Help sought - Linux and modern(ish) hardware
Folks
I'm reasonably familiar with *Nix, running Linux and Macs alongside Windows at home but tearing my hair out with this one.
I'm running 3 machines on Win7 RC and need to do something :-). Would love to upgrade them all but can't afford 3x licenses right now so decided to try Linux on my media centre. The PC is a few years old but has had various upgrades to keep it fettling along for media centre use. It runs very nicely under Win7.
My other Linux box is an old clunker, 1.8Ghz AMD Athlon, 1 GB RAM and an old integrated Intel GPU - used only for surfing, email and "futzing". Works fine.
The media PC has an AMD (ATI) Radeon 9800 Pro and a Creative Labs Xfi GamerXtreme sound card. I installed Mythbunutu as the pre-loaded nature of Myth TV onto Ubuntu seemed to make sense, especially as this is a "spouse friendly" media PC and to the very best of my abilities, the OS should be hidden for ever...
The rebuild has been a total pain. It seems that Linux just doesn't get along with ATI cards and getting SPDIF out from the sound card has completely defeated me. I class myself as expert on Windows, competent on *Nix and hardware and have been developing software for years but the archaic 1990's nature of buggering around with ALSA, kernel compiles and similar nonsense has worn me down.
So, the questions I have are:
1. Recognise the need to abandon the ATI but don't want to spend much. It's only a media PC so doesn't need to be a graphics screamer and any cost, added to the time I've wasted, rapidly adds up to the cost of the Windows license I'm trying to avoid. Seems that nVidia is the way to go. Any recommendations for cheap nVidia cards that will fit the bill or other GPU familiies that don't need the personal assistance of Linus Torvalds to get running?
2. Any clues (and yes, I've spent hours in Google) on how to get the SPDIF out running? I don't get any errors and from a UI and configuration perspective, Linux thinks it's enabled but there is nothing coming out of the jack.
3. Is there any advantage to sticking with Linux on my media PC? My original motivation was simply to avoid cost but so far, I have yet to see any advantage, in fact only disadvantages.
4. Given the above, I've had little chance to play with the Myth TV interface. Tried a couple of different skins but it seems to be a long way behind Windows Media Centre. Is this a fair conclusion or should I persevere?
I can get a Windows upgrade license for around £67 and I've already spent many hours trying to get Linux to work but if I have to spend more than about £40 on hardware, I'll just go ahead and buy Windows.
Thanks for any help/clues/pointers....
Cheers