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Mark: I know what you are asking - been there, I bit the bullet 2 months
ago when my trusty? 2X Sound Blaster proprietary CD died (and took my
Office 97 CD with it).  I got the Phillips machine, and I'll give you
the honest answers I have to your specific Questions as far as I've
learned re; the Phillips 2X / 6X machine.

>If I have a Cd read / re writeable machine will every  <write once > CD >I burn be able to be read by any CD player?

So far every single one I've made (about 50) has worked on every CD I've
tried it on, including about 25 different machines @ work / friends.  I
use them to distribute / maintain applications I write. I do have people
return the CD's for upgrades / bug fixes.  At which time I replace the
system and return the CD for installation. (Does tend to reduce the
piracy, even if it wont stop it).

>Is the re writeable CD only readable on the particular brand it was
>made on

Dont know fo sure, I do know mine have been read on an HP, BUT????

>....or is it universal

Supposedly, BUT????

>......are there any standards yet on re writable CD machines.

Supposedly, BUT????

>Are plain CD read / write machines less problematic.

Since the primary physical / mecchanical assemblies are very similar,
varying mostly in the electronics, the MTBF figures should be much the
same (Mean Time Before Failure) per my past experiances in the aircraft
spare parts business at Lockheed.

>Do I want a re writable or should I stay away form them.

As I said, I bought mine because it was either spend 100+- to replace my
old CD or 300+- for the Phillips, I got the RW unit for about what I saw
the Write once machines at.  I must admit that until the ^@#$$Q old one
died I had bee waiting for the DVD RW units, oh well.

The only gripe I have is that after Disk to Disk image copies are made,
my sustem has to be rebooted before I can access the CD in another
operation. A pain but not major.

Several things that may make the whole thing easier for me than most:
        1. I have 128MB of RAM.
        2. I am running a 200 MMX Intel Pentium
        3. I have 16 GBytes of harddisk and keep 1 2 GByte partition
           just for working with the recorder in either mode.
These ARE NOT requirements, but it don't hurt either.

By the way, I have successfully backed up ALL of my software supplied on
CD, Microsoft, Adobe, Corel, Nuts and Bolts and others.  I WILL NEVER
again be without a source because a CD drive put a 3" spiral groove
(about 1/64 of an inch deep) in my original CD.  If I had not needed to
I would not have been reinstalling it, but that is another sad tale.