[mythtv-users] modernizing mythtv - and now OT

[Joseph Fry]

>>> To come back to a more fundamental issue. No server/backend
>>> application should depend on a graphical environment other then WEB.
>>> Running X for those is a wast of resources. That is one of the main
>>> reasons I find Windows unsuited for server applications. On my server
>>> running mythbackend among others I have only the most basic graphical
>>> card present, so I can if needed watch the boot process and implement
>>> new kernels. The only reason X is even installed is Mythsetup, which I
>>> only start at need. The rest I manage by ssh or more and more the web.
>>> Originally a lot of people were running both back and frontend on the
>>> same machine, but nowadays more and more people are splitting this up.
>>> So I see mythsetup as an archaic inheritance of old times, that
>>> should be replaced by a more modern web interface.
>>
>> I have completely headless BE, I upgrade the kernels and run setup
>> remotely no problem. No X installed.
>
> What resources are wasted? Do you understand how unix systems, swap and LRU (least recently used) work?
> The only waste is some disk space, and at the price of disks, some $0.02 for once-upon-a-time great convenience.
> You may do server-without-X for all manor of reasons, as you will, but don’t sprout waste-of-resources as the justification!

I agree that mythtv-setup needs to go away, but not because of
"resource usage".  I would like to see it replaced with a web, or even
ncurses, based interface because it would greatly simplify management.
 While I know there are ways to run mythtv-setup remotely, it's not
always convenient.

Additionally, mythtv-setup kills the backend whenever you run it,
however many of the settings that I actually tweak in there beyond
initial setup shouldn't care if the backend is running or not.  For
example transcoding/job options, channel icons/numbers/names/etc, and
many other things.  There is no reason that an interface couldn't be
developed that would queue all of the changes, perhaps by cloning the
necessary tables, and when your done making changes the settings get
applied all at once (restarting the BE only if necessary).

But in all honesty... mythtv could stay exactly as it is and I
wouldn't give it up until I had no choice.  We can all see room for
improvement, but if you compare it to the next best thing out
there.... its pretty easy to overlook any flaws.