"(which personally I prefer as I hate the way Realplayer messes around
with the user's computer)"

The new Realplayer is not only easier to find, but they got rid of all
the crap that was associated with the messing around you are referring
to.

I've got a load balanced (2 blade servers) RealServer 10 system and a
RealServer 8 system, as well as the latest Windows Media Server
streaming WM9 - and still prefer the audio quality to that of
windows... spoken word through music. I can't explain it - it's just
easier on my ears.
I've been steaming real and testing the others since '97.

Ozzy