For those talking about making money with LMCE doesn't the Pluto GPL prevent this without their concent (your $$$)?
Their are two licenses embodied in any LinuxMCE or Pluto installation - GPL and the Pluto License
GPL is quite clear there are no restrictions on 'selling' systems or in fact on selling software either as long as the sources are also provided (thats a simplified statement but iys essentially the case) and freely available without having to purchase. Look at the commercial Linux distributions or almost any mainstream Switch/Router/Wifi AP... almost all of those are build around Linux.
The Pluto License is not quite the same... it basically requires you to pay a fee to Pluto for those components distributed under their licence. Again thats stripping a lot of legal stuff away but thats what it amounts to.
My company has an agreement with Pluto, and has had one for some considerable time in fact. If we supply either LinuxMCE pre-installed or our full-service custom installed Dianemo product to a customer then we pay Pluto some money. Simple as that.
We also contribute our vdr based DVB TV integration as of 0710 and we also work directly with Pluto, WebPaul and the Dev team to test and improve LinuxMCE in our test facility. That testing we do benefits us of course but it also benefits everyone else who downloads and installs LinuxMCE and means that we all get a better more reliable LinuxMCE (it doesn't mean we catch all the bugs though ;-) )
It benefits all of us collectively to have all types of involvement in LinuxMCE - commercial and non-commercial individuals. Putting something back is important to make this work. Its whats called a 'virtuous' circle. Some of us here contribute purely by downloading and installing/using LinuxMCE, others develop new components of the system as hobby, some so do as part of a business, others contribute by just helping people solve problems, some of us are commercial entities that have a LinuxMCE based business but we still 'give away' our expertise here freely (if I can help someone here then I do so - i dont ask them to buy something from us first)... all these types of involvement and more are important as its the total critical mass of people who are here that is important in my opinion. As we grow interest in LinuxMCE then I believe that all sorts of commercial and private involvement here will grow exponentially and that benefits all of us
Happy New Year!
Andrew