I have 2 Olympus recorders - a DM-1 and a DM-20. I use them both with a small Sony mic mounted on a table top tripod (an essential piece of kit, I've found). Neither recorder is perfect - and I too have problems with the software.
I'm aware that I'm repeating myself here but both recorders have irritating limitations (the software with the DM-1 is particularly poor - eg. I've not managed to burn anything to CD yet) and the sound quality is pretty 'basic' (although the DM-20 can record in stereo). Nevertheless they are both very easy to use 'in the field', as it were, and have huge memories. The DM-1 has a removable SD card - which is great, whilst the DM-20 has a built-in memory which is a stupid and frustrating limitation.
I resorted to using these devices because I found the Sony MD recorder very difficult to use and was not impressed by its lack of USB port. I believe that more recent models are an improvement on older ones (?)
In summary, I'm glad that I bought the Olympus devices because it allowed me to record a lot of stuff, more or less spontaneously, without having to fiddle around with the clunky Sony MD recorder. They have suited my purposes fairly well. These purposes have extended beyond folk music - for example, back in June I went on holiday to Slovenia. I was carrying a rather heavy digital camera, plus lenses, but also took the Olympus DM-20 (which is tiny) and with it recorded sounds of bird songs, mountain goats, crickets, church bells and my own impressions of things that I saw etc., etc. - and was able (with the somewhat better software) to burn them to CD.