How to Install Boxee Media Center on Your Eee PC

Boxee is a social media center application for your computer, based on the popular Xbox Media center software. It provides a slick interface for your laptop, desktop, or home theatre pc to play movies, music, and view photos. The most unique feature Boxee has is its tight integration with web-video services like YouTube, MTV, Hulu, and Joost. Boxee currently is currently in alpha-stage (meaning, it's theoretically not even ready for public testing) however, I've found it be very usable, with only a minimal amount of the bugs.

Preparing Your Eee PC
Right now, Boxee is only available on Mac & Ubuntu Linux platforms, so if you haven't already, I strongly encourage you install Ubuntu on your Eee PC via the Eeebuntu (eeebuntu.org) project. Don't worry, it's not very difficult, and the community forums are friendly and ready to help. The main thing to remember is that Eeebuntu 2.0 is equivalent to Ubuntu 8.10, and Eeebuntu 3.0 is equivalent to Ubuntu 9.04.

Installing Boxee
Okay, so you've got Eeebuntu or some other Ubuntu variant installed on your EeePC. Next, we need to create a Boxee account. Creating an account is as simple as clicking the "Join" link on the main Boxee.tv website, and following the simple registration instructions. After you've created your Boxee account, log in and click the "Download" link on the left sidebar. If you've installed Eeebuntu 3.0 on your Eee PC, then you should select the instructions for "Ubuntu Linux 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope). You'll see a set of instructions that basically amounts to this:

In Ubuntu, go to System > Administration > Software Sources. In Sources Software dialogue, select Third-Party Software tab, click Add, and enter:

deb http://apt.boxee.tv jaunty main

Close this dialogue and open Synaptic Package Manager. Make sure to click the "Reload" button, and then search for Boxee. You should be able to right click and "Select package for installation." Click the Apply button at the top of the Synaptic window, and Boxee will be downloaded and installed.

Launching & Optimizing Boxee
After installation, you can find Boxee in your Applications menu under Sound & Video. Click the icon to launch the application, and you'll be presented with simple window prompting you for your Boxee login info. After you log in, you'll see the full Boxee interface, ready to go! If you notice that the interface seems a little sluggish, you might try navigating with your arrow keys to Settings > Appearance > Screen and disabling Vertical Blank Sync. This seemed to improve Boxee's performance a bit for me.

Remember that in order to enjoy all the Internet-based content on Boxee, you need a fairly high-speed connection--at least 1Mbit. Have fun!