Bear with me, first time baker here.
I've been looking for a small-footprint OS that's basically a stand-alone MP3 management system. I can't seem to find one, so here's my half-baked idea:
Take your old PC's, with decent hard drive space, and load up this Linux based OS, consisting of mp3 management software. A simple player, list manager, with FTP support for easy MP3 transfer.
Optimum configuration would be through an IR Remote, but mouse control would work through.
A remote-control via web interface could be slick, too.-- RockCrawler, Apr 27 2006 Linux on an iPod http://pag.csail.mi...van/hacks/ipod.htmlMaking mp3 based stereo systems with linux is commonplace. Doing it on an iPod is somewhat more rare, but here's a start. [Jinbish, Apr 27 2006] Someone else trying to get Linux running on a 350Mhz machine http://linux-blog.o...arch-Continues.html [Jinbish, Apr 28 2006] It might be interesting to see what os the mp3 players already use, and see if it's possible to port that over to a more traditional computer.
If you're interested in Linux, there are some really tiny-footprint versions available that will do little more than boot up. Then it's just a matter of installing whatever programs you want to run (mp3-player, ftp thing, etc)
Going off on another tack, I believe there are ways of installing Linux onto your iPod...-- zen_tom, Apr 27 2006 Welcome [RockCrawler] How about running WinAmp on XP on Wine on Knoppix? I'm sure you could get I^2C and and IRDA interface in there, too.
Sadly all are baked, so not much HalfBakery going on, but it might be interesting and fun.-- Dub, Apr 28 2006 perhaps i wasn't quite clear... i'm looking toward an appliance. something that you can use to play mp3's via home stereo. I hope to use my old 350mhz compaq, with a 40g drive full'o'mp3's. I'd like it to boot and start playing mp3's. If i could manage the playlist remotely, it'd be a bonus.-- RockCrawler, Apr 28 2006 Ah. That's pretty doable. Put 'linux mp3' into google.-- Jinbish, Apr 28 2006 random, halfbakery