I've been a rabid fan of XBMC since the first day I modded my old trusty xbox. I use it daily, and have eagerly awaited the day that functional ports of XBMC start showing up on Linux, OSX and Windows.
Obviously I'm a few months behind the times as far as the Linux & OSX ports are concerned - but I'm not one to give up easily.
I'm also looking for a new project to sink some time into, so this seems like the best avenue to provide some additional coverage and assistance to the XBMC community. I admit I may be wrong, but I'd like to think I'm on to something.
What I'm considering doing is starting a site (domain already purchased, basic site already set up) to offer an additional XBMC related community - should such a community form up.
While I don't mean to try to duplicate services already offered by the XBMC.org forums and wiki, I would like to try to expand upon what XBMC.org offers - and try to lighten the load for less technically savvy users trying XBMC for the first time. I'd also like to be able to offer something for the more advanced XBMC users.
One of the key points would be offering precompiled XBMC binaries for Linux & OSX - should such a thing be possible (is it?). Ontop of this I'd like to act as a new aggregator for XBMC related topics from various sites (xb-scene, xbmc.org, etc) - with the option of user submitted content and articles.
So am I barking up the wrong tree here? Am I trying to duplicate something that already exists, or does the idea / project have merit?
(
http://www.xbmcbuilder.com is what I've got going so far - I'm probably the furthest thing you'll find from a talented web designer - so it's just a quick and dirty Joomla install for the time being, but it shows what I'd like to accomplish at the very least).
I'm not going to say no, but I don't see what more you're going to be offering.
Only reason we don't host precompiled builds here is because we really don't want people who can't figure out compile on their own using it right now. All it will do is bring more people who don't listen to the devs' request to not post bug reports/feature requests as well as a bunch of general linux questions that belong in the distro's forums.
Not to mention we already have a source of constantly outdated documents for the project that is our wiki.
althekiller Wrote:I'm not going to say no, but I don't see what more you're going to be offering.
Ultimately that was my biggest concern. There's little to no point in my duplicating what xbmc.org already offers, but on the same note I just have an itch to do something.
So alternately, any suggestions on what I could do with the site?
I'm still not decided on the precompiled binaries thing. While I understand the reasoning behind XBMC.org not offering them to limit the amount of unsavvy support and feature requests - I've got an itch, as mentioned, to do something.
If do provide them, I'll be making sure that it's well understood that the XBMC.org policies apply.
I thought about building and providing .deb files in an APT repository since I'm already compiling the dailies, but I figured that if the devs wanted to do it they would and it wasn't my place to make that decision for them.
The OSXBMC guy offers compiled downloads, but he's also the sole developer on the mac port.
Beyond binaries I'm not sure what the site would offer. We've already got a wiki and forums, what else do you need for a community?
rodalpho Wrote:I thought about building and providing .deb files in an APT repository since I'm already compiling the dailies, but I figured that if the devs wanted to do it they would and it wasn't my place to make that decision for them.
The OSXBMC guy offers compiled downloads, but he's also the sole developer on the mac port.
Beyond binaries I'm not sure what the site would offer. We've already got a wiki and forums, what else do you need for a community?
Most of the idea for the site came from a discussion I had with a few other users on another site. The basis around which that there are a lot of people who haven't had the opportunity to use XBMC due to lack of hardware or knowledge with the original console, and don't truly understand what XBMC offers as an HTPC front-end now that it's being ported to OSX/Linux.
So ultimately my goal is (was?) to try to offer interim builds of XBMC (similar in the way that people have grabbed periodic builds for the xbox) to use, abuse, and test on their own - while development is still progressing. Hopefully while making the installation and use of the application a little simpler for those unable to compile their own, it'll help bring more light to what I feel is an oft overlooked application.
I'm still up in the air on the original idea. I still feel that providing prebuilt binaries now would open up XBMC to people who would otherwise still not be familiar with it, but at the same time I have to temper the fact that technically unsavvy people would need support that would otherwise not be available at this stage in development.
Oh I definitely agree that XBMC/linux is ready for wider use and distribution and offering semi-stable briefly QA'd packages with proper dependencies would broaden appeal and thus ultimately bring in more developers and help the project. But out of respect to the developers, it's just not my place to make that decision, so I haven't.
rodalpho Wrote:Oh I definitely agree that XBMC/linux is ready for wider use and distribution and offering semi-stable briefly QA'd packages with proper dependencies would broaden appeal and thus ultimately bring in more developers and help the project. But out of respect to the developers, it's just not my place to make that decision, so I haven't.
I hear you.
Any devs want to weight in with an official voice?
rodalpho Wrote:.......The OSXBMC guy offers compiled downloads, but he's also the sole developer on the mac port..........
I hate to get off topic here but elan isn't really the sole developer of the OSX port for the stuff that is OSX specific yes maybe but I hear he has some help as well, but most of the ground work was allready done by the original XBMC team as well as the linux port team that made it work in SDL and under nix exviroments which OSX uses. Pretty much all fixes and changes done to the linux port are also added to the OSX one because they both use the same code base to compile from. So In a way the whole XBMC team helps with the OSX port
Well thats my Rant over
Yes and in the same vein so do the GCC devs and the FFMPEG devs and the SAMBA devs and the SDL devs and probably the vi and emacs devs, etc, etc, all the way back to charles babbage's difference engine made of tiny brass gears and valves in the early 1800s. All development builds upon that which comes before, and certainly nobody meant to imply that Elan wrote it from scratch in a herculean two month long effort or that he doesn't share code with the linux side, just that he's handling the OSX port.
Why not volunteer to help our site out instead?
I see little point in having a separate site when xbmc.org is the main site people will use for feedback to the developers anyway.
One thing we need is content. You seem willing enough to do it for your site, perhaps you'll be willing to do it for ours.
Cheers,
Jonathan
I personally would not be too keen on having things split up, because then its just harder to keep track of things :p
It's not fun to hear of people starting up new sites when we asked for help with CONTENT on this existing one.
Beyond this quick reflection I haven't had time to analyze the main thread post yet
Lukano Wrote:I'd also like to be able to offer something for the more advanced XBMC users.
I do not see what xbmc.org and our official forums do not offer for the
advanced XBMC users, do you?
althekiller Wrote:Not to mention we already have a source of constantly outdated documents for the project that is our wiki.
Yes we are always wanting the users of XBMC to help us maintain and keep the wiki up-to-date (also submit HOW-TOs, etc.), community driven content is what a wiki is all about, have you registered an wiki account (if so then PM pike and ask for "ninja" status)?
http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=XBMC_Online_Manual
rodalpho Wrote:I thought about building and providing .deb files in an APT repository since I'm already compiling the dailies
We are actualy closing the stage where we could like to offer a Debian package which anyone could download in Ubuntu via apt-get, the only thing holding us back in this department right now is our developers time. We even have a launchpad.net project created for it, (no work has been done yet on it though), see:
https://launchpad.net/xbmc
I am sure we would not mind people submitting patches to make the building of a Debian package go smoother.
help with getting an apt repo online would be very welcome
It's in launchpad, but it looks like nobody ever filed a bug with "needs-packaging". If you guys are up for it, I suggest we pull a branch off the trunk, call it v2.1 alpha 1, wait a week to fix any major bugs on the crit path, and submit it to the masters of the universe repo for packaging and addition. And then keep doing that on a regular schedule to keep it reasonably up to date. Upon each release news can be submitted to slashdot, digg, ars technica, etc, too.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDevelopment/NewPackages
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDevelopmen...ageRequest