Media Player 10 is awful, have to vent

I just had to say this. I put up with this piece of bloated junk only
because it sounds better than any other MP3 software player, including
Winamp -- but the interface is horrible and the player is annoying as hell.

I don't even know how to start, but no matter which skin I use, I can
never get the thing to show the stuff I need on it. Sometimes it shows
bitrate, sometimes song title, sometimes on compact modes things you
think you it should have it doesn't. MICROSOFT JUST LOOK AT WINAMP AND
SEE HOW TO DO IT RIGHT.

Also, when I make the player compact and click another song in a folder,
the player enlarges again -- can't it stay in freaken compact mode and
in the same position I left it. MP10 never seems to stay in position and
I'm not going to even get into the lousy visualizations and media library.

MS Media Player is just the worse piece of software bloat I've ever had
the fortune to use in my life, intrusive & annoying as heck, and to boot
tries to connect online every chance it gets (thank God for Zone Alarm).

Unfortunately it sounds and rips great (with appropriate MP3 plugin), so
I'm forced to have to deal with it, but can't Microsoft have come up
with something better?