TVSquad

Want to try MythTV, but don't know the first thing about Linux? Mythbuntu 7.10 is to Windows Vista Media Center what Ubuntu 7.10 is to Windows. Or something like that. Anyway, Mythbuntu makes installing and configuring MythTV about as easy as it gets.

This is the first full release of Mythbuntu. We first looked at a public alpha this summer.

Mythbuntu is not distributed by Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu. But it is recognized as a community supported project. Basically, Mythbuntu is a stripped down version of Ubuntu Linux, with MythTV frontend and backend software thrown in. You can either download and run/install Mythbuntu from a LiveCD or you can install Mythbuntu packages on an Ubuntu machine to convert it into Mythbuntu.

Like Ubuntu, you can expect regular updates to Mythbuntu every six months.

[via Digg]

Interested in setting up a MythTV-based media center, but don't know enough about Linux? Just as Ubuntu is designed to make Linux accessible to the casual user, Mythbuntu is designed to bring media center software to the masses. Of course, that's what Windows Vista does, but for anyone interested in open source applications, MythTV is the way to go, and Mythbuntu makes installation a relatively painless process.

The current version is a public alpha, so don't expect everything to work perfectly. But if you download the disc image, burn it to a CD, pop it in your computer and reboot, you should load up a MythTV frontend. That's the part that lets you interact with media. If you want a fully functioning media center that can record record television shows, you'll want to install the backend as well. If you've already got a backend machine running, you can access it from the frontend included on the liveCD.

Still, the LiveCD is a great option for anyone who wants to see how MythTV works without having to repartition or reformat their hard drive.