The folks at Slashgear recently posted an interview with Benjami Zores, one of the core developers of the embedded Linux distribution knows as GeeXboX.
In summary, GeeXboX, which incidentally has no affiliation or tie in with the Microsoft console, is a fully operational Media Center solution available on what's known as a LiveCD. It works on both x86 and PowerPC based computers and is as easy to use as dropping a CD in a PC since no installation is required.
GeeXboX plays DVDs, video files, audio files, live and recorded TV, and allows users to schedule television recordings - all characteristics of a respectable Media Center platform.
Ease of use is one of the primary functions of the distribution and GeeXboX has it in spades going so far as to autodetect installed hardware devices and performing system configurations with little to no input from the user.
The software can be used by people with very little computer knowledge and is allegedly as simple to use as an everyday DVD player.
When asked if GeeXboX has any intentions to enter the mainstream market via an OEM partnership, Benjamin indicates that the development team has already received a lot of interest, but have respectfully declined the offers due to oustanding GPL issues.
I'd never heard of GeeXboX until reading this interview, and I have to say it all sounds pretty interesting and I intend to mess around with it when I have some spare time.
GeeXboX is currently available as a free download and is at version 2.6. Head over to Slashgear for the full text of the interview where Benjamin offers more insight into the project.
1. This is *the* easiet linux distro you will ever use and it does what it's supposed to very well. The investment in trying it out is minimal: a couple minutes to download the very small iso and a cd to burn it to. The other fantastic thing is that your trial PC doesn't even need a hard drive. I had great success viewing almost any media file I could think of on an old celeron 500Mhz machine outfitted with a measely 128MB of ram and a dvd-rom. Pull that antique out of the closet and put it back to work!
Posted at 8:30PM on Nov 1st 2006 by Dan Anderson