Linux ripping

Well, nothing much to add at the moment, except that I'm being all bold and adventurous (not) and using LB2TR to rip some MP3's from CD. You have to install an extra package to do it, because the MP3 format is not, itself, open source and so is considered 1) counter to the philosophy of Linux and 2) can't be installed automatically I believe without a fee (I'm not as sure of #2). But you can install the codec and then you're good to go. I'm happy to report that the ripping, a la Sound Juicer, is very fast and efficient - more rapid than the comparable operation using Windows Media Player (gosh, there's a shock).

I'm kind of using LB2TR as intended, in that I do use it for music and when I can do it easily I'm using it for other routine operations to continue to get the hang of it. What I am NOT doing is learning the terminal commands and language, which is the heart of Linux, nor am I learning R as I had planned. This is typical of me - I take my new ideas about half way and then get busy with something else. But I'm still plugging, slowly, on this one so I'll see how far I can get it.