It's been a busy week for anyone obsessed with operating system upgrades. Microsoft released Windows XP SP3 to manufacturers, Canonical launched Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron, and OpenSUSE 11 came one step closer to release. But this week's software news wasn't all operating systems, all the time. Here are a few of our favorite stories from the week that was:

DRM strikes again: MSN Music customers left in the dust

In case you haven't heard, DRM kind of stinks. Sure, copyright holders want to be able to profit from their music by making sure you don't make copies for all of your friends. But when companies like Microsoft come out and tell you they won't support your licenses after August, it just means you can't listen to music you've already paid for on multiple devices anymore.

AVG Free 8 adds anti-spyware protection

Who says there's no such thing as a free lunch? Well, lots of people. But anyone who's tried AVG Free knows there is such a thing as a good anti-virus application. The latest version adds a bunch of new features like anti-spyware, anti-rootkit, and linkscanning protection.

Want to watch TV on your iPhone? Yesterday we would have said the best way to do this is to purchase TV shows from the iTunes store or transfer recordings (or downloads) from your computer to your iPhone the old fashioned way. But now Chris Carey has released a MythTV FrontEnd for the iPhone.

The application lets you browse recorded shows, check out program information, and stream videos from your Linux PC with MythTV BackEnd installed.

While Sling Media is considering developing a version of its SlingPlayer software for the iPhone that will let Slingbox owners stream content from their home TV or PVR to a handset, Carey's MythTV FrontEnd application is the first tool I'm aware of that actually lets you stream recorded TV to an iPhone.

You can check out a video of MythTV for the iPhone after the jump.

[via Automated Home]

Update: Dave Zatz reminds us that Elgato's EyeTV software also supports streaming recorded programs from a Mac to the iPhone.

Developer Lauri Taimila is working on an intriguing new Linux media center application called Entertainer that right now looks a lot like Apple's Front row but could eventually take on MythTV and Windows Media Center.

Right now there are two major limitations to Entertainer:

1. It does not support recording television programs
2. It's not actually available for download yet.

The second problem will probably be tackled before the first, which is why Entertainer is a bit more comparable to Front Row than Windows Media Center. The application presents an attractive interface for accessing downloaded movies, TV shows, music, images, and RSS feeds. But if the preview video above is anything to go by, once TV support is added, Entertainer could give full-featured Linux media center application MythTV a run for its money.

Entertainer uses large fonts and would probably look good on a TV screen assuming you've got a PC plugged into yours. The software is designed to work on Linux computers running the Gnome or Xfce desktop environments.

[via Digg]

You probably know by now that Ubuntu comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes. There's the stripped down Xubuntu for slower-performing systems, Edubuntu for kids and teachers, and Kubuntu with the more Windows-like interface.

But there are also community supported projects like Ubuntu Studio and Mythbuntu. These projects aren't sponsored by Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu. But they build on Ubuntu Code. While Ubuntu Studio features a slew of packages for creating and editing audio, video, and images, Mythbuntu is more of a Windows Media Center/TiVo alternative.

At its core, Mythbuntu is Ubuntu without all of those useless packages like OpenOffice.org, Evolution, or desktop effects. Don't expect any productivity software here (although you can install it if you like). Mythbuntu is dedicated to media. The application ships with the XFCE4 lightweight desktop, because you'll probably rarely ever see the desktop,

Mythbuntu includes everything you need to set up a MythTV frontend and/or backend. That means you can watch and record live TV (with the help of a TV tuner), watch videos, listen to music, or browse pictures -- all while using a 10-foot user interface. In other words, the graphics are all designed to look good from ten feet away. You could just add the MythTV packages to your current Ubuntu system, but Mythbuntu works right out of the box.

Because Mythbuntu comes works as a LiveCD, you can test out hardware compatibility before installing any software. The LiveCD works as a MythTV frontend, letting you mount shared network drives to play audio or video.

We first took a look at Mythbuntu this summer when it was in alpha. Mythbuntu 7.10 is the first full release, and the team plans to follow the Ubuntu development schedule. That means there should be a new version out every six months.

[via Digg]

Come September, Zap2it Labs will no longer offer the free TV guide data used by PC-based personal video recording software like MythTV, Media Portal, and GB-PVR.

