As far as Home Theatre PC (HTPC) software goes, there are not a huge number of players in the software only market. Of course every Digital Tuner card comes with some flavour of Windows software, but that isnt all that usefull if you want to run a true HTPC network at home.

There are some fantastic *nix variants available, most around the same core.
Knoppmyth
Mythbuntu
MythDora 

These are all of course built around the ever popular MythTV, however are all in LiveCD versions so that there is little to actually setup or compile. ( This is a very good thing as MythTV can be difficult at best to setup)

But now there is another player on the scene, has the playing field changed?

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Are you the kind of ‘early adopter’ that loves to have non-consumer grade kit in your house?
Do you have PC based devices in your house to perform chores that embedded devices usually do?

If you answered ‘yes’ to either of the questions above then you understand the pain that is in my household currently.

In a revious post I postulated the woes of losing a raid 5 array and the heartache that goes along with the sick to the stomach feeling that you have lost years worth of accumaleted entertainment data.

It has been two weeks now, and I am pretty much no closer to having my 4 hoe systems back together again.

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Buz word of the 2008’s – Media Center PC or Home Theatre PC (HTPC)

For those who havent partook of the greatness that is a HTPC here is a quick run down of all that you are missing out on, as well as the options that are available.

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