MinimServer complexity (was Configuration Backup)

[DavidHB]

(27-09-2014 20:14)simoncn Wrote:  There are many aspects of the current approaches to ripping, tagging, browsing, playing and configuring that fall far short of what a non-technical user would expect. The solutions might be simple to describe but they aren't simple to implement. I'm doing my best to make a small contribution to moving things in the right direction.

Thank you from me too, Simon. I'm glad you used the word 'small' in your last sentence, because I think we users need to be realistic in our expectations.

If I look at, for example, the dbPoweramp options dialog, I see something that other participants in this discussion might regard a more of a 'true' GUI than the MinimServer Properties window, but which is at least as difficult for non-technical people to use (not least because it is not nearly as well-documented; Spoon seems to have a rooted aversion to the written word).

I believe that, for the foreseeable future, we users will have to accept that we either put up with the limitations of DLNA and the like or we we get our hands dirty and take control of our systems ourselves. There are companies (such as Linn with its Kazoo control point and server combination) which appear to be trying to find a middle way, but there is plenty of evidence on this forum and elsewhere that, so far at least, their success in this endeavour has been somewhat limited. In my book, MinimServer's well-documented and consistent 'penny plain' interface does what it sets out to do pretty well, and is therefore relatively easy to learn.

David