iTunes is the format both for downloading music and ripping music from CD. Basically, if it's on your PC iTunes can get it on your iPod, regardless of how it got there. It just provides an alternate, costly, way to get the stuff onto your PC. Personally I'd opt for something else - I recently got a 6 gigabyte Sanyo for roughly £40 less than it would cost the iPod equivalent, and it hasn't given me problems yet.
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