Responding to rikrox's comments:

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When I originally played with an SB1 I found it sounded less good than the Roku especially on analog outs.
I've always avoided the analog outs for ANYTHING that offers a digital output. If you have a digital output, why in the world would you want additional A/D <-> D/A conversions? Certainly, if you're feeding to a Meridian (what this forum is all about), what possible benefit would there be for using the Squeezebox's on-board D/A converter to feed into a Meridian?

I guess, for ALL products I have, if it has digital outputs, I use it. After all, all my outputs lead to my M861 or G68; why would I want to use anything else?

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Sean Adams of Slim Devices evidently hates Roku's guts, but whatever they did in the past to upset him, RokuLabs openly support SlimServer now, with due credit and links on their site.
I'm not sure how Sean feels about RokuLabs (I never saw him say), but most of the people involved with the SlimServer don't care for RokuLabs. I've done some work on the SlimServer myself, and I've worked on numerous open source projects. I have no qualms at all with RokuLabs using the SlimServer if it suits them and the license permits it. But, if they choose to do that, I feel that they should:
  • Give due credit where credit is due. You say they've done this, but I've spent some time poking around RokuLab's site and fail to find any page that says "Thanks to Slim Devices for their work on the Slim Server" or anything like that. In perusing their WWW site, I came across this:
    http://www.rokulabs.com/support/slimtips.php

    This directly talks about the SlimServer (and is linked by the FAQ, that talks how the SlimServer compares to their software). These give zero thanks to Slim,
  • If they use the open source software, and benefit from it, they should contribute to it. This can be financial support, or it can be having some programmers improve the product and submit patches for inclusion into the SlimServer product itself. But RokuLabs has never done this. Tons of companies that embrace open source software do this routinely, but not RokuLabs.
From where I sit, RokuLabs is dishonest (touting benefits of SlimServer software without giving credit) with questionable business practices. Poking around various online forums also indicates that many existing customers are quite unhappy with their level of support and product improvement.

Frankly, I wouldn't go near that company with a ten foot pole.

One of the reasons I purchased Meridian was because I believe in their customer support. They're not perfect (nobody is), but frankly, they've done GREAT by me, and I fail to find any company, anywhere, with better customer support.

Slim Devices, while they sell a dramatically less costly product, also appears to offer very good customer support. And as a bonus, you can improve their software yourself (as I have) if you're so inclined.

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SlimServer, whatever you run with it (and presumably if Slim Devices own boxes sound as good, as the SB2 promises to do, and look good too, they will be best at it) is an excellent server and its capabilities are expanding all the time.
SlimServer is an excellent server, and it's capabilities are expanding all the time - we agree there. But no thanks to RokuLabs, who benefits from it but never bothers to contribute back to the Open Source community. Heck, they don't even bother to give credit where credit is due (certainly not easily found on their WWW site, anyway).

[This message has been edited by Jeff Coffler (edited 03-11-2005).]

861, 800, G68, Sony G90, Snell&Wilcox Interpolat