Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Blockbuster's Movie Download Box Runs Linux

Posted by timothy on from the but-does-it-run-emacs dept.

DeviceGuru writes "In a better-late-than-never move, Blockbuster has introduced a video-on-demand (VOD) service accompanied by a 'free' set-top box (STB). Like TiVo, Roku's Netflix box, and many other modern Internet-enabled A/V gadgets, Blockbuster's new VOD STB runs Linux. But darn it; when will someone finally offer a reasonably-priced, open-platform STB that serves as an A/V gateway to multiple Internet-based services — one consumer-friendly, environmentally-designed, low-power gadget 'to rule them all,' if you will."

6 of 194 comments (clear)

  1. What the hell?!?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    WTF has happened to Slashdot?!

    Why am I only seeing headlines? I thought it was a browser issue til I fired up Konqueror and got the same result.

    Remember when Slashdot announced potential changes to the users before they implemented them? UGH. Fix Slashdot please!

    I mean... at least Digg acts like they care...

  2. Re:Did you know... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    And you haven't refuted the fact that you're a fag. Fag.

  3. off topic but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    My husband just told me to be more Natalie Portman-y....

    1. Re:off topic but... by onkelonkel · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      ? So far out of his reach you might just as well be on the far side of the moon??

      --
      None of them can see the clouds; The polished wings don't care.
  4. Re:Did you know... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Man, everybody is gay once in awhile!

  5. Yet more proof that *BSD is Dying. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    It is now official. Netcraft confirms: *BSD is dying

    One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered *BSD community when IDC confirmed that *BSD market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.

    You don't need to be the Amazing Kreskin to predict *BSD's future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.

    FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time FreeBSD developers Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: FreeBSD is dying.

    Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.

    OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let's see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.

    Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.

    All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among OS dilettante dabblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.

    Fact: *BSD is dying