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On this day, 22 years ago, the #Rockbox project started, co-founded by me. We wrote an open source firmware for mp3 players. On its 10 year anniversary 2011, I wrote this:

daniel.haxx.se/blog/2011/12/07…

MikoΕ‚aj HoΕ‚ysz reshared this.

in reply to daniel:// stenberg://

wow I had no idea you were a part of Rockbox! I used to look at it with mild envy, saddened that nothing I could get my hands on was capable of running it :D
in reply to Harsh Shandilya

@msfjarvis I had an unhealthy amount of various mp3 players in my possession back then with the sole purpose to verify and test Rockbox on... 🀠
in reply to daniel:// stenberg://

fond memories...

as I wrote before, this triggered so many things: I switched to linux, I discovered open source, and I changed my professional career back to embedded

and last but not least, the friendships!

thanks for starting it and nurturing the welcoming community! Will never forget!

in reply to Snacks

@amazing_snacks @sushee the original author of the Archos firmware used to say he created Rockbox by making the original firmware so bad it triggered us to make an alternative =)
in reply to daniel:// stenberg://

@sushee @sushee That is totally believable. Thank you for Rockbox! PS My first Mastodon notification!
in reply to daniel:// stenberg://

when we had get-togethers of #rockbox hackers, we did these (silly) towers of devices that could run Rockbox. Look at this beautiful example featuring 78 mp3 players.

More photos here: rockbox.org/wiki/TowerOfRockbo…

in reply to daniel:// stenberg://

I had no idea you were involved in this project. It made my iriver player sooooo much better. Good memories, thanks!
in reply to daniel:// stenberg://

oh you started those too ? I flashed my first iPod in 2004 or 2005 ! It was quite the battery drainer though :shibaohshit:
in reply to erroneous_music

ipod was never the best platform for Rockbox
This entry was edited (11 months ago)
in reply to daniel:// stenberg://

definitely wasn’t, but it was quite the jailbr(..)er then in term of Β« not just reading iTunes imported mp3 and tiny video Β»
in reply to erroneous_music

@err_mus also, the backstory of how the reverse engineering of the first ipod that then eventually ran Rockbox is super awesome. A work of art and patience of steel.
in reply to daniel:// stenberg://

@err_mus
Maybe not, BUT IT WORKED! And any time someone in my car would dial up music they got the Jolly Roger instead of the Apple UI and it was glorious.
in reply to daniel:// stenberg://

OMG I totally recognize the beefy ones on the bottom layer with blue corners. They had full size disks in them and huge capacity.
in reply to Peter Lyons (he)

yeps, a 20GB spinning 2.5" disk in there. 2MB of RAM that would be used to buffer mp3 in addition to run the actual OS and application
This entry was edited (11 months ago)
in reply to daniel:// stenberg://

The original 2MB buffer chip was already a bit small for 128Kbps MP3 and a HDD, but definitely too small for 320Kbps MP3 ripped from my CD 😒
Every time I played music, I remember thinking "when will the HDD die from all the power cycles ?" πŸ˜…

With a Compact Flash and IDE adapter, there is no spin-up time so it's not that bad.

@focusaurus

in reply to daniel:// stenberg://

I think I still have my original Archos jukeboxes somewhere.. both were dramatically improved by those early rockbox releases!
in reply to daniel:// stenberg://

Last week I found out that my iRiver player wasn't working anymore. So sad to see time pass. #mp3
#mp3
in reply to daniel:// stenberg://

Wow, I had one of those iAudio players.

It was an absolute brick, but it worked nicely. Had no idea about this project, and now I wish I'd kept the thing.

in reply to daniel:// stenberg://

Thank you! I think rockbox was my first introduction to running my own firmware on a device I owned. One of the SanDisk MP3 players.

It's a step backwards that we can't buy any old electronics and find a community writing better firmware for it. Too many products, too much firmware to rewrite?

in reply to daniel:// stenberg://

i'm a huge fan. i'm one of the people who have a dedicated music player. i keep it in my shirt pocket. as such it's a requirement all my shirts have a left pocket, even my tshirts, which is my uniform nowadays.

i currently have 15 or more devices running rockbox.

if it isn't running rockbox, it aint going in my shirt pocket!

in reply to daniel:// stenberg://

while we're here, i'll plug an idea i've had for a while now. feel free to roll your eyes or ban me.

i conceived of a means to listen to audiobooks while i'm not fully paying attention.

i split the audio into 5-10 minute clips and repeat them until i feel like i 'got' that clip and then move to the next one.

this way i can listen to something while otherwise distracted and still get the story.

i'd love RB to have a 'loop x minutes' function so this is built in to THE best player!

in reply to daniel:// stenberg://

hah I recently found my Sansa Player in a drawer, running #Rockbox and thought of the amazing project and the community and about the remaining handful of hardware it actually didn't run on. πŸ₯°
in reply to daniel:// stenberg://

Rockbox was definitely life-changing software for me. I was so proud when I first managed to get it installed, at the age of 10 if that. I got a Sansa Clip Plus for about $25, an affordable price, even at that age, and Rockbox made it talk. Similar devices directly aimed at the blind marked are more expensive at least by an order of magnitude. It has served me well for years, up until 2016 or so, when I finally bit the bullet and switched over to listening on a smartphone full time. I definitely have very fond memories of generating audiobooks on my computer with text-to-speech software to play them later on the Sansa, though.
in reply to daniel:// stenberg://

OMG - I actually used that at one point... And had no idea you were behind it! Stellar!
in reply to daniel:// stenberg://

Thank you for developing that Software! It made my mp3 Player a steady companion in my life.
in reply to daniel:// stenberg://

You made my experience with my Cowon 5XL in 2009 so much more enjoyable.

A sleek design with a great cover view that was sadly lacking in the stock ROM and so many nifty features to top it off.

I'm still using mine to this day!

Thank you for your tremendous work.

in reply to daniel:// stenberg://

oh wow, you were involved in that? I loved that project, it gave my iPod Nano superpowers.
in reply to daniel:// stenberg://

it's very late but a huge thank you to you and the whole #rockbox crew who put in this effort. I love love loved it back in the day and very much appreciated the #foss model being a disruptor in the proprietary media player marketplace
in reply to daniel:// stenberg://

My gateway to open source, and to making my MPIO HD300 even more incredible.

Thanks for one of the coolest firmwares ever!

#Rockbox

in reply to daniel:// stenberg://

crazy! I never knew. I still have my Sansa somewhere in a box with Rockbox flashed on it :D
in reply to daniel:// stenberg://

I miss my 3 rockbox devices -- I've had iRiver (little IFP unit), iAudio (X5), and Sandisk (E280)

The latter 2 I even still have! Sadly only the Sandisk actually works well. I do occasionally think about reviving it -- in a few ways it's a better experience than anything on a smartphone.

in reply to daniel:// stenberg://

My first (and only, because smartphones) MP3 player was a SanDisk Sansa Fuse, and I ran Rockbox on it. I don’t recall whether I was after any specific features vs. the vendor software, or if it was just because I was starting to get interested in Linux and FOSS.

Anyways, thanks for making that possible πŸ™‚

in reply to daniel:// stenberg://

Thank you for this amazing piece of software! My Sansa Player got a new life with it! πŸ™‚ πŸ‘
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