[mythtv-users] Freevo, Tivo & MythTV

[Paul Bender]

Marco Nelissen wrote:
>> I can't help getting political at this point but I need to get one more
>> point in.
>>
>> How does the prevailing attitude on this thread serve the open source
>> movement?
> 
> With a few notable exceptions, the 'open source community' doesn't care much
> about advancing the open source movement.

I cannot speak for other, but this is definitely true for me. I could 
car less about the open source movement in some abstract of general 
sense. I work on specific open source projects that meet specific needs 
that I have.

> Most people just want free stuff.

If by "free" you mean with source code available that you can modify 
when it does not work as you would like, then this is definitely true 
for me. If by "free" you mean doesn't cost anything, then this is not 
true for me. I want hardware+software that meets my needs. Sometimes, as 
in the case of MythTV, it is open source and costs money. Sometimes, as 
in Microsoft Office and Quicken, it is closed source and costs money.

However, especially in the case of MythTV, the hardware (disk storage, 
tuner cards, etc) cost much more than any proprietary software would 
have cost. In addition, the time I have spent creating a diskless Myth 
frontend distribution and tweaking my Myth backend server makes the 
money saved using software that costs no money irrelevant. I used Myth 
because it met my needs when other software did not.

> Others care only about some specific project, but only as far as THEIR needs
> and interests are concerned.

Again, this is definitely me. While I try to help the people that use 
the output of the open source projects I maintain, I do not do more that 
interests me and I rarely try to recreate their setups so that I can 
recreate their problems. Doing so is boring and costs money. I try to 
avoid doing boring things when I am getting paid. I will certainly try 
to avoid doing boring things when I am not getting paid.

 > This is why after all these years, Windows is
 > still the dominant desktop OS.

This may very well be true. However, most open source developers that I 
know (including myself) have no problem with Windows being the dominant 
desktop OS. We are interested in using/developing the best tool for the 
job. We leave the religious zealotry to RMS.