We have just announced our preconfigured Linux player devices for our digital signage system. This project took several months to develop because of the intricacies of Linux and the complexity of our system behind the scenes. I have dabbled with Linux for over 10 years with SAMBA file servers, and it seems that each time I built a new server, there were different issues that I had to deal with. For this system, I decided to put a step by step instruction manual together on how to build the Linux box. It is available on our web site at www.strandvision.com/create_linux_workstation.html. This simply sets up the system to work with our software properly. We then needed to adapt our multi-server code that keeps everything synchronized together to provide data to the Linux player. All in all, it is a very powerful setup. We also had to learn how to start and stop the signage player from within a cron job. Pretty crazy commands to make everything happen. Although Linux can be pretty cryptic for some of the tricky areas, there are answers everywhere on the web for just about every situation. So don’t be too scared to dive into Linux for your own project. And if you are looking for a powerful digital signage software system that is free, check out StrandVision and the new Linux player. By using promotion code SDS-SV and completing a test drive before Aug 31, 2010, you get a year subscription for free.