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On 06/04/14 21:27, Simon Avery wrote: > I'm probably doing Plex a dis-service but after a play last year I have > it filed very firmly under "Too shiny for its own good" and used > minidlna, but then ended up not actually needing either. > > I've spent a lot of time playing with various of these big-budget > projects like this (and Spiceworks, and lots of others). They are very > very bling and quite impressive in their way, but I always seem to hit > some major roadblock where I want to do Thing A) and project has decided > that only Thing B) is going to be allowed. So I revert to low-budget, > no-frills alternatives that just work. > > That, or they change the goalposts and specs just after I've got it > nicely set up. > > I appear to be heading for a side-rant here, but hey ho, let's go with it. > > What triggered it was your mention of having to sign up for a cloud > service, or to download, or to register before Shiny-Gizzmo will work. I > really don't like this. I use linux for many reasons, but one of the big > ones is that I like free software. I like to be able to get it on my > terms and I don't like handing over my personal information in order to > use it. When you do that, it's not unreasonable to be cynical and assume > your information is going to be used, and it's most likely it'll be used > to the benefit of "Them" and not for "Me". It could be sold, it could be > stolen, it could be analysed and linked with other bits of information > and They know more about me than my wife does. > > That Big-Shiny-Thing-Monetizing-Model and Linux, don't fit well in my > head. Obviously Linux means different things to different people, and > with Plex, like a dozen other very marketable Linux projects (including > Ubuntu and Mint) suggest to me linux means $$$ to some. > > I'm not naive. I know money needs to be made; there is a finite limit to > the goodwill of people who donate time, skill, servers and bandwidth for > the linux brethren and big truly opensource projects often hit a wall > due to time, lack of people, hosting costs or just plain politics, but > it's true. > > I sound like an idealistic hippy, but that "Freeness" is something that > I appreciate hugely about linux, and Plex doesn't feel right. > > (Also, it's very fat, slow and surprisingly complicated to configure. I > had minidlna doing what little I wanted in 5 minutes. Plex failed to > achieve what I wanted within an hour of poking and used a lot of > resources in the process) Great side rant! I couldn't have said this any better myself and feel exactly the same. Plex may be great for some people but right off the bat to an inveterate tinkerer and natural cynic it all just looked too... shiny. And those cloud logins for everything: umm, nope. Also Spiceworks: exactly the same. Looks really cool, good entry level freebie stuff and just when you start to like it and think about pulling in the cool features BOOM! Suddenly you need a cloud account (and ideally to give them money) and suspicion starts to set in. Maybe I'll just go back to setting up the known working tools the hard way, and forfeit the bling of dubious value after all. It's why we're all so suspicious of new uber-cool things like Unraid or even Nexenta - the first limited hit is free and then it's pay pay pay. No no no. Regards -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq