A Pluto Veteran Wonders: Will LinuxMCE End the Nightmares?

[corwin]

Hi people,

To begin with, congratulations - and a big Thank You - to Paul Webber and everyone else involved in LinuxMCE. The Pluto project was crying out to be forked, and you guys finally did it.

I'm posting this in the roadmap forum, because rather than talk about any specific issues, I'm concerned with what the LinuxMCE project can do to rescue the Pluto system from the dark place the original developers stuck it in... no more about them, though, because it's really bad form to come to a forked project and rant about the original.

As I think anyone here can see, LinuxMCE at the moment feels like looking at a cockroach through a microscope - it's just one really big bug. And I bet that the same bugs exist in the Pluto codebase - I can't imagine that the LinuxMCE developers put all those bugs in. And where the bugs end, start the missing or badly thought out features that PlutoHome said they have no interest in dealing with.

So, to come to the point while I still have readers left (do I?), I am wondering if the LinuxMCE people intend to focus on work that makes the system available to a wider audience while waiting for core bug fixes to filter through from the Pluto codebase, or do you consider everything that may be wrong in the code you inherited to be something that you need to deal with?

Or, to put it another way - would you say that bug reports would be more effective here or in the Pluto forums ^(*)?

Thanks for your attention,

Itai

(*) This is actually a trick question... I already know bug reports are totally ineffective on the Pluto forums.

[k84]

I read it

We'll just have to wait and see, guess this project has a LOT of interest, so who knows put the bugs in this forum and see what happens

[Audun]

I haven't tried LinuxMCE for very long, but I totally agree that it's got a lot of bugs. Like someone else here mentioned, I believe they should cut down on the functionality and put their effort in fixing the bugs and making it easier to set up. It's just too much functionality, and things like capture cards and MythTV has to be set up manually.

[darrenmason]

Hi,

I have been using Pluto for a while now and I am also a software developer with quite a bit of experience.
Having looked at the Pluto code in detail I can understand why it is so buggy. The developers have been squeezed to get things out and have compromised the initial design in quite a few ways. There are even comments throughout the code indicating such hacks.

I think the basic design of having everything as a device managed in a single heirarchy that extends over all machines in the household is great. The messaging mechanism of commands and events and a lightweight protocol is also sound.
I would like to see a major cleanup but with the amount of code written already I doubt that the Pluto guys will get to this and am keen to see what this fork can deliver. It certainly has generated a lot of interest.

I am keen to see how this project develops. I hope to be able to contribute as well.

Regards
Darren

[denix]

Darren,

I second your opinion on this matter of Pluto vs LinuxMCE. Even though I have some concerns and doubts, I really hope LinuxMCE takes off and attracts more good developers to make it better.

Regards,
denix

Hi,

I have been using Pluto for a while now and I am also a software developer with quite a bit of experience.
Having looked at the Pluto code in detail I can understand why it is so buggy. The developers have been squeezed to get things out and have compromised the initial design in quite a few ways. There are even comments throughout the code indicating such hacks.

I think the basic design of having everything as a device managed in a single heirarchy that extends over all machines in the household is great. The messaging mechanism of commands and events and a lightweight protocol is also sound.
I would like to see a major cleanup but with the amount of code written already I doubt that the Pluto guys will get to this and am keen to see what this fork can deliver. It certainly has generated a lot of interest.

I am keen to see how this project develops. I hope to be able to contribute as well.

Regards
Darren

[totallymaxed]

Hi people,

To begin with, congratulations - and a big Thank You - to Paul Webber and everyone else involved in LinuxMCE. The Pluto project was crying out to be forked, and you guys finally did it.

I'm posting this in the roadmap forum, because rather than talk about any specific issues, I'm concerned with what the LinuxMCE project can do to rescue the Pluto system from the dark place the original developers stuck it in... no more about them, though, because it's really bad form to come to a forked project and rant about the original.

As I think anyone here can see, LinuxMCE at the moment feels like looking at a cockroach through a microscope - it's just one really big bug. And I bet that the same bugs exist in the Pluto codebase - I can't imagine that the LinuxMCE developers put all those bugs in. And where the bugs end, start the missing or badly thought out features that PlutoHome said they have no interest in dealing with.

So, to come to the point while I still have readers left (do I?), I am wondering if the LinuxMCE people intend to focus on work that makes the system available to a wider audience while waiting for core bug fixes to filter through from the Pluto codebase, or do you consider everything that may be wrong in the code you inherited to be something that you need to deal with?

Or, to put it another way - would you say that bug reports would be more effective here or in the Pluto forums ^(*)?

Thanks for your attention,

Itai

(*) This is actually a trick question... I already know bug reports are totally ineffective on the Pluto forums.

Clearly bug reports should be posted in the linux-mce Mantis bug tracking database (http://mantis.linuxmce.com/login_page.php). These forums are for discussion/questions/answers too and also so everyone involved can 'discuss' common experiences.... good and bad. However the developers will track/fix bugs in the Mantis database... so if you want to document a problem and bring it to their attrention then enter a Mantis report for it (Mantis will then email you when any action is taken too).