LinuxMCE for Ubuntu looks promising, but ugly. I haven’t had the time to try it out yet. They have made a video comparing it to Windows MCE. If you ask me, they should have focused on showing the demo of LinuxMCE and dropped the so called comparison. At first glance it looks interesting but way too ugly and complicated for the average user. I’ll have to try it out to be able to give some qualified thoughts.
Now, if they could give me a complete distribution with Ubuntu + LinuxMCE + drivers on a DVD that I could pop into a MacMini and have it up and running in a matter of minutes…
Until then, you can have a look at their demo.
http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-4422887272477313460&hl=en
eirikso 
I agree that it looks interesting and very ugly. No way would that pass the wife test.
As for the comparison approach to the video, it just comes across as biased geekdom. I believe it detracts from the project and is the sort of thing that ultimately holds Linux back. A number of the facts weren’t accurate and several the comparisons in favour of Linux MCE were very subjective.
Indeed. In general I hate that kind of argumentation. So, yes – I hate most of Apple’s commercials as well. Apple have superior products. They don’t need to make all those cheap windows-is-crap-mac-is-better commercials. And the LinuxMCE guys should have enough faith in their product to avoid cheap bashing of the competition.
As mentioned, the product looks promising. Will be interesting to follow.
I’ll second the “looks interesting, but crap” assertion. It looks like without a gyro mouse (which costs a bit more than an IR remote), the GUI is unoperatable. The GUI is of course more powerful than Windows MCE’s, but so were all the MP3 player GUIs when iPod launched. More powerful is certainly not always better, and I believe that’s the case for an MCE GUI as well as an MP3 player GUI.
LinuxMCE does look like a decent alternative to Windows MCE, though, at least feature-wise. It has a lot of the features I find lacking in Windows MCE, so it’s very appealing on paper. Let’s just hope they get some UI designers on-board sometimes soon, so it can be a competitor to Windows MCE on the visual level as well as the technical, because on such a visual medium as TV, both are just as important.
I think it looks very interesting, but haven’t tried it my self.
Personally I think it was too many option apearingon the screen, but that can prob be reduced? But then again it had the movie etc on the screen and you don’t get that big blue screen that WinMCE has!
If anyone have a idea on how to install Linux Ubuntu 6.10 and LinuxMCE on a pc with Windows XP MCE, then please give me some hint on how to do it? For example is it possible to install it on one of my partiotions or in a folder? Must that be done with software like WMWare? A link to somewhere would be nice!
Lasse, Ubuntu has a very easy installation interface and you should be able to resize the existing Windows MCE partition and create a new one on which you install Ubuntu. Ubuntu will create a nice boot loader that lets you choose between Windows and Linux, so you can still use Windows on the same box. How LinuxMCE is installed, I don’t know, but I assume it’s well explained on the website.
I’m not very familiar with Linux, but I have utterly intelligent readers. Thanks, Asbjørn! 🙂
If I install Ubuntu or linux, how do I access data stored on my harddisc? I did not find my other harddiscs’. Is that due to other file format? How do I find for example media files stored when using windows xp mce?
If I create a linux patition, would it just take space from my windows discs’ (if I could call it that) ? or does it effect my windows patitions otherwise?
Some Linux Distributions Mounts Windows partitions automatically and some needs to Mount them manually. This is a guide for automatically mount Windows NTFS partitions automatically in Ubuntu 6.10.
When installing Linux distributions you get the choice to use free space on your hard disks, shrink existing partitions or overwrite existing partitions. Generally it’s possible to install Linux distributions without destroying existing Windows installations.
Hvordan går jeg konkret frem for å gjøre dette (altså finne frem mine windows-disker)?
Trenger mer konkrete råd!
This is gettling slightly off topic… 🙂 I think the right place for the details around Linux installation would be one of the Norwegian Linux forums or pages with more detailed information. Like these:
http://linux1.no/forum/
http://www.skolelinux.no/linux-signpost/showUserMenu.php?locale=nb_NO
http://www.diskusjon.no/index.php?showforum=27
?
…or any other suggestions for good forums to get help with Linux installation?
Sorry Mac!
No offense, but thought it would be possible to get an answer form one of your “utterly intelligent readers”!
Have now installed Ubuntu 6.10 and LinuxMCE! When I’v tried it I post some of my experiences OK?
Not a big problem. I have insane amounts of server space and I don’t think anyone will get offended by a long discussion about Linux installation here, just thought it would be faster and more effective to try a hard core linux community. But who knows, some of my readers seems very experienced regarding Linux.
Case closed! This linuxMCE is way to tricky for me! Din not even understand what the menus etc was for. Formated it and is now back with Windows MCE.
Thank you for giving it a go. Because of your findings I’ll leave it for a while and check back at a later version…
More on my LinuxMCE and Ubuntu experiences:
Installing it took about 2 hours with at 3,5 years old pc (Pentium 4). Thats not a big issue, but it went pretty slow, when the LinuxMCE was installing. In the settings regarding the LinuxMCE it was total black out! I did not understand much of what the menus or options was all about and I also had trouble with getting it in as an program. I went throuh the setup many times, but I did just not got i right. After a short thinking I just formated the whole ting and went back using Windows MCE.
Summary: If you know linux it might be worth a try and you probably have the knowledge to understand whats what and thereby get it properly installed!
In my case its better to spend time on trying to find skins for Windows MCE! Anyone have some experience in that matter?
LinuxMCE is now bundled with Kubuntu. It seems that it have matured a lot with for example follow me functionality for media. See the video here. I haven’t tested it, but it looks like a promising project