[brimstone]

Are you using windows or mac? I use windows so if you are on a mac my answers may not be very useful.

3. Tagging flac files is not a problem. I use foobar2000 but there is a lot of other software that does it as well.

4. Apple lossless is not very common. I see no reason to use it instead of flac.

5. When i rip i use flac as an external encoder in EAC so that the files are encoded automatically as soon as they are ripped.

6. My collection is quite small so i keep it on my HD until i need space and then i burn some on DVDR.