Ubuntu Linux shop reveals 'TV for human beings'

cd /channels/BBC1

A linux powered telly. I can just see it now;

Press the big 'Play' button and up pops an error message so cryptic you have to Google it, to try and find out what the hell it means. Then spend the next two days switching back and forth between a terminal window "sudo apt get installing" half a dozen 'required dependencies' and a browser window, Googling all the cryptic errors each of those throws up due to misconfigurations, permissions errors and the absence of even more 'required dependencies'.

Must buy my granny one!

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You may have a Linux telly already

Most, maybe even all, LG TVs made in the last few years run on Linux. I didn't even realise mine did until I noticed the GPL at the back of the manual!

Mark Shuttleworth and stubble

> Mark Shuttleworth has long sought to beat Steve Jobs’ Apple on the look and features of the desktop with his Linux distro; at times, with his cropped hair and stubble ..

I don't think he's actually trying to channel Saint Jobs. People grow facial hair when they start to go thin on top ..

"uncomplicate television for the average viewer"

Some days I get the impression that technological progress is entirely retrograde.

"...TV-of-the-future concept maximising its touch-based Linux distro..."

Touch-based TV?

Probably be pretty difficult, trying to comfortably hold a 25-to-50-inch diagonal fondleslab.

Put the touchy-feely on the remote, though, and you might have something there...

The goal is to uncomplicate television for the average viewer

Hmmmm lets break it down:

1. Check TV guide for programs you want to watch/may interest you

2. Take note of time and channel of broadcast of said programme(s)

3. At appropriate time of day, press appropriate numbers on remote control to turn to that channel.

Yes, highly complex stuff this TV lark. I can see how people get confused.

Think of my brother bob

I am writting this note for my brother Bob who sits next to me in a vegitated state watching a rerun of Friends. Bobby just typed the number 29, letting me no that this is how many times he has seen this episode.

Bobby's desmise started 22 years ago when he was 13 years old. It started innocently enough with his adolesent crush on Marsha Brady, but then it got more serious when we got a T.V. with a remote control. Soon Bob had his own subscription to TV Guide magazine. Then two years latter at age of 12 (Note to non T.V. watchers - dedicted TV viewers can't do math) Bob got his own T.V. in his bed room. We hardly ever saw Bob after that. He started to skip classes at school and by the time Bay Watch came out he stopped going to school altogether. Now my 75 year old mom clean's his bed pan twice a day, and my step Dad fixes him Luck Charms for breakfast, boxed macaronni and cheese for lunch (Store brand cause Bob's cable bill ate up my parents pension and home equity), and for dinner Bob eats a Happy Meal. Bob now weights 450 lbs and has to take Viagra to get hard enough to masturbate for nipple shots of Jenifer Anston.

Please don't let this happen to you or your childern. Turn off your TV. Better yet throw it away. Think of what you could do with your life with that extra two, three, four hours per night wasted in front of the T.V.

- Bob's brother

Great Idea

Yes dear, you can have the remote control and watch the repeat of the repeat of the repeat of eastenders/corrie/sex in the city etc.

I'll just sit here with my laptop and log into the telly, sudo to the root user, now, what's on discovery science?

"What?, no!, haven't clue as to why the telly changed channels"

>:-)

No cables, boxes or hassles

"TV as it was intended: no cables, boxes or hassles".

Er, I think I have one of these already, although I must admit there is a cable to the mains supply, and another to the aerial, now I come to think of it. I can't wait to upgrade to Ubuntu TV and get rid of these.

It appears, however, that Ubuntu TV is actually going to come over the Interwebs, via my mobile phone (500 Mb per month) or ISP (2 Mbit/s on a very good day). I can't help feeling that this will involve quite a lot of hassles (plus perhaps cables and boxes).

@Anonymous Coward God help us..... #

Thanks for that, if you had been more accurate you would have noted that XBMC stands for X-Box Media Centre as in "install on a hacked X-Box". Installing over Ubuntu on a PC is not XBMC's main purpose ("raison d'etre"?). Hence more complex.

Perhaps you should have used Knoppmyth as in 'burn ISO to disk; insert in drive and reboot'

Or again as in Mythbuntu; again burn ISO to disk; install; answer questions on TV card and tune; enjoy.

Mythbuntu works fine and is easy to install; records more programs/tuner than MS Media Centre (courtesy of Win 7) which took much longer to install than Mythbuntu on the same equipment (thanks Win7). Having used the MCE on Win7 for 2 weeks and then tried Mythbuntu I stayed with Mythbuntu - suited my requirements better (like 3 frontends in other rooms using same media/storage sources; +3 tuners in server frontend/backend).

My only gripe is that perhaps Mr Shuttleworth might have used MythTV/Mythbuntu as his starting point thereby contributing to project (but able to add to for 'extended features')