Is this the future of the next CD player

I reckon the Squeezebox and music downloads is more like the next thing - not something that plays disks. It makes more sense to store music on a centralised server and play the music from a distributed clients. Music retail distribution via disks will survive for some time but having to root it out whenever you want to play it is silly.

"NOTHING beats the graphic interface of a mouse and monitor for navigating your vast library of music."

I totally disagree. Having tried both I find the functionality of the Squeezebox and its interface works far faster and more effectively than a mouse and screen, with any software including foobar, itunes, slimserver, etc. I find the only point of using the large screen is if you like gazing at album art, and I don't.

The future of audio will come out of technical discussions?

Most of the revolutions in audio have been driven by one thing only, convenience.

The 78 was less convenient than the LP, which was less convenient than the musictape, less than the CD. Sound quality claims were usually just smoke-screen marketing claims to make people feel better about choosing the lazy option.

That is where computer-based music servers come in. But what has to be solved is acceptable means of music download and standards that make it all seemless for the lazy option to be marketable.