My work is a nice mix of all linux servers with a pair of Windows Domain controllers talking to a Samba/LDAP server, and a desktop contingent of about 60% Windows 35% Linux 5% Mac (because I don't care either way, and since we buy Red Hat the TCO is depressingly similar) for the eclectic mix of developers we have here.
Most of whom play Battlefield 2 after hours.
Namely, gaming. I technically keep a Gentoo dual boot up to date on my Vista 64 Ultimate machine. I don't ever find myself wanting to boot to it except for monthly "grab all the updates" runs because my computer primarily exists to play games and Blu-Ray discs.
I recognize that the latter "problem" in particular is more in the hands of the various consortia that don't care for open source than in the hands of Linux but at the same time it's going to be frustratingly hard for me to make any kind of switch. And I'm one of those (few) people who supported Linux gaming enough to actually buy the Linux editions of games--for all the good THAT did in 2000ish.
Linux still works harder--my home server is a pat little CentOS box, and my servers at work are all Red Hat and Ubuntu--but as for my personal home machine, *yawn*, wake me when it can play some serious games.
I hate Blu-Ray for the DRM but I liked it for the price (that is, free player from a dude I know who bought the drive and then decided to just buy a media center PC + a few blu-ray movies for christmas). Like you said, too, as well as hate DVD or AAC--like it or not, I like movies and I'm frankly willing to pay $30 for anything I was willing to see in the theaters more than once.
Vista 64 meanwhile has been the most stable gaming and general computing platform since Windows 98 for my purposes, so no complaints there.
Addressing the substance, thanks for the BD+ info--I have at this point straight BD ripping working fine, I just now need to figure out how to on-the-fly downsample it without it looking like ass if I want this to work the way I want it to work.
Thanks, I'll give that a shot (I'm on VLC 0.9.6 at the moment).
I have the following:
1 Windows Vista x64 Machine, in my basement, equipped with a Blu-Ray drive and player software by Cyberlink that in theory works with Windows Media Center.
1 medium-strength (Athlon 2600, 2GB RAM, Radeon X800XTX) former gaming machine, with a license for Windows XP and a current Ubuntu 8.10 install.
I want: to pop a Blu-Ray disc in my Vista machine, stream over gigabit to the lesser machine, for output onto a standard-definition 37" TV.
Not bad at all, even if you keep Vista on it (you'll want to downgrade to Home Basic graphics though, just to keep yourself sane)
Believe it or not, as someone who isn't a Brit I don't actually read British news. =P
Were there fewer fools, knaves would starve. - Anonymous
