Some pertinent questions have emerged following Moovida 2.0’s announcement, enough to dedicate a whole post explaining in more detail Moovida 2.0’s stance on open source and licensing.

The Moovida Core UI is basically Banshee with some tweaks and arrangements. It will use the same license as Banshee, however it is important to understand that Banshee is not only a UI, but also a framework with a lot of extensions. Each extension can have its own license. So it is correct to say that the Moovida Core UI will use the MIT licenses, and some extensions and services inside it will be proprietary.

Extensions, services and the whole Banshee framework is made accessible to the Moovida Immersed UI through XML-RPC data exchange. So MIT or Proprietary extensions in the Moovida Core UI will be available to the 3D UI through that communication channel.

The whole project can be contributed to by either writing Moovida/Banshee extensions or by adding LUA code to extend the 3D UI, accessing the services through XML-RPC.

Just consider the Diesel engine as a rendering platform, like a web browser, and you develop the UI with the LUA language and the artwork we are providing.

The Diesel engine will support OpenGL ES on some platforms. We are not going to maintain Moovida 1.0’s Python framework for long, but hey it’s free software, if someone wants to make something out of it, help yourself!

Some of you may have noticed a certain “slow down” of Moovida 1.0, with less Launchpad activity and no new plugins. A few of Moovida’s most active community members have been recently informed that there are many changes in the works for the next release, which will radically change the product (for the better, IMHO). Indeed some questions have been popping up, so let me try to clarify some of your concerns:

• Our current focus is on our next version, which is a complete overhaul of Moovida as you know it (different architecture and development language, UI revamp)
• Because of this, we currently have very little time to review requests, bug fixes and the like on Launchpad for 1.0, and we won’t  be able to merge any changes in the short term, so please bare with us in the meantime
• The next release will remain open, but not to the same extent as Moovida 1.0. We understand this may be upsetting to some of you who vow allegiance to 100% open source solutions, but we have followed this direction for specific reasons. We wanted to keep developing a great media center that could prosper in a highly competitive and evolving industry, and this is what made most sense given our objectives.
• Moovida will remain free, but will also offer premium content on demand
• Please be patient for another 1-2 months before experiencing our next release, after which we hope to blow your socks off (make sure to be wearing socks, otherwise your toes could suffer)

We’ll keep you posted as new info becomes available. Hang in there and please keep the feedback coming in the comments section and in our Forum, we’re doing our best to incorporate your valuable suggestions.

One of our developers shared an article by Techdirt entitled The Future Of Music Business Models (And Those Who Are Already There) the other day. In a nutshell, it’s an interesting look at how professional musicians can embrace the creative commons model to promote their music, then cash in by offering exclusive products and services at elevated costs. Nothing new, but it demonstrates how it’s paid off well for both reputable acts such as kings of viral NIN, to lesser known acts such as Jill Sobule.

Instead of fighting the inevitable force that has become P2P sharing which usually ends up fueling frustration with fans and costly lawsuits, these musicians have taken tabs on the commercial open source business model. Test drive the shabby version for as long as you want, or pay up to get pimped out.

FLOSS                                                Flossin

Besides the fact that the article has way too many examples making it suitable for starving artists looking for inspiration, it demonstrates the creativity certain musicians have for marketing themselves all while embracing free sharing.

There is definitely a lesson to be learned from these musicians. Can B2C open source software be so successful in creating an innovative yet sustainable business model?

Looking forward to hearing your opinion on the subject…

Have you heard of Blue Monday? Not the song by New Order, but rather the “scientific” theory that the Monday of the last full week of January, which was yesterday, is the most depressing of the year. Hopefully this theory was proven wrong for you, but just in case it rang true, the Moovida Team has come up with a list of recommendations to start infusing post-Blue Monday with positive vibes.

5) Get comfy

There’s nothing worse than feeling uncomfortable. Whether it’s wearing clothes that don’t fit you, or being forced to watch Spanish tv broadcasting (expats are behind me on this), it bites to be in a situation that doesn’t feel quite right. The Moovida team recommends you get organized to avoid mediocre entertainment. How? First, get Media Center harware that includes Moovida, and browse our plugins for quality content. Moovida makes it easy for you by offering a 5% discount.

4) Never stop being entertained

Wifi has become our best friend, allowing us to stay connected 24/7. Instead of moping on your way to work this week, make sure to stream funny videos and good tunes on your mobile for the trip. The Moovida Team recommends a Nokia N900 Unlocked Phone/Mobile Computer. It’s ain’t cheap, but it’s currently the only mobile powerful enough for Moovida… we’d love to have Moovida packaged for it one day . It’s got the usual goods, Wifi, 5 px camera, GPS, Blue Tooth stereo music, so you can stay entertained while on the road.

3) Diversify your stimuli

Let’s face it, your local cable only allows you to watch a limited number of channels, 90% of which is mediocre at best. Watch what you want, when you want, on your own time thanks to Moovida’s plugins. Here’s a sample of some of the great content you can find:

• Funny vids

• Explore new music

• If you’re thinking of other kind of stimuli, I’ll let you use your sense of initiative to find the appropriate links…

2) Read more

How about reading 52 books in a year? Or if you haven’t gotten started yet, 49… Kindle can help you make it happen by allowing you to download a book under 60 seconds. Reading just got a whole lot easier with this gadget, so no more excuses (or maybe one more excuse not to exercise).

1) Produce something

Let’s face it, most of us prefer sitting back, relaxing, and letting ourselves be entertained. To conquer this sense of passivity ruling our lives in winter, be creative and produce something! Consult Vimeo’s plugin on Moovida for some cool suggestions… or produce your own video to share with friends or the whole world via YouTube and Vimeo.

Moovida is a great open source Media Center, simple and free to download on Linux or Windows . But what’s even sweeter is when it’s packaged by your open source operating system…

Now Ubuntu and Mandriva users can have the Moovida installed faster that you can say “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” (ok maybe this is only true for heavy stutterers) by checking the software center for Ubuntu, or by editing the package manager. Find details on how Moovida is packaged on all other Linux distributions here.

To update Moovida to the latest version, there are automated and transparent updates in the plugin repository, and Ubuntu users can also use the packages in our PPA .
 
Fear not Windows users, we understand that it might sound like Chinese to you, this post is for Linux aficionados