I notice there are many open source contributors here and Slim/Logitech are doing an admirable job of supporting these options. However, to most of us, the Squeezebox family is just a great consumer product. After wasting a weekend thinking I could set up a SqueezeCenter on a lightweight Atom PC with Ubuntu, I would like to share my experiences with any newbies considering the same. So, in no particular order, here are some things the marketing folks don't warm you about until you waste your own time learning:
1. No Linux 'distribution' is a walk in the park, especially if you need to build a server. No GUI overlay will save you from command line work. There is nothing wrong with command line input, just that with every boy scout creating help files it will take you a while to sort out the syntax. If you think doing this to go 'freeware' is a good idea, forget it. Go buy XP and save yourself the time. 2. The 'it works out of the box' experience you might expect with a consumer product is not there. Worse, you get just enough hope to waste your time. Everything installs just fine and then there some long complex processes to activate a simple tool. Be ready to beat your head against it. 3. Not mentioned, but understood by those in the know (i.e. not normal people) is that you can't serve WMA files on Linux. You may not care, but you may also have a huge collection. Beware and decide for yourself in advance, don't waste a lot of time installing Linux to have to go back to MS anyway. 4. You will get great support from Squeezebox forum members. Not to put them down, but this will lull you into thinking you can get good answers to your other Linux questions on the WWW. In reality you can, but it will take you forever to wade through the garbage. Get ready for quantity over quality. -- Rein ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rein's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=20498 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=60817 _______________________________________________ unix mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/unix
