This is slightly OT, but didn't seem worth a new thread.

I think I understand that if I get an iPod, I need to install iTunes and use that to install music on the iPod (I run WinXP Pro SP2). I was hoping that once I'd downloaded to the iPod, I could delete those music files from my laptop's hard drive (since, over time, they would use a lot of memory). From what I've been reading, though, it sounds as every time I go to download new files to the iPod, I would lose the music files that I'd deleted from the iTunes file.

This sounds weird to me. Do I really have to keep all those "old" music files on my computer forever?