Plex Media Server: Access the Media on iOS, Android and Mac Anywhere

Plex Media Server (Download) has recently updated to version 3.13. Plex is a partially open-source freeware media player for Intel-based Apple Macintosh computers. It has a 10-foot user interface design for the living-room TV. Its source code was initially forked from XBMC Media Center on May 21, 2008 which Plex today uses as anapplication framework platform for its GUI (Graphical User Interface) and media player part of their software. Similar to XBMC and Boxee, it is an alternative to Apple’s Front Row for Mac, with skinnable and user-configurable interface.

Plex integrates content from iTunes and iPhoto (from the iLife software suite) as well as allowing the user to manage all video, photos, music, and podcasts from a computer, optical disk, local network, and the Internet using an Apple or Harmony remote control. In 2009 the developers added their own ‘app store’ digital distribution platform called “Plex Online” with a growing list of community driven plugins for online content like Hulu, Netflix, and CNN video that are being distributed via “Plex Media Server” application which runs as a stand-alone software and media management interface.

Plex Media Server is from closed source (contains proprietary code); however the other parts of Plex media center software are open-sourced and distributed under the GNU General Public License. Plex’s open source code is hosted on GitHub. Plex media center and media player source code was initially based upon XBMC Media Center, which it uses as its application framework. The founder of Plex, Elan Feingold, was actually part of the official XBMC development team for a short while, but tension over the rest of XBMC’s developers’ strict adherence to the GPL and their open-source software mindset was one of the factors that led Elan (Plex founder) to leave the XBMC project and create the Plex fork.