RE: [DotGNU]Some thoughts about DotGNU

[James Mc Parlane]

> James Mc Parlane wrote:
> > 
> > I'm starting to sketch out design of a dotgnu interactive 
> TV platform based
> > on pnet, SDL and MetaWrap. I'm an ITV developer so I've 
> been exposed to most
> > of the paradigms out there..
> > 
 
> Great, another field in which free software makes it's entry. 
> But isn't
> there one major problem in developing GNUITV: the hardware? 

The system should be as generic as possible. A linux and/or PC reference
version can be created that uses standard drivers for decoder cards and
smart card readers etc..

> How will you
> get the hardware makers to support your system (or is ITV in the stage
> that the hardware isn't specially designed for supporting a specific
> software systems)?

Yes it would be up to the STB manufacturer to make the port to their
particular platform, but that's always the case. 

Linux is becoming a defacto standard for the STB OS, so that should cover a
majority of bases for the next generation of STB's. But the majority of
boxes are still 20-80Mhz RISC based systems.

Also.. The choice of middleware is entirely driven by the network owner. As
applications become available to run under a particular system, it becomes
more attractive to the network provider, So they start to ask for it. A
cable company for instance will be attracted not to GNUTIV as a concept, or
to the middleware layer itself, but to compelling applications that are
written to run under GNUTIV and how well its back end billing and subscriber
access system works.

The system should be as modular as possible, so that the whole or just parts
of it can be integrated with existing systems, as long as it does not
violate the license.