Microsoft gets music player all wrong, critics say to avoid

The setup process stands among the very worst experiences I've ever had with digital music players. The installer app failed, and an hour into the ordeal, I found myself asking my office goldfish, "Has it really come to this? Am I really about to manually create and install a .dll file?"
Is this what a parent is supposed to be doing on a Christmas night or rather, week?

- says critic Andy Ihnatko

Here are the first comments of critics -

(1) I've spent a week setting this thing up and using it, and the overall experience is about as pleasant as having an airbag deploy in your face.

(2) The Zune is a square wheel, a product that's so absurd and so obviously immune to success that it evokes something akin to a sense of pity.

(3) The setup process stands among the very worst experiences I've ever had with digital music players.

(4) Only the Zune software can sync music, video and pictures onto the device; Zune is incompatible with Windows Media Player, the familiar hub of the Windows desktop media experience.

(5) Doesn't support podcasts

(6) It's incompatible with Microsoft's own PlaysForSure standard, too

(7) Incompatible with Microsoft's new Windows Vista

(7) Throw in the Zune's tail-wagging relationship with music publishers, and it almost becomes important that you encourage people not to buy one.

(8) In short, avoid it.