Running XMBC on top of Ubuntu allows you to create a media centre which can be started and stopped as required in an exsiting linux distro environment.

Install XBMC on Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot

Personally, I have Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot with Xbox media center also known as XBMC running as an application when required. To do this, open up a terminal window and ensure you have internet access.

Amend the sources list to retrieve relevant media settings:

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras
sudo apt-get update
sudo wget --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/$(lsb_release -cs).list && sudo apt-get --quiet update && sudo apt-get --yes --quiet --allow-unauthenticated install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get --quiet update

Now add the maverick ppa to your sources list and then install XBMC:

echo deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/team-xbmc/ppa/ubuntu maverick main | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/xbmc.list
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 91E7EE5E
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install xbmc

Once you have got all the above installed, then you should be able to search for xbmc in your programs.

XBMC remote control via iPhone

The next greatest thing about XBMC is that if you have an android device, or an iphone device, you can install an app to use the phone as a remote control.