[ Thanks to ranjith
for this link. ]
“Granted, a lot of the fun is thanks to the hobbyist nature of
the OS, at least on the consumer end. There’s also a distinct
feeling of getting something for nothing—and in many cases,
better performance than the paid options from Microsoft or
Apple.“On the other hand, though Linux-based projects are enjoyable,
they can take up a lot of time, and they’re not always that useful
once finished. Think about it: In today’s market, $500 can buy a
pretty nice Windows 7 desktop machine with an HDMI port and a
wireless card. It wouldn’t be much of a gaming box. But you’d have
a pretty slick setup for your HDTV—one that’s capable of
storing all your media files, and one that’s much easier to
troubleshoot when something goes south.“Even so, choosing Linux offers a number of advantages. In this
article, we’re going to show you how to build a Linux-based media
center that acts as a music, video, and photo server for your
entire house. It will display video on a large-screen TV without a
hitch. Most importantly, coupled with MythTV, the system will
record TV shows and act as a genuine DVR. This last point is key,
because many so-called “media center” setups don’t actually do
this, and just exist to play standalone media files or stream video
from the Web.”