- September 21, 2008
- 1
- 0
Hi,
This is a quick message borne out of frustration, so please bear with me....
I've been a user of MediaPortal for a few years, as the project has developed from an early version. The best thing about it has always been that it just works! Today I had a morning off work for the first time in 2 weeks so decided to update a previously useful program. After 2 hours of faffing about I have given up, will leave it for a day to calm down and then, if it still doesn't work will uninstall it.
My point is really this, I don't care how it works, I don't care which dll is duplicated , requiring a non-existant patch to be located and installed, nor do I wish to spend hours trawling through the forums looking for someone else who has had the same problems. The wiki may be a carefully crafted reference work, but after a fruitless hour trawling from link to link, learning about sql, servers, and other such fascinating topics I just want to watch TV on my computer.
I've always been a fan of open source software, I admire the effort that has gone into it, and try to support it wherever possible but I think there is something of a disconnect between the developers/fans, who are prepared to put the time and effort into learning new skills on their PC, and the ordinary user. I use my computer daily, but its just a tool, not a hobby.
Its very easy to say RTFM, install the patches, configure the server etc, and to assume that I am too lazy, ignorant, insert word of your choice, to work it out for myself, and to be honest you would be right, but if open source software is ever to take over the world
then I really believe the thing that will make the difference is ease of use, not functionality. Firefox springs to mind as a hugely sucessful project, not necessarily the most complete browser ever written, but one that is easy to use/install. It just works!
Rant off....
Anyway, I will either work out where I am going wrong tomorrow, or ditch it for good, but either way I still think its a great piece of software that has a great future thanks to some very talented people working on it. But the only way to spread the word is to make it accessible to a broader user base, ie those who won't or can't devote their lesiure time to fighting their way through the murk and gloom towards a useable piece of software.
Thanks,
Critical_Al
This is a quick message borne out of frustration, so please bear with me....
I've been a user of MediaPortal for a few years, as the project has developed from an early version. The best thing about it has always been that it just works! Today I had a morning off work for the first time in 2 weeks so decided to update a previously useful program. After 2 hours of faffing about I have given up, will leave it for a day to calm down and then, if it still doesn't work will uninstall it.
My point is really this, I don't care how it works, I don't care which dll is duplicated , requiring a non-existant patch to be located and installed, nor do I wish to spend hours trawling through the forums looking for someone else who has had the same problems. The wiki may be a carefully crafted reference work, but after a fruitless hour trawling from link to link, learning about sql, servers, and other such fascinating topics I just want to watch TV on my computer.
I've always been a fan of open source software, I admire the effort that has gone into it, and try to support it wherever possible but I think there is something of a disconnect between the developers/fans, who are prepared to put the time and effort into learning new skills on their PC, and the ordinary user. I use my computer daily, but its just a tool, not a hobby.
Its very easy to say RTFM, install the patches, configure the server etc, and to assume that I am too lazy, ignorant, insert word of your choice, to work it out for myself, and to be honest you would be right, but if open source software is ever to take over the world
then I really believe the thing that will make the difference is ease of use, not functionality. Firefox springs to mind as a hugely sucessful project, not necessarily the most complete browser ever written, but one that is easy to use/install. It just works!Rant off....
Anyway, I will either work out where I am going wrong tomorrow, or ditch it for good, but either way I still think its a great piece of software that has a great future thanks to some very talented people working on it. But the only way to spread the word is to make it accessible to a broader user base, ie those who won't or can't devote their lesiure time to fighting their way through the murk and gloom towards a useable piece of software.
Thanks,
Critical_Al