2015-06-25, 02:42
Alienware now has a gaming PC line that comes with a modified version of KODI? Can they do that?
http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/a...-steam-os/
http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/a...-steam-os/
2015-06-25, 04:07
Yup. They've actually been talking to us about it for several months.
2015-06-25, 05:52
The mods are skin oriented. The skin code is on GitHub under AlienwareSoftware. It is based on Confluence and all the great work that goes into it.
The addons do rely on a close sourced .net app but are freely modifiable when it comes to interacting with Kodi. They also work with any skin, so people can change it.
I'll have more news in the coming months in regards to how open source and open platform we can get. Still in the works.
The addons do rely on a close sourced .net app but are freely modifiable when it comes to interacting with Kodi. They also work with any skin, so people can change it.
I'll have more news in the coming months in regards to how open source and open platform we can get. Still in the works.
2015-06-25, 07:05
It just goes to show you how awesome and flexible an open source project can be. Even if the focus here is just a portion of what Kodi can do, it says a lot that Dell/Alienware was able to make the UI portion fit their needs like this. The different parts of a project can be reused in ways you might not ever had imaged before.
2015-08-13, 17:54
Can I easily install this on any Windows PC or is it tied down to the Alienware Alpha?
2015-08-13, 18:18
Those scripts probably won't work anywhere else though. The way they do their magic is they've got a closed source program doing various things in the background that the scripts in Kodi talk to. It's how they can do things like work with other Kodi skins. Kodi itself isn't changed in any way. The scripts working with the background program is where the interesting stuff happens.
2015-08-13, 19:29
I see. They've created a very seamless experience to say the least. Very nice! 
2015-08-14, 22:47
Wow, this is one pretty awesome way to make use of Kodi!
2015-10-16, 07:23
Yeah, I'm a little late to the party as today I just read that Dell has changed their Alienware Alpha to use Hivemind.
And as mentioned in this thread, Hivemind is based on Kodi with a modded skin and some scripts along with some closed source code.
Again as mentioned in this thread, Dell seems to comply with the GPL and has made their modded skin available.
But, is it only me or does it seem a little immoral for Dell to use an open source project and then configure it in such a way that the main work is done in a closed source blob?
Seems to me that such behaviour is completely contradictory to the spirit of GPL even though Dell follows the license.
In one sence it's similar to that bloke who accepts the shouts (drinks) at the pub but pops out just when it's his turn to buy!
I hope Dell has made a considerable donation to Kodi, either in $$ or in design hours to fix/improve the code base.
Is this the case, has Dell contributed back to Kodi and in what way?
[edited to add following]
Oh, and I don't like the name Hivemind as it reminds me of group thinking with a complete loss of the individual.
Sort of apple like in one sence
[edited to clarify that Dell seems immoral (to me) for not handing something more than the minimum required under law]
And as mentioned in this thread, Hivemind is based on Kodi with a modded skin and some scripts along with some closed source code.
Again as mentioned in this thread, Dell seems to comply with the GPL and has made their modded skin available.
But, is it only me or does it seem a little immoral for Dell to use an open source project and then configure it in such a way that the main work is done in a closed source blob?
Seems to me that such behaviour is completely contradictory to the spirit of GPL even though Dell follows the license.
In one sence it's similar to that bloke who accepts the shouts (drinks) at the pub but pops out just when it's his turn to buy!
I hope Dell has made a considerable donation to Kodi, either in $$ or in design hours to fix/improve the code base.
Is this the case, has Dell contributed back to Kodi and in what way?
[edited to add following]
Oh, and I don't like the name Hivemind as it reminds me of group thinking with a complete loss of the individual.
Sort of apple like in one sence
[edited to clarify that Dell seems immoral (to me) for not handing something more than the minimum required under law]
2015-10-16, 07:46
If it was immoral then we wouldn't be using an open source license that not only allows this, but encourages it. It is part of the goal to see usage like this. You can't say something is free and then take it back. It's free for everyone, without bias, to use and improve their software. The only thing ever asked in return is to share any improvements to the open source code they used. It doesn't matter what other code they use, or how much money they make, or if they give us anything more in return.
2015-10-16, 09:39
I know Kodi uses an open source license, primarily the GPL license IIRC. The code is free for all others to use as long as they meet the license conditions. I have no problem with this legal view.
But when large multinationals use any open source code base and then add the important bits as binary blobs, that does not follow an open source spirit at all. They get a leg up from the open source, then when their product is successful they can rewrite the code using closed source clean room. IIRC, Google/Samsung? did such with many open source android phone apps. Many at the time consider this poor form. Hardly behaviour that should be considered moral, even though it is legal.
Guess a very loose analogy may be a 40yo dating a 18yo, it's legal but to many this would be clearly immoral.
And here I thought the essence of open source movement tipyfied by the GPL was to give back (and not in some trivial way to simply meet a legal definition).
But it seems i'm the only one that sees less than good behaviour in multinationals
PS: I edited my earlier post to clarify i felt that it was Dell that was being immoral, just in case there was some confusion.
But when large multinationals use any open source code base and then add the important bits as binary blobs, that does not follow an open source spirit at all. They get a leg up from the open source, then when their product is successful they can rewrite the code using closed source clean room. IIRC, Google/Samsung? did such with many open source android phone apps. Many at the time consider this poor form. Hardly behaviour that should be considered moral, even though it is legal.
Guess a very loose analogy may be a 40yo dating a 18yo, it's legal but to many this would be clearly immoral.
And here I thought the essence of open source movement tipyfied by the GPL was to give back (and not in some trivial way to simply meet a legal definition).
But it seems i'm the only one that sees less than good behaviour in multinationals
PS: I edited my earlier post to clarify i felt that it was Dell that was being immoral, just in case there was some confusion.
2015-10-17, 11:56
What makes you say it's perfectly legal? That's a gray area at best. And yes, by all definitions not in the spirit of free software.
2015-10-17, 13:51
I don't have a ton of patience for people complaining about the "spirit" of FOSS. The GPL was written in a very specific way with extremely clear intentions by GNU. We, as an organization, then decided to license our software under the GPL v2 (though these days we incorporate GPL v3 software, making it effectively v3). If an organization uses our software in a way that we don't like, but that is perfectly legitimate under the GPL, then it's not their fault for using the license; it's our fault for selecting the license we selected.
edit: Also, takoi, I don't see where the gray area is here. This isn't an example of tivoization even, requiring some kind of locked down platform. This is just a separate closed source application talking to an open source application. As far as I'm aware, this happens in Kodi for Windows basically constantly.
edit: Also, takoi, I don't see where the gray area is here. This isn't an example of tivoization even, requiring some kind of locked down platform. This is just a separate closed source application talking to an open source application. As far as I'm aware, this happens in Kodi for Windows basically constantly.
2015-10-17, 15:24
(2015-10-17, 13:51)natethomas Wrote: edit: Also, takoi, I don't see where the gray area is here. This isn't an example of tivoization even, requiring some kind of locked down platform. This is just a separate closed source application talking to an open source application. As far as I'm aware, this happens in Kodi for Windows basically constantly.It's not clearly a separate application. They distribute the hivemind program here http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/0...erId=N9NCY with no source code. As far as I can understand looking at it, it consists of Kodi binary, addons and proprietary libraries. The addons links to Kodi (licensed says MIT which is btw not correct. They must be GPL.) These addons then links to proprietary modules. One of those appears to "AlphaUIUtils" I cannot find any source for and can be seen here: https://github.com/alienwaresoftware/Kod...vice.py#L6
