Well after two weeks I have finally installed Linux MCE 1.1. I am not impressed.
First let me tell you why I tried this software, I have installed and used Mythtv for about 6 months, I like it but I am always looking for more. I ran across Linux MCE and the features seemed cool, but the one thing that got me, I know it's silly but I liked it, was that while the system was idle it displayed picture on my TV from flickr. I also enjoyed the user interface, the menu bar at the bottom while showing me a backround on the main screen, however this ties into one of my complaints
Complaint one: The most oft repeated complaint, it takes forever to install this software. I had to download a new OS, I was a Red Hat user, and I had to download an entire CD worth of data (there were actually two CD's with 1.1), install said OS, fully update os,download .deb package, run package put data CD in cache cd (why?) download more software, wait for it to install, then configure and after that it almost worked. Now this wouldn't be so bad if the software worked, but it still requires a ton of configuration and setup, which I don't mind doing but after 4-6 hours of installation time (actually more if including OS setup) I am really tired for configuring anything.
Complaint two: One reason I liked the software was because of the user interface. However when I tried to watch tv guess what I saw, the old original setup interface for mythtv. You know the ugly brown gray thing that no one likes and can't understand why the developers use it ( no offense, really love the software). I just spent 6 hours setting this software up, couldn't the developers have at least put some kind of eye candy on one of the main parts of their package.
Complaint three: Why is this called linuxmce 1.1. My understanding of versioning is that a software package stays under the 1.0 version until it is complete. Not that any software is every complete but at least mostly bug free. Installing this thing felt like it was held together with ductape and super glue. The interface is nice but definitely not polished. I had more problems with the setup programs than I'm going to mention here. It is based on software that is itself still in development stages, i.e. mythtv. I don't know why the developers decided to call there software 1.1 but in my opinion it was a big mistake and misleading to would be users.
The one thing that I did get from my experience is ubuntu. I had never tried it before but I must say I like it alot. Thank you linuxmce developers, the one thing you got right was a good platform to base your software on.
