2015-09-03, 07:26
I have been using xbmc (kodi) since the original xbox and I never knew there was a community out here like this.
For years I lost track of this software to see it rebranded which was an obvious smart move and I see it is for all kinds of devices now which is sweet as hell.
I have been going through a lot of posts on this forum and I see a lot of things I think I should comment on if I may as a long term user, fan and 1st time contributor.
The first shock was the emphatic push from illegal content. To be fair, this is kind of what it was initially made to do, but I totally understand why this would want to be avoided as it came from something on a modded xbox to something for all devices, which is pretty neat. An old timey user like myself will always see this as an initial "wtf" so in some of these threads I think a guy with only 1 post should be given a bit more patience as it is not always someone who bought an "eBay box" as I saw some forum posts mentioning them (I never knew that was a thing).
That leads me to my second thought. I read a lot of posts here and someone mentioned that this community is like someone who likes building a car instead of someone who just owns one. Very true. The same posts come with concerns why major providers have ignored this product for so long. I love customizing my box and digging into the code, writing some scripts etc. My wife however would not know where to begin, and she is the one TV providers like Netflix are selling subscriptions to most (the average person). This leads me to wonder why this product can not coexist as both open source and a walled garden with very little ease. A simple walled version of this software created with technically challenged people in mind that removes some features like custom addons, scripts and enhances others like libraries and play lists without the extra steps on a fresh setup, while running on its own platform like a roku, has not been developed yet. Right now the push for open source and plain images with no proprietary hardware leaves something to be desired. Sure it is great for me and you, but leaves the average consumer with more to be desired. If this product really wants to take off in the direction of being a solid media center, making a walled garden of addons like a roku is the only way (but still keeping the open source builds for us junkies). A box that is free of piracy without modding or hacking, named Kodi that does not require a developer to try to make sure it works everywhere WILL get the support of content providers. This project needs a fork away from media center to a silly box of hardware that is just streaming with some (SOME) media center options. A Kodi box like a Roku needs to be developed to mainstream the product. I'll buy one just to support the company and I'm sure many others here would too as I see strong loyalty in the posts I have been reading.
I had another point to make but as I'm typing this from my phone and sort of long-winded the last paragraph I lost the train of thought on my last point.
Ps: Saw a lot of comments hating the new name change on the name change wiki page. If I may say, the name change is pretty ok and hurdles better than xbmc and this name change, with some intuitive ideas to mainstream this product will eventually land the project in some nice water
Excuse any misspellingspelling or run on sentences, sent from my Samsung s5
For years I lost track of this software to see it rebranded which was an obvious smart move and I see it is for all kinds of devices now which is sweet as hell.
I have been going through a lot of posts on this forum and I see a lot of things I think I should comment on if I may as a long term user, fan and 1st time contributor.
The first shock was the emphatic push from illegal content. To be fair, this is kind of what it was initially made to do, but I totally understand why this would want to be avoided as it came from something on a modded xbox to something for all devices, which is pretty neat. An old timey user like myself will always see this as an initial "wtf" so in some of these threads I think a guy with only 1 post should be given a bit more patience as it is not always someone who bought an "eBay box" as I saw some forum posts mentioning them (I never knew that was a thing).
That leads me to my second thought. I read a lot of posts here and someone mentioned that this community is like someone who likes building a car instead of someone who just owns one. Very true. The same posts come with concerns why major providers have ignored this product for so long. I love customizing my box and digging into the code, writing some scripts etc. My wife however would not know where to begin, and she is the one TV providers like Netflix are selling subscriptions to most (the average person). This leads me to wonder why this product can not coexist as both open source and a walled garden with very little ease. A simple walled version of this software created with technically challenged people in mind that removes some features like custom addons, scripts and enhances others like libraries and play lists without the extra steps on a fresh setup, while running on its own platform like a roku, has not been developed yet. Right now the push for open source and plain images with no proprietary hardware leaves something to be desired. Sure it is great for me and you, but leaves the average consumer with more to be desired. If this product really wants to take off in the direction of being a solid media center, making a walled garden of addons like a roku is the only way (but still keeping the open source builds for us junkies). A box that is free of piracy without modding or hacking, named Kodi that does not require a developer to try to make sure it works everywhere WILL get the support of content providers. This project needs a fork away from media center to a silly box of hardware that is just streaming with some (SOME) media center options. A Kodi box like a Roku needs to be developed to mainstream the product. I'll buy one just to support the company and I'm sure many others here would too as I see strong loyalty in the posts I have been reading.
I had another point to make but as I'm typing this from my phone and sort of long-winded the last paragraph I lost the train of thought on my last point.
Ps: Saw a lot of comments hating the new name change on the name change wiki page. If I may say, the name change is pretty ok and hurdles better than xbmc and this name change, with some intuitive ideas to mainstream this product will eventually land the project in some nice water
Excuse any misspellingspelling or run on sentences, sent from my Samsung s5