this is a brilliant post imo, i totally agree with the premise outlined below:
erland;218503 Wrote: > I think there are basically two types of people: > > Category 1: People that already have a 24/7 running server in their > home or easily can setup one. > - Often "geeks" or techincally savvy people > - I suspect most of the current SB owners are in this category > > Category 2: People that don't have a 24/7 running server in their > home. > - Non techincally savvy people > - Mass market > - I suspect most of the future SB owners will be in this category > > Category 1 can see all the advantages with a slim device, for category > 2 it doesn't matter as much. For category 2 a slim device really just > adds complexity since you need 2 boxes to control. IMO Logitech needs > to make the category 2 people happy since this is where the market > growth is. right, totally agree. and there are people in the first category who would apprecite a category 2 solution, since it would mean portability, etc... in other words, if SD went to a category 2 solution ONLY, and things cost about the same, i don't see what category one people would have lost, as long as they can still tinker with the code as they do now. why would you be against this is my question? is change a bad thing just b/c its new or different? erland;218503 Wrote: > Now, the main issues with making the SB a fat device as I see it is: > 1. > It would require huge development costs, we are basically talking about > rewriting SlimServer for other hardware in another language. Years of > development has been invested in the current SlimServer software, > besides the gained experience all this invested time would be lost. > During the time the development of the new fat device the competitors > already in this area would just add more functionality to their > product. When Logitech were finished with the fat device I expect the > competition to have even greater products. The current advantage > Logitech has over their competitors would be lost. i don't see why... SS already has a linux flavor. just make the fat device run enough of linux to run SS as it now exists. is that such a hard thing to do? and SS will have local SB access, it won't need to TCP/IP to the SB. that seems to simplify things doesn't it? i could see where maybe for some reason you want to emulate TCP/IP like for sync'ing SBs or something like that, but that could be an option left in it, couldn't it? in any case, i don't see why you think everything would need redone, since SS could work as is on top of a linux OS customized for a fat box? erland;218503 Wrote: > 2. > A fat device would not be compatible with the current SB/Transporter > models regarding player synchronization. The result is that the current > customers would need to by completely new equipment. as i alluded to above, couldn't a fat device operate in legacy mode? if necessary, perhaps an addon could be made for current gear that would do the OS/SS part in a small box. definitely a good point. erland;218503 Wrote: > 3. > All the time invested in plugin development for the current SlimServer > would also be lost since all the plugins would have to be rewritten. > I'm not even sure Logitech would allow custom plugins on a fat device. why not? 7.0 is going to have a new plugin system right? why not just leave that in such a fat device? erland;218503 Wrote: > 4. > The open source community around SlimServer would probably die. If you > look at most open source development today, it is almost always related > to something that can run on several software or hardware platforms. > Many open source developers are interested because they can make their > own custom solution with the hardware they currently own. Making a fat > device and hoping that the open source community would help developing > software that only would work on Logitech hardware is in my opinion > hoping for a bit too much. So, Logitech would probably have to do all > the work themselves. i don't know why you think that though... lots of routers and NAS boxes are (eg.) linux based, but work with any OS or environment. and further, many can be reprogrammed with opn source linux code. the device would still be totally cross platform, it would simply not itself be cross platform. but would that kill development for it? i don't see why, it would still be SS in perl, just running on a special custom linux job. i would think that would be transparent to most users. erland;218503 Wrote: > === > Now, saying all this, there is a solution to this problem which I also > mentioned in my previous post. > - Leave the SB as a thin device > - Sell a hardware solution with pre-installed, pre-configured > SlimServer. thats essentially what i am proposing, except that i am saying do it all in one small as possible chassis. erland;218503 Wrote: > This way the users in catetory 1 can just buy the SB and use their > already existing 24/7 server for SlimServer. The users in category 2 > could buy the complete package with both SB and SlimServer hardware. > The SlimServer hardware solution can be nicely designed so it can be > docked with the SB, making it look like a single unit for those users > that want this. > I'm sure there are hardware companies available that would like to join > efforts with Logitech, so a third party company could make the > SlimServer hardware and Logitech could focus on the SB hardware and > SlimServer software. This way this solution wouldn't require huge > development cost for Logitech. I don't think we are talking about a NAS > box for the SlimServer hardware, instead I'm think about something VIA > EPIA, Mac Mini or something similar. Basically a slower computer that > is small, silent and less power hungry than a normal computer. its a great idea, and i fully support it. i would just say keep the box as small as possible, and keep the music storage separate, whether it be ext drive, or card reader, or whatever. great post. -- MrSinatra www.LION-Radio.org Using: Squeezebox2 w/SS 6.5.4 (beta!?) - Win XP Pro SP2 - 3.2ghz / 2gig ram - D-Link DIR-655 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ MrSinatra's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2336 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=37279 _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
