If you are a Windows or Mac user, you will be familiar with Windows Media Center or Front Row that both have the ability to turn your computer into a Media Center PC. Linux users don’t have such luck as most distros do not come with a media center application pre-installed.
If you are like me who is a Linux user and owns a huge collection of music, videos and pictures, the world is not over for you yet. There are many open-source applications that you can use to turn your Linux machine into a lean, mean media center.
Are you sick of Mac OS X Front row, Windows Media Center or want a media center for Linux. Boxee is a new kind of media center that runs on Mac OS X and Ubuntu Linux, it will also support Windows in the near future (meanwhile check out cool windows media center alternatives). The framework that Boxee is built off of is XBMC which is the best media center available for Xbox.
Increasingly, more and more people are turning to internet-based solutions to consume their content. Many of them are switching to solutions that hook up to televisions. I find the best solution with the most control is a Media Center PC. Some people, however, do not turn to this option due to the lack of flexibility in the Windows Media Center software. I am going to tell you about some of the best FREE Windows Media Center alternatives that I have found.
MediaPortal – MediaPortal is an open source alternative to the Windows-based Media Center software.
Subscribe to MakeUseOf and get daily updates about new cool websites and programs in your email for free. Plus get free cheat sheets to your favorite programs.
