[mythtv-users] Hardware databases

[Mike Perkins]

Daniel Kristjansson wrote:
> On Tue, 2009-01-27 at 09:24 -0700, Brian Phillips wrote:
>> My idea is this:
>> 1) When myth is installed, the user is asked if they would like to opt-in to
>> a "hardware survey".
>> 2) After a specific time frame has passed (eg 100 hours recorded and/or
>> watched), if the user has selected to opt-in to the program, the myth system
>> will "phone home" to a database and provide a hardware listing.
> 
> I've thought about this before. Programmers at hardware makers have told
> me they could probably spend more time on Linux if they could show their
> bosses some solid numbers for the number of folks using Linux with their
> hardware. This would need to be broached with the other developers and
> in here and I would need to find the time to actually write the code for
> it. I'll follow this thread and see what people's opinions are.
> 
> The important points from a user perspective is that it would be opt-in,
> only aggregate data would be reported, and the callback server would be
> under a server under *.mythtv.org, so it would ultimately be under
> Isaac's control. PS I would get user approval immediately before a
> "phone home", otherwise someone might forget that they opted in and
> get needlessly upset.
> 
The delay is definitely a good idea. Many of us go through a sequence of 
chopping and changing hardware (and software!) before setting up a "production" 
system. There's no point recording a hack system for your stats.

Possibly a way of repeating the "phone home" under user control, so that stats 
can be updated whenever the user does an upgrade or builds a new BE/FE/whatever 
could be quite useful. I wouldn't suggest this happens whenever someone's 
configuration changes, but all of us are likely to do an upgrade or expansion 
once in a while, and recording the new (stable) setup would be useful.

Or perhaps just make it a menu option in mythtv-setup?

-- 

Mike Perkins