Tuesday, March 20, 2007

LinuxMCE on Digg

A post about LinuxMCE made it to the top 10 topics on Digg today, so I decided to check it out.

Heres their take on LinuxMCE vs Microsoft MCE in this Google video. The commentary is very monotonous and is clearly biased, so beware of the propaganda.



It seems like LinuxMCE is based on the MythTV project with some cooler skins and user interface. The video, however, has contradicted the philosophy they are touting - "Linux MCE maintains the philosophy that if you're using a Media Center PC, it's all about the media, stupid, not the PC". The on-screen guide has completely obscured the media played in the background, even though it is in full-screen.

I like the navigation functionality of the media - programming guide, music catalog, movies in Linux MCE. On Microsoft MCE (XP), browsing through a large collection is such a pain that I am sometimes only listening to music in the 'A' section. Search is definitely a good help if you know exactly what you are looking for, but a technique like the iTunes Cover Flow makes selection so much easier.

The video hasn't covered Microsoft Vista, its only fair to do such a comparison as Vista has a lot more to offer such as HDTV support. At my end, I need to try out Vista myself.

About add-ons in LinuxMCE like close-circuit cameras, controlling thermostats and controlling television using a blue-tooth cellphone, I really dont care about such features and don't know if such features constitute a media-center PC.