1. I have limited broadband with 1500k down/256k up, 10 Gig peak and 20 Gig offpeak per month.

2. My TV has only “video in” sockets. It's a ten year old 51cm (20 inch) Sharp CRT, standard definition. My last Sharp lasted nineteen years so I hope to get at least another nine out of this one. When Australia does finally switch off its analog TV, I'll just buy a HD DVD recorder and use it to downgrade.

3. My computer's “graphics card” is only a chip on the motherboard with one VGA socket. I'd have to get a DVI card or a VGA to DVI converter.

I'm a cloud guy. I hate disks and I hate files. I don't store my emails,
I'm annoyed that I have to store my music, and I definitely don't want to
have to store my video library. I want it all online and accessible
whenever and wherever I want!

Thanks for the comments, and let me say that I couldn't agree more.
Although I put Boxee in the same category as the other dedicated TV
appliances (partly for simplicity and partly because they have developed a
proprietary TV OS or “browser” in their parlance), I tried to make clear
throughout that they are the MOST open platform among those.

Second, to be fair, the other boxes aren't really as closed as you might
think (especially Roku). It's relatively easy to write a Roku app (without
approval), and though it won't be featured without that, there is a fairly
robust back-channel for those apps.

As far as discovery is concerned, I agree that Boxee's built-in discovery is
a huge step forward, and I probably gave it short-shrift in the piece.

My only concern with Boxee is how much control their “browser” has over the
UI of the apps that are built for it. The great thing about web-browsers is
that they get ENTIRELY out of the way of web apps. I know Boxee has taken a
little more control to make sure that apps on the box work well with the
4-directional remote they use, and the addition of the keyboard is a huge
step forward. I still feel that it's hard to distinguish ourselves with a
unique UI.

Either way, I'm rooting for Boxee. They are a leader in this space, they
are hugely supportive of the NYC tech scene, they have a great community,
and Avner and his partners are genuinely nice guys. I was really just
trying not to make my support THAT obvious and in doing so, might not have
given them their due.

Thanks for making that clear!

Now, I don't have a Boxee Box–nobody outside of Boxee and D-Link does right now. I can't speak to the openness of that platform, but you're right that it undoubtedly won't be completely open. But Boxee still doesn't deserve to be lumped in with proprietary set-top boxes.

There are a number of thing subtly wrong with your characterization (for example, the fact that much of the Boxee software is open source, and its developers push code enhancements back to the open source XBMC project, or that I use Boxee with a $10 IR media center remote, and Mac users can also use the standard Apple remote), but my main beef concerns content and apps. It's significant to me, and to the scope of your article, that anybody can develop an app or channel for Boxee. This can be as easy as publishing a basic RSS feed that Boxee can consume (like any podcast or vodcast), or as involved as writing your own custom app with a completely custom interface, or anywhere in between. Boxee, Inc. does not act as a gatekeeper for apps–they surely screen the apps in their default app repository, but it's easy and practically free for a third-party to run its own repository, and easy for the end-user to add those third-party repositories to their “App Box.” There's nothing limited in Boxee's app and content equation except for those limits imposed by content providers (e.g. ads on Hulu).

As for discovery, this is obviously a thorny issue, but the latest version of Boxee is very impressive in that regard, especially when it comes to mainstream television. I can choose any mainstream show–even some 30+ years old–and if Hulu, ABC, NBC, CBS, or Fox is streaming it online Boxee will list all of the episodes available to me. If both ABC and Hulu offer it I can choose my source, and it will stream pretty seamlessly. Obviously there's some fragility to this approach, as Boxee is doing the equivalent of screen-scraping in some of these scenarios, but for watching television and web shows on my TV I have yet to find a better solution than Boxee in regard to content availability and overall experience.

I'm through rambling for now, but in conclusion I'd just like to say that SetJam and Clicker are doing great work and I believe that open is the way of progress. But I think you should view Boxee not as some proprietary monster but rather as an important ally and inspiration. I would like to see a company do Boxee one better and completely open, but ultimately people want to watch TV on their TVs, and Boxee has, by far, come closest to closing that loop, and has done so while remaining relatively open.