Differences between Pluto and LinuxMCE

[trimble]

Hi,

I'm new to LinuxMCE, but followed Pluto's developments closely up until a year or so ago. The closed nature of Pluto kept me from adopting it back then and I'm wondering now that LinuxMCE appears to add to, rather than replace Kubuntu, is it possible to use the Core server to run/host a variety of applications for use on the thin client/MDs (Firefox, Open Office, GIMP, Picasa, etc.).

Best Regards,
Mark

[gyrobt]

Your question and title are inconsistent. I will try to answer both. Title: LinuxMCE incorporates Pluto, thus they are not competitors. Text: Yes, this is perfectly possible, as long as you are using a linux version of the software. It may take some digging to unearth the command line, but once there you can install whatever you want. The Windows client and Java clients are only applications, therefore you cannot do anything with those.

[tschak909]

first,

Pluto was _NOT_ closed source. The distribution merely was designed to be run as an appliance.

LinuxMCE is still currently an appliance, but the KDE desktop has been grafted on top. And you can run a number of applications on top, just be careful on what you install. Be careful not to replace packages already installed.

-Thom

[Zaerc]

Well he said "the closed nature of Pluto", not "the closed source of pluto".  And considering that people were lucky to get any kind of response on the pluto forums at all, I think he has a point.  Another example of "the closed nature of Pluto" is that we have to almost reverse engineer most things to figure out how they work.  Not a healthy situation in my opinion but apparently that's how Pluto chooses to do these things.

[tschak909]

They have been working with us to try and understand the system.

-Thom

[hari]

Well he said "the closed nature of Pluto", not "the closed source of pluto".  And considering that people were lucky to get any kind of response on the pluto forums at all, I think he has a point.  Another example of "the closed nature of Pluto" is that we have to almost reverse engineer most things to figure out how they work.  Not a healthy situation in my opinion but apparently that's how Pluto chooses to do these things.

i tried to get in contact with them 2005 and multiple times in 2008. Pluto was always very responsive and helpful to me. And looking over the old forum it looks like they tried hard to give support with limited resources.

best regards,
Hari

[totallymaxed]

Well he said "the closed nature of Pluto", not "the closed source of pluto".  And considering that people were lucky to get any kind of response on the pluto forums at all, I think he has a point.  Another example of "the closed nature of Pluto" is that we have to almost reverse engineer most things to figure out how they work.  Not a healthy situation in my opinion but apparently that's how Pluto chooses to do these things.

i tried to get in contact with them 2005 and multiple times in 2008. Pluto was always very responsive and helpful to me. And looking over the old forum it looks like they tried hard to give support with limited resources.

best regards,
Hari

As someone that has worked with the Pluto guys as a commercial partner from the beginning I can say that I think your right Hari. The problem was back then that the ratio of 'ordinary users' to 'developers' was just too high. And therefore the strains on the Pluto team were pretty high too.

[tschak909]

thankfully, things are changing.

-Thom