I just wanna thank the developers.
I downloaded the Beta 2 LiveCD today, burned it, booted my first htpc. Installed (too hdd) it (takes about 3-5 minutes on 500gb hd), rebooted, and everything except my digital sound worked. I connected to my smb shares and played hd movies and music flawless. I connected to the htpc with ssh, and turned on the digital sound, and that worked too. I got so happy that I installed it on my second htpc also.
All in all, the configuration that I had to make (adding movies and music to database, select region, and so on) took about ten minutes. Give and take a couple of minutes it took 20 minutes to get everything up and running on the first htpc, and 20 more on the second.
I have been using linux for about a year, so I am absolutely no proffessional. I believe anyone could install and configure this with a little help from a "how-to".
Thanks guys, keep the great work going! If I ever get a penny over (I am a student) I will donate it right away (hopefully I will not remain a student forever
)!