mp3 / media players

now i'm pissed off.  if you've been to our house, you've probably seen the computer that sits in our basement to serve one purpose: loud music.  iTunes is just about the only program that runs on that thing.  I adopted iTunes as my preferred music player about the time that i got my free ipod, becuase apple wants you to use their player and their music store.  iTunes is great, and the probably have the best music store online, and the iPod has been great too, but this one little issue pisses me off and has me ready to get rid of the ipod and itunes to buy a creative zen mp3 player (or something else).

that juke box computer had A LOT of music on it.  the hard drive died.  (i haven't tried to get anything off it yet, but still might be able to)  my ipod has a lot of the music from the hard drive on it.  this would not be a terrible situation if i could get music from my ipod onto a different computer.  it sounds like an easy task, but the way they set that shit up is i have one computer that my ipod is associated with (the jukebox that is now dead).  the only action you can take is to sync the ipod with that one computer (or one playlist on it).  SO, if i delete all music from the computer, syncing the ipod will delete everything from the ipod.  bad situation when the computer your ipod is linked to has a dead hard drive in it.

so i'm sure i'll find some software that will allow me to get all the music off my ipod and onto a different computer, but that should be an easy task.  so i've had enough of this crap.  i'm ready to get rid of the ipod and pick up a new mp3 player, and a new media player.

i want an mp3 player that will:
1.) not lock me into using only one media player, not lock me into using specific audio format, and not lock me in to syncing with only one PC
2.) connect USB and transfer files with windows explorer with no additional software. 
3.) have a FM tuner

i want a media player that will:
1.) organize my music library
2.) have some decent syncing options with the mp3 player i find

i'm thinking a creative zen, or one of the iRiver mp3 players, and a return to my old favorite windows media player.  so i'm just looking for some good advice on the subject, anyone??

PS - it would be a special bonus if the mp3 player would also sync with a good media player for linux! (i don't know anything about media players for linux)