I have some experience with a few media-center distributions / applications.
When I bought my Mediacenter, I've decided to put LinuxMCE on it. I didn't because I found a nicer alternative: MythBuntu.
Since LinuxMCE uses MythTV + a few addons, but uses their own mediabrowser, the "extra" stuff LinuxMCE offers isn't that impressive.
MythBuntu installed in less then 5 minutes. I used it for a week and I really got fed up with some of the quirks. Alsa, the Linux Sound System, sucks bigtime. I couldn't get proper sound, I wanted to do Stereo upmixing ("Stereo-Surround") so it wouldn't only use my two front speakers. Doing so decreased the sound quality and well.. lets just put it this way: it sucks and is hard to use.
I have to say I am experienced in various Linux distributions but this really sucked
So, now I am using a nicer alternative:
MediaPortal. This is a port of XBMC for Windows.
It works perfectly. The coolest part is that there are very nice plugins. Stuff like home automation is still possible, but is optional.
The best plugin I have is "MP-TV" which indexes and categorizes my television shows. This one really rocks!
Best part: Its still free & opensource. It works on XP and Vista and is much better then WMC. Why you might ask?
- Its Free!
- Its Opensource
- The support (IRC & Forums) are very good
- There are plugins, lots of them
- Its skinnable. And there are skins (LMCE didn't have skins, Myth had but they weren't as good)
- Its still based on Windows, so you can use it for whatever you want.
My MediaPortal has some great plugins: MP-TV, Last.FM, Shoutcast, Traffic, Cell Phone Monitor (automaticly pauses my media when my phone rings, and continues afterwards).
/ 
