Software setup and tweaks
All I did is install DOS 6.22 and put the drivers on for the SoundBlaster Vibra 16 card and the Sony 8x CD drive.
MPXPLAY is run from the AUTOEXEC.BAT file.
I disabled the floppy drive, ram check, keyboard detect check to slim down boot time.
Booting from cold to listening to tunes is about 20 seconds. :o)
Plus what you cant do with Windows, is power off anytime you like. DOS is really ideal for these kind of embedded applications. Ive never played with Linux so I am not sure how flexible it is for this sort of application, there does seem to be several websites on Linux based home brew MP3 player boxes which look very impressive although the authors have chosen to write their own software for it.
January 2002
Redid it. I found a a site to hack Windows 95 to make it boot to DOS prompt.
This involves removing screen savers and other unnecessary bits after doing a normal install, and then remove the start up Windows screen and tweaking some system files. So it works like Windows 3.1 now, I type "Win" to get into Windows.
I get the same quick boot time and MPXPLAY is still in my AUTOEXEC.BAT file