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DishPVR 721 Review
An anonymous submitter writes "TiVo's not the only Linux based PVR in the US market anymore. Echostar's Dish Network is now offering their own Linux based PVR, the dual tuner, 120 GB DP721. The first review can be found here at DBSTalk.com." Another anonymous person (how hard is it to give yourself a handle? sheesh) describes the gizmo and notes a possible problem: "Echostar is now shipping a Linux based set-top box called the DishPVR-721 that won best of show at CES. It has a 120GB drive, a pentium like processor and supports dual channel PVR. Also, from my call to their technical support this morning, they aren't planning on giving up any of the GPLed source code they have modified. I've got one in front of me right now, ugly silver box but nice specs. I'm going to open it up this morning and start taking it apart."
Would you trust a company whose CEO is a professional gambler [guardian.co.uk]:
While gambling has a stigma in many people's minds, to be a successful professional gambler is actually quite demanding. Typically professional gamblers have to be very good at mathematics as well as data and strategy analysis. They also must also be able to evaluate situations logically and dispassionately (especially true in sports wagering) and not be swayed by emotions and hype. Furthermore they will also need good money management skills if they want to be around for long. Not to mention perseverance and the discipline to takes to be successful in the long run. Read any books by Ken Uston or Bob McCune and you'll come to appreciate the amount of work and analysis it takes to be a professional gambler. Any fool can gamble, but only a select few people can gamble successfully over the long haul.
So yes, I would trust a company whose CEO was a professional gambler. It's a better background than many other CEOs have had.
I know several people working on this project. Echostar is going to release all the source code that they are required to. Just because a call-center person who is trained to help people hook the box up to their TV doesn't know about it doesn't mean the code is not going to be released.
This is a new platform for Echostar and it may take a while to get everthing in place. Based on my understanding, they have every intention of following all GPL requirements.
as long as their work doesn't modify the existing GPL code. So they just add some scripting to do what they want using a standard kernel (not an unlikely scenario). They can copyright their code or keep it secret; it's their choice. They need not release any of it as long as it does not incorporate any code that is already under GPL copyright. It would, in effect, simply be an application that runs on the Linux OS (like an accounting application or a database application).
No one ever had to evacuate a city because the solar panels broke!