Well, I've done it. I took the plunge and bought a 80GB second-generation
Zune (in black, of course). I'll be picking it up in a few hours from the nearby Circuit City.
I blame my friend, Jeremy, for his podcast fanaticism. When I tried to get podcasts onto my trusty iriver clix2, I ran into problem after problem after problem. I love the clix, and it will continue to serve as my first-choice music player, especially for working out--no need to subject the Zune to that kind of torture when my flash-based player is more than capable and weighs significantly less.
My other option would have been an iPod Touch. I'm not exactly Apple's biggest fan (not that I hate them), but I definitely was not interested in owning another "regular" iPod. I bought a Nano a couple years ago and hated the thing so much that I returned it less than a day later and bought the iriver clix (first-generation) instead. I never looked back. However, the Touch is pretty cool, sporting Apple's somewhat unique multi-touch interface and a completely new UI (inherited from the iPhone). But, on top of my existing loathing of the older iPod interface, I absolutely hate iTunes. I only hope that the Zune software is as good as it thinks it is. I already know it's somewhat lacking in included podcast feeds, but those are a cinch to add (I can even steal them from iTunes, if I'm not mistaken), so I just hope they actually work correctly, 'cause I really don't want to return the darn thing.
Anywho...expect to see some posts about Zunes in the future, now that I've joined "the Social."