it. I loved it for its slickness, its fancy display, etc.
Even so, I didn't want iTunes, as I had a much superior player anyway. And I couldn't run it on my own computer even if I wanted to, because by then I was a habitual Linux user. That was okay! Libgpod had good support for syncing with iPods, even though their on-disk format was needlessly obscure.
But I noticed something, after plugging my iPod into the school computers (which had iTunes) to copy some music onto it updated its firmware. Syncing stopped working!
In the lifetime of that device, I went on to witness a series of firmware updates that made no improvements at all, but broke syncing with 3rd-party apps. My previous MP3 player experience was with the excellent MuVo TX FM, which was basically a USB stick with a battery, and let you load music onto it just by naively copying files. Apple's behavior struck me as extremely user-hostile, coercive, condescending, and irritating, and I never forgot it.
I decided then and there that that iPod Nano would be my last Apple purchase. I kept that promise for more than two decades, even after deciding I wanted to own an Apple computer, making sure to always buy used, even for recent models. I finally caved this year, when I bought a gift for someone else based on their preferences and needs, and wanted to give them something properly brand new.
As for the iPod: it, too, eventually received a Rockbox port, which I installed on it and quite enjoyed for a while, before eventually giving it away.