BookPort and Linux

[T. Joseph CARTER]

I'm considering getting myself a BookPort.  Generally, my understanding is
that under Linux, a BookPort would show up as a basic USB Mass Storage
device similarly to the way the iPod works, but special software under
Windows does extra stuff like synchronizing files, indexing mp3s, and
whatnot.

What I wonder is if there are any Linux users who have one of these things
already, preferably who also use Windows with the appropriate BookPort
software.  If I get one of these things, I will probably want a set of
tools for manipulating the content of the BookPort to whatever degree bash
isn't suitablein a UNIX-based OS, either Linux or MacOS X, probably both.

What sorts of things can a person not do with one of these things under
Linux at this time?  I'm guessing RFB&D and Audible.com are right out, for
the time being.  I also saw something about indexed mp3--whatever that is
exactly.  Everything else (Word document, RTF, mp3, unencrypted DAISY,
etc) should probably work fine--or does it?


Given the Linux hotplug system, it should be possible to set up all of the
major user-friendly features of the Windows software save for support for
DRM'd file formats, and if one can do such a thing without a whole lot of
pain, I'm more likely to shell out the cash for one of these things.  If
it works the way I suspect it will, the hardest part would be the little
hotplug bit that syncs files across when you plug the thing in, and then
only because you have to contend with whatever your distribution does with
hotplug USB mass storage devices on insert.

-- 
"We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, therefore, is not an act,
but a habit."
	-- Aristotle