Re: A pox on both their houses
The Squeezebox was a digital music player from Slim Devices that came out as an evolution of their original SliMP3 (Ethernet-attached digital to analog audio player with display) to market in 2001, one of (if not THE) original pioneers in this space. Slim Devices also invented and distributed the Slim Server software that controlled the SliMP3 and fed it music files from a computer hard drive. Logitech bought up Slim Devices in 2006 and expanded the product line, including producing the Squeezebox Radio, and eventually re-named the server software to be the "Logitech Media Server". Although the Squeezebox line of products is no longer commercially sold by Logitech, the Logitech Media Server is still available in a community-supported version that runs on a wide variety of computing platforms along with a whole host of players, including a) original commercial hardware such as the SliMP3 and the Squeezebox Radios, b) free and open-source products like the Raspberry Pi-based PiCorePlayer, and c) a variety of commercial and DIY ESP32-based players. Logitech continues to support their products as far as the accompanying services go, albeit in a low-key way, still operating the on-line MySqueezeBox.com service that allows Squeezebox Radios to stream music through the Internet without a local Logitech Media Server-based music library and providing the free Pandora service originally offered with the Squeezebox Radio.
I own a still-functional SliMP3 that I bought in 2001 in order to free my digital music to play on regular audio (HiFi) equipment instead of computer sound cards and small amplified speakers. Co-locating a computer with the stereo system and or using low-powered FM transmitters from the computer to a stereo receiver was a less than attractive configuration, both visually and aurally, generally speaking. The SliMP3 provided a way to get all of that music that everyone was ripping from CDs in order to store and playback digitally back into a high-powered, large speaker playback system. I haven't combed through the Sonos patents in detail, but I find it interesting that the battle between Google and Sonos never seems to mention Slim Devices and what may very well be enough prior art to sink most of Sonos claims, with the rest being lame claims of "innovation" that really amounts to nothing more than creating various combinations of equipment all based off of the tech behind the original innovation of the SliMP3 player combined with the SlimServer.
My home's digital music distribution system includes seven perfectly functional Squeezebox Radios (now over 12 years old and going strong), one RPi4/PiCorePlayer with touch screen controls and its own built-in Logitech Media Server that I'm building as a birthday present for my daughter, and a household music server based on a RPi4 in an Argon One case with a 1 TB SSD that holds by 300 GB or so of lossless-format digital music ripped from my CD collection. This system plays all of my local music library as well as music from various streaming services, with certain Internet radio stations (Blues Cove) and the Pandora streaming service as favorites of mine. I'm in the process of adding two dedicated ESP32-based players with built-in 20 watt amplifiers for background music playback.
Slim Devices and Logitech may no longer be commercially profiting from the players, but the ecosystem including the server that they invented and essentially gifted to the community, their original commercial products, and a variety of new player products (DIY and commercial) is still going strong. They represent the best of how manufacturers can support their products and user community, perhaps as a radical counterpoint to Sonos.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
