I have an iPod...two, actually. I've never actually bought one, both were given to me (used) as gifts by men in my life who were supposed to care about me. One is an old iPod mini that will hold a charge of only one hour. I only keep it as a backup for my good iPod.
The one I use now is one of those video iPods that has a ridiculously large capacity (80GB). I have dropped it several times and it just keeps on going. It holds my entire collection of mp3s (in the many thousands) and has room to spare.
I wouldn't bother with a shuffle because there's not a screen. I need a screen. Some people may not, but I think they're nuts.
Basically my current iPod has an insane capacity for music and video, the battery life is very good, and it's pretty tough for something its size that has an actual drive in it. You can even feel it spin if you turn the iPod on while holding it. I love the little spinny wheel on the front because I can use it blind without having to look at it. It comes in handy behind the wheel and at the gym. Then again, if I want to look it it has that pretty little screen with the album cover and everything.
Basically Apple's design is superior to everything on the market IMHO and the integrity of their devices is very good. They're not cheap, but they're very solid and dependable products. I've never had any trouble with my current iPod. I plug it in here at work and run it off electricity all day long; the thing rarely runs on its own battery power. However, after taking it to the gym with me and listening to it for an hour the bar on the battery life icon barely budged.
Also, you do NOT have to use iTunes if you have an iPod. There are plenty of third-party applications out there that do a much better job than iTunes and don't attempt to auto-sync the device every time you plug it in. You can have it do it if you want, but if you don't want to auto-sync (I never do) then you don't have to. I have two computers and neither one of them has iTunes installed on it. I use MediaMonkey instead. It's a far far superior product.