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D-Link's New Boxee Box Runs Linux, Eyes Netflix

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the one-ui-to-rule-them dept.

DeviceGuru writes "OpenBoxeeBox.com is reporting that D-Link's new DM-380 Boxee Box, demonstrated last night in New York at Boxee's Boxee Beta unveiling, runs Linux but does not yet stream Netflix video-on-demand titles. However, according to an unnamed Boxee insider, 'the goal is to have the device support Netflix.' The DM-380 features ports for HDMI, optical digital and analog audio, dual USB, and wired Ethernet, plus it has an SD card slot and built-in WiFi. Photos and screenshots are at OpenBoxeeBox, and additional details are on D-Link's website."

1 of 138 comments (clear)

  1. Netflix by qazwart · · Score: 1, Troll

    Doesn't Netflix use SILVERLIGHT?

    Let's see:

    1). BoxeeBox uses Linux.
    2). Linux doesn't run Silverlight.
    3). You need Silverlight to run Netflix

    Now fill in the missing word:

    Therefore, BoxeeBox will never be able to run ____________.

    The truth is that I've given up on standard Linux distros when it comes to multimedia. It simply isn't as good as Windows or Mac OS X. For about a year, we tried to run Mythbuntu, then Ubuntu w/ MythTV and Boxee. It simply never worked very well. Incompatibility issues with drivers and configuration problems drove us up the wall. When Windows 7 came out, we "upgraded" to Windows 7. (Why not?, it was originally a Windows Vista box).

    The problem I see with the Boxee Box is that it is competing against HDTVs that can connect with Netflix right out of the box. Plus, these HDTVs are better at displaying video than what Boxee will be able to do.

    Don't get me wrong. I use Linux (Fedora Distro) at work. In fact, I installed it at work over my Windows box and am running Windows under VirtualBox on the machine. I prefer to do my development on Linux because it is faster, and it comes with all the development tools I need. Plus, it is two to three times faster running Subversion and Eclipse than Windows.

    However, I have that Windows under VirtualBox instance if I have to read email (our corporation uses Exchange and Evolution is an awful Exchange client). I also use my Windows side if I have to display a video or a Flash application. If I can get Flash to work on Linux, it is splotchy at best, MP4s look awful, and don't even try to run in full screen mode. Linux based Android is much better, but that's because Google isn't shy about adding a few proprietary pieces to get things to work.

    Boxee is a nice concept, but they're concentrating too much on cool and not enough on getting things to work at a consumer level.