[mythtv-users] Future of Mythtv Android Frontend

John Morris jmorris at beau.org
Wed Jul 10 02:55:46 UTC 2013


On Mon, 2013-07-08 at 16:38 +0100, Tim Draper wrote:

> just my 2c - why not have 2 apps out there; a non-maintained version
> of the current app state, and the new one for 4.x and updates.
> would keep that 10% happy.

Doubt it would be practical, it would quickly become unusable by anyone
who wasn't also running an ancient Myth backend.

But there is one consideration I'd hope doesn't get overlooked.  On a PC
running a normal Linux distro it isn't too terrible to tell people if
they want to run a newer Myth they will need to upgrade the distro to
get newer a QT or whatever.  Because other than a few people who get
caught on odd hardware issues or something upgrading the distro is a
minor effort.

Android is very different.  If you aren't running a Nexus branded device
you may not ever have the option to run anything other than whatever
version of Android shipped on your device.  It might run Linux in the
middle but it ain't an open platform like the PC. If the hardware below
isn't outright locked it is poorly documented and unstandardized and the
Android stack above is "Free Software" in name only for most actual
installations.  And it is a fairly big difference between asking a user
to spend an afternoon upgrading the OS on a machine and demanding they
buy a new one.

On the other hand Android was a fairly dodgy platform in the first early
versions, especially the zaniness of the 2.x for phones and 3.x for
tablets era before the trees merged in 4.x and the number of devices
interesting for running Myth frontends on probably didn't really take
off until the 4.x tablet level of hardware.  Combined with the Android
port being newish enough to probably not have a massive installed base
and cutting losses now vs carrying around support for ancient versions
into the distant future makes a lot of sense.

But going forward I know I'd feel pretty bad if I had to choose between
tossing otherwise working tablet hardware or keeping the PCs on an old
Myth because that is a no-win scenario.  Even worse, some people buy
phones on a rent to own scheme through their carrier and can't upgrade
without paying a penalty.

TL;DR version: Android is challenging some long held assumptions.
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 198 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part
URL: <http://www.mythtv.org/pipermail/mythtv-users/attachments/20130709/28bd0cbb/attachment.sig>


More information about the mythtv-users mailing list