[mythtv-users] MythTV vs. SageTV vs. Etc....

James L. Paul james at mauibay.net
Thu Dec 18 15:09:33 EST 2003


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On Thursday 18 December 2003 06:50, Sean wrote:

> The most interesting thing to a nOOb like myself is that is runs on
> Win2k/XP. For me, and likely many others, this is attractive in that we
> donıt have to learn a new OS. Personally, I enjoyed the thrill of setting
> up my MythBox in that I learn something new everytime. I feel more
> comfortable with Linux in general now, but still realize that I am missing
> some basic level knowledge that would make me less dependent on the various
> guides and community support. In other words, whenever something ³breaks² I
> feel a little helpless and frustrated. It is only a guess, but I feel much
> more confident fixing something in Windows and would therefore feel less
> likely to bash my little computer into junk less quickly should, say, my
> system crashed in the middle of a high-load operation (transcoding, 3 weeks
> ago).

I am an open source advocate, but also an advocate of "the right tool for the 
job." If you are more comfortable with a specific OS, and the applications 
you prefer will run under it, then by all means choose it.

You say you feel a little helpless and frustrated when something breaks in a 
Linux environment, and "guess" that you wouldn't feel that way facing the 
same problem under Windows. I find that amazing, and congratulate you. I am 
very familiar with both environments, and feel the opposite way. I solve 
issues daily in Linux environments that are much more difficult or impossible 
to solve quickly in Windows environments due to not being able to fix (or 
even see) somebody else's code.

If MythTV were a Windows open source project, I'm not sure why that would have 
a significant impact on your confidence. You wouldn't gain much of anything, 
perhaps somewhat more stable drivers for PVR-x50 cards and the like. (And 
that is a very temporary situation.) When "something breaks" you would need 
to do the same code debugging and fixing, and the code wouldn't be 
substantially different from what we use now. In fact, there's nothing 
stopping you from starting an open source project under Windows based on 
MythTV. Or something like it.

When "something breaks" under Windows, I'm often stuck until somebody else 
(The OS or application vendor) fixes the problem and issues an update. In the 
Linux world, it's because all of us have the option to find and fix problems 
ourselves that software matures more quickly. The fixes are often fast, and 
the best solutions usually are folded into future versions. This makes me 
feel empowered and confident, knowing I personally have as much opportunity 
to fix things as anybody else. I just don't feel that way in the proprietary 
world where licenses are restrictive and I can't see or fix the code I run.

My intent above has been to just randomly share some thoughts. I live in both 
worlds. I'm glad MythTV (and so many other great projects) exist, regardless 
of the OS. But I'm _very_ glad Linux and the BSDs exist, I can't imagine 
operating my life without them.
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