Ask Slashdot: Linux Friendly Video Streaming? 147
earthwormgaz writes "I've set up a Linux XBMC + MythTV with FreeView machine for the lounge at home. It works pretty well for Linux, although things crash here and there. The Mrs wants LoveFilm or Netflix, but it seems they're Silverlight and not Linux friendly. Is there anyone doing streaming film and TV with Flash or something else that works on Linux? Failing that, is there anyway to download a film for £4-6 say, as just an AVI file or something, legally?"
If money is no object (Score:4, Insightful)
(1) Decide what you want the computer to do
(2) Acquire the right platform.
I agree that is a usable approach if money is no object.
Syaing "I've already got [whatever platform], how do I make it do what I want?" is often not a helpful approach.
If you have to make do with the hardware that you already own, the "often not a helpful approach" is the only approach apart from doing without.
Re:Backwards (Score:4, Insightful)
The usual answer to questions like this is:
(1) Decide what you want the computer to do
(2) Acquire the right platform.
Syaing "I've already got [whatever platform], how do I make it do what I want?" is often not a helpful approach.
If RMS and Linus had followed that advice, GNU, Linux, and probably Slashdot would never have existed. Why should one have to buy Windows and allow customer-hostile DRM software on ones computer to be able to watch a movie easily and legally? It's your computer, and the whole point of owning it is that you can make it do what you want. Trying to do just that seems perfectly reasonable to me, and I can't see how any system that doesn't allow you to do that could be the "right platform" for anything.