I did switch to using Grip for ripping. It has a lot more control than Sound Juicer. Either way, I don’t have to do much to rip a CD. Typically (assuming the tracks and so forth pull up the way I want them to display) I can rip a CD in about three clicks: right-click and choose Open with Grip, click the “Rip” tab, click “Rip+Encode”.

You can see my article on Grip (“A Ripper of a Ripper, Grip”) for more information on configuring it (it needs some initial configuration). (Linked above.)

I’m satisfied that Grip is doing a good job and that I don’t need to look into using EAC on Ubuntu. If, however, EAC were to write an official Linux version I would be interested in that.

Well, I disagree with you on two counts. First the minimal tagging support of waves makes them a significant extra hassle–even if you have a strong folder hierarchy in place (which I do). Second, mp3’s sound like shit and you’d be better off using your waves at that point (which is what I use on my iPod currently).

Plus this system means that you have to maintain two collections. Ugh!

As to support for flacs, there are excellent media players for all platforms which support them (even WMP will support them with a plugin). I intend to install Rockbox on my old iPod (which will then support both flac and ogg). Really, the sky’s the limit.

Lastly, you say “no conversion to burn a new cd” from waves. This is false. Waves are converted to cda files when you burn a CD. It is no more or less complex to convert wave to cda than it is to convert flac to cda. It takes me seconds to set up a burn list in Rhythmbox (Ubuntu) and then only a minute or two to burn a CD from my collection.

I’d say save yourself 40% of your storage space, use a format that is as future proof as any CD, use a format that maintains the quality you paid for when you bought your CD, and use a format that supports proper tagging.