I recently installed Mythbuntu front-end on one of my better computers.... But I completely forgot about the back-end. (Front-end working beautifully, no problems there). I have an older PC... 128 Meg's of RAM... No graphics chip other than the basic... Running windows 2000 smoothly.... So is it a better decision to install the back-end on this (Win. 2k) PC or to reinstall Mythbuntu. (I downloaded the mythbuntu ISO and directly installed it onto the PC, I was never prompted to install both back and front ends).

LiamBiscuit.

P.S. Not to trouble you further with my beginner questions but would you be kind enough to send me the link to the front-end only or the combined package, whichever you figure would be better =)

The backend should already be there if you installed from the Mythbuntu cd, what's more it should already be running. The frontend and backend packages should be available in your package manager.

There's not much point in having the backend on another machine unless you have other computers with the frontend installed and you want a central point they can all access to watch tv, play video files, view pictures, play music etc. And you will need to install and setup a MySQL database!

Shameless Plug Time: If you're in the mood to try another (in my opinion better) Myth LiveCD distro, I can recommend MythtvOS. Everything works out of the box, both front & backends run in live mode and they also get installed at the same time. If you live in the UK it comes pre-configured for the UK tv stations. You can setup the configuration you want in live mode then install it retaining the same configuration. The support forum is second to none and it leaves you with a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. Have I not convinced you yet?

You can download it from here: http://linux.softpedia.com/get/Syste...OS-34233.shtml

Check out their forum here: http://www.mypclinuxos.com/forum/index.php?board=94.0

I've been thinking about getting a new PC and want to use it for general use (web browsing etc.), but I've always wanted to give MythTV a try.

Are any of the MythTV based distros good as general operating systems, or are they really intended to make a machine a dedicated MythTV system?

Hmm, let me see:

Thanks Nexus, but to be honest I'm probably going to get a PC from EfficientPC (anybody know if they're any good?), and since they can install MythBuntu for nothing, I'm probably going to give that a try.

Does anyone know if it will be practical to use a machine with two sessions running effectively - one for browsing and general work, while another session runs at the same time for MythTV? Will the two get in the way of each other? For example, could MythTV try to shut the system down after a recording while I'm still working?