Port XBMC to Linux-OS (XBMC on a Linux computer or other Linux device?)?

[e-bart]

hi all,

wouldn't it be cool if xbmc could be installed on linux?

i have setup a htpc with mythtv which is pretty cool. but XBMC simply is so much better and better looking in various areas. i really prefer the user interface. i just think it would be great if i could use it on my linux environment.

i don't know how xbmx is created exactly but it seems it uses a lot of open-source software anyway. it runs on python and uses mplayer if i'm correct. would it be difficult to make it run on linux? or to create a port for linux? as the xbox ages it seems to me that it will be needing a new platform anyway.

or are there ways xbmc could work together with mythtv. that xbmc skins would work on mythtv and vise versa? to be the leader of some standards in this area could make these projects become big players on the market.

oh and, if anyone is reading this and would also like to see xbmc on linux. just post a small reply so we get a small idea how many people would be interested in this.

[e-bart]

ah i see now that it is programmed with assembly, c and c++... i thought python as well?...

is the code portable? or is it tightly written for the xbox?... i have no experience in porting c code or anything... i'm just a php developer who's very interested in xbmc... ...

[pike]

talking to yourself? please don't bump like this, understand it's holidays across the globe and reply times may be longer than usual.

xbmc is dependant on microsoft xbox sdk, you figure the rest out...

[e-bart]

for me to find out if xbmc is portable to linux would mean i would have to research the complete code library of xbmc. that's a pretty humongous undertaking to answer just a few questions. i'm sure there are people out here that know how the code is structured and can say something about the portability.

so you say that it is based on the xbox sdk. so how much of xbmc is programmed with the sdk? or is xbmc something that sits on top of some kind of xbox abstraction layer programmed with the sdk?

[Striker]

i think it will be easier to port mediaportal

[e-bart]

taking mediaportal as the base sounds good as well i guess. at least that has the tv recording features already.

i think it would be pretty cool if there would be some sort of abstraction layer for windows, the xbox and linux. and that development of the (xbox)mediacentre could somehow be independant of the os it runs on. i guess that depends on how much xbmc or mediaportal are integrated with microsofts environment. does xbmc make use of the msxml libraries for example?

is there documentation somewhere about the code structure of xbmc and/or mediaportal?

[e-bart]

i just read that mediaportal is programmed in c#. so unless this code runs with mono i guess the c++ code is more portable for linux?

[jmarshall]

both xbmc and mediaportal depend heavily on directx.

[e-bart]

hmmm... and what if we could use a directx opengl wrapper to solve that problem? wine also has interfaces for directx...
or an abstraction layer that works with opengl and directx like simple directmedia layer...

[jmarshall]

if you do it, then fine - go ahead.

xbmc devs are not going to do it.