Yep. Had an early 2000(s) Jukebox, 10 GB I think, that I got on clearance at Target. I loved that thing and used it for several years. Being into open source, I discovered Rockbox and installed it. I was already using Linux. In fact, Linux compatibility was foremost on my mind (in those days) when looking at buying any hardware.

I especially liked Archos earphones that hooked over the ears and wrapped around the back of the neck. I had to order multiple sets of those earphones separately.

Alas, all things come to an end. It was replaced with an Archos 504 audio/video player with 80 GB. That was so cool too. I had to learn my ffmpeg settings to convert videos to play on it.

Next, I figured out the format, and technique to put videos onto my flip phone (before smartphones). Cool, neato, but capacity was limited.

Exact same thing here. One could actually interact with the community very easily, the information was well organized and they made changes in the code visible on the front page of their website. I had other players afterwards, but since then it was always a requirement that it can run RockBox. I loved it especially for its playlist management. Thanks RockBox team!

Same!

At the time it was an exciting experience to replace the default firmware with Rockbox. There was some danger involved as there was the small potential of bricking the hardware. I was so nervous, because at the time I was too young to afford replacing hardware. It went smoothly and paid off.

It was instructive in my eventual switch to Linux.

Good times.

Also me - My Jukebox 20 and building a computer were my first introductions to open source and hardware development.

Me too!