Well, there's good news and bad news for anyone using those programs. There are at least two groups, CTpvr and Schedules Direct (formerly known as Easy TV Data) planning to pick up where Zap2it leaves off next month. And it looks like they're both pretty close to having their systems in place. That's the good news.

The bad news is that neither group will be able to offer the data for free. Zap2it is owned by Tribune Media Services. That's the same company that will provide information for th new services, but it won't be free. Neither CTpvr and Schedules Direct, and both companies have set prices yet, but both say they'll have to charge customers for the data.

On the one hand, it's not like the data's not worth anything. TiVo charges customers a monthly fee for program guide data. Without that information, your box is a lot less useful. But if you have a PC-based PVR, now you have a a choice to make. Pay for a commercial PVR applications like BeyondTV, SageTV, and Windows Media Center which won't be affected. Or get a free software and pay for the program guide.

Easy TV Data was created in response to Zap2it Labs announcement that they would be discontinuing their free TV listings XML based service effective September 1, 2007, due to abuse of the service. Although, tight on the details, it looks like Easy TV is in negotiations with Zap2It Labs to transition the service so it can continue, hopefully without interruption.

Myth TV, a free DVR project, was especially threatened by Zap2It's announcement since their XML service is more easily parsed for usage in a scheduling database, and for which commercial service is not available.

Three lead developers for MythTV founded Easy TV as a result . Other founding members include reps from XMLTV and MacProGuide. Stay tuned for more details.

By the way, If you are a contract lawyer, familiar with US non-profit law and would like to provide pro bono service, (at least initially) Easy TV wants to talk to you.

[via Linux.com]

Seems like there's a new Ubuntu-based Linux distribution coming out at least once a month. Last month it was Ubuntu Studio, a distro designed for creative professionals interested in audio, video, and image editing. This week we saw the alpha release of Mythbuntu, a distro for those who'd rather consume media than create it.

Just as Ubuntu is designed to make Linux accessible to the casual user, Mythbuntu is designed to bring media center software to the masses. Of course, that's what Windows Vista does, but for anyone interested in open source applications, MythTV is the way to go, and Mythbuntu makes installation a relatively painless process.

The current version is a public alpha, so don't expect everything to work perfectly. But if you download the disc image, burn it to a CD, pop it in your computer and reboot, you should load up a MythTV frontend. That's the part that lets you interact with media. If you want a fully functioning media center that can record record television shows, you'll want to install the backend as well. If you've already got a backend machine running, you can access it from the frontend included on the liveCD.

Still, the LiveCD is a great option for anyone who wants to see how MythTV works without having to repartition or reformat their hard drive.

MythTV, the popular Linux based PVR project, has been around for some time. It's nice, and it functions well, but it's only as functional as Windows Media Center Edition plus, it can be difficult to install and configure. Linux MCE, which wraps MythTV up into a nice package and places it squarely on top of the leading Linux distribution Ubuntu -- may be poised to change some of that.

Take the leap to watch a demonstration of the Linux MCE project running on a home TV, and a comparison to Windows Media Center Edition.

Good day Linux fans! As of yesterday, the new version (0.20) of MythTV is ready for your downloading and PVR pleasure. This release is new, (obviously) and features some new stuff: better DVD playback, DVB radio channel support, mouse support, and MythArchive (a new plug-in), which allows your recordings to be burned to DVD. For a while now MythTV has been a great and cheap way to get yourself a nice and moderately full-featured PVR. If you don't want to pay tons of money to get a manufactured PVR, MythTV (for Linux) makes a nice PVR box. I still haven't set up a PVR using MythTV, but I keep meaning to. I have a PC I have my eye on for this purpose, an older one, so maybe I will get with it and install MythTV someday soon. Any suggestions as to what Linux distro is best for MythTV? How about for general desktop consumption? Any that you recommend?

[Via Slashdot]

Now that the Xbox 360 is out you've got to find something to do with your old 2001-style Xbox. You can either give it to the ungrateful neighbor kids, or you can put it to better use by turning it into a PVR. Xbox Resource Center has a slick guide to getting MythTV, the open source PVR software, running on your big black box. Of course, the Xbox has neither a TV tuner nor the horsepower to encode video at a reasonable rate, so you're actually going to set it up as a front-end to a copy of MythTV running on your tuner-equipped PC. It's fairly straightforward, but will get you up to your elbows in Linux terminals and assumes you already have a mod chip in your Xbox, but doesn't everybody?