Hopefully this will expose the myspace generation to quality programming like topgear and help speed up the torrents a bit here in the states.

> Like those tie-ups, it's pretty irrelevant to UK viewers, who can now use the iPlayer to watch whole programs without advertising...

No, what you mean is:

"Like those tie-ups, it's pretty irrelevant to UK users of Microsoft operating systems who are brave enough to use Internet Explorer rather than a proper browser, who can now use the iPlayer to watch whole programs without advertising..."

As a Linux user and holder of a TV tax certificate ... errmmm, sorry, TV Licence, I'm less than jolly about being treated as a second-class citizen (no Linux version of the iPlayer), now that the BBC is a subsidiary of the Microsoft Corporation.

Linux users are only treated as 2nd class citizens if they really think they want to have Kontiki running in the background eating up CPU and bandwidth quota ... the new streaming version of iPlayer works fine for me in firefox on XP and I'd assume the same would be the case for linux as well.

The Flash iPlayer works with Firefox. So hush it.

In return for your licence fee, all the BBC TV and radio programmes are available free to air.

You pays yer Windows/OSX tax (or otherwise if your Linux .iso was free) and you takes yer choice, knowing full-well that the non-flash iPlayer is a value-added service (an alternative to a DVD).

BBC hasn't given me a free HDD Freeview box. I can't recieve 6music on my FM radio. The bbc website hasn't all been translated into Gaelic, and I can't access it via my Gamecube. Jeremy Clarkson did not personally deliver a VHS copy of a Top Gear episode of my choosing to an address of my choosing at a time of my choosing.

Boo hoo. You knew what you were doing when you installed Linux. You were opting out. Credit to ya for fighting the fight and everything. But face the consequences of your actions.

How can iPlayer be available for Linux?

It took years and cost a large fortune to cobble together the player. And there was no money in the pot or time to make do and mend the last time BBC TV tax was mentioned in parliament.

So where did the funding come from to bring the rebirth of the original abortion?

Flash under linux is a tricky one. Adobe release a version of flash for linux intel i386 only.

Linux can run on your forking toaster as its that great - but as adobe only release flash for intel i386. So if your like me and have an apple mac mini powerpc with linux on - then no iplayer for you. In addition my wii and ps3 dont seem to like it either. I expect all 64bit chips are a no no as well.

Flash was a reasonable solution as there isn't much else - I just wish the bbc had continued their work with dirac so an open source solution that would work with any computer system. Windows, mac and many incarnations of linux.

on my 48K Sinclair ZX Spectrum

I have linux on one of machines and it works fine.