State-of-the-art video- and audiophile Operating System with the eAR Media Center
eAR OS is a state-of-the-art Operating System. It can run directly from a Live-CD and optionally be installed to a hard disk. That means you can try it out before you install it - for FREE!

eAR OS comes with the very advanced and beautifully simple to operate eAR Media Center.

Furthermore, eAR OS comes with the newest version of following applications: Wine for using Windows applications, Audacity Sound and Recording Editor, Audio CD extractor with FLAC and MP3 support, k3B CD- and DVD Burner, Kaffeine for DVB-S and DVB-T TV and DVD playback, VLC for Broadband TV, Exaile audio player, Firefox Webbrowser with mediaplayer connectivity, Thunderbird E-mail/News, Pidgin internet Messenger for MSN, F-Spot Photo Manager, GIMP Image Editor, auto-started Firewall and several utilities and accessories. With its package manager you can further install more than 15000 applications via the internet for FREE!


eAR Media Center is running out-of-the-box. Tune-in the digital TV programs and rip some CD's to the hard disk in lossless FLAC quality or MP3, watch Digital TV and DVD's, listen to Internet Radio, view Photos, listen to Music while surfing the Internet, and Enjoy :-)

2008-06-26: Several thousand downloads of eAR OS Free Edition version 1.10b
The new eAR OS version 1.10b was released 3 days ago. As usual, the download servers could not handle the trafic. After a few hours 150 Giga-Bytes were downloaded and the server stopped. An extra mirror for http download has been set up. Now you can download it by using the very well working torrent or from the two http servers or from one ftp server. It is recommended to use torrent for download.


2008-06-23: eAR OS Free Edition version 1.10b is now available - download it for FREE
The new eAR OS version 1.10b has been updated to use the new FireFox 3 browser with Mediaplayer Connectivity plugin to watch movies on the Internet.
eAR OS version 1.10b is faster, because now the graphical rendering of the eAR Media Center is hardware accelerated, it comes with a brand new theme for a better look, now you can select a username and password of your own choice, and it comes with many other improvements. All packages are the very newest and it comes with Real-Time Linux kernel 2.6.24-19.

The installation is easier too: If you want it to be up and running after installation to the hard disk with a minimum of tweaking, then enter earmusic to be the username and select a password of your own choice. Else select a username of your own choice too and run the new wizard-places utility to specify where your music, video and photos are located. When running the new Wizard it is important that you specify digital TV Recordings and TV Time Shifts to be stored in the eAR-Video folder. Then you can watch your recorded TV programs inside the eAR Media Center.

That was a huge update from us to you, all for FREE. We do hope you like it!


2008-06-08: A service package can be downloaded now
A new site with updates and service packages has been added to this website. Here you can download service packages that will keep the system up to date.


2008-06-05: Please use torrent for download
Every time we believe we got a good host for download, then it is closed, because of too much Internet trafic. This is out of our control and we are very sorry about that. Hopefully the hosting servers will be online again very soon (when they can handle the trafic!)
In the mean time we recommend you to use torrent for download. The more torrent users, the better it works for everyone. In the future: What can we do to improve directly download? How do we obtain free Internet trafic?


2008-06-04: Next-gen eAR OS Free Edition has been released
After a small delay the new eAR OS version 1.09b ISO-file can be directly downloaded now.
A torrent is running too and it may be the fastest way to download the ISO. Please help to keep the torrent be alive. We are seeding as much as possible.

The most important features of this release:

1) Now you can navigate the eAR Media Center with a mouse, a touch pad or a touch screen! Use the mouse or your finger to scroll around.
Left-Click to select and activate an item. Middle-Click to access the build-in help menu and user guide. Right-Click to go backward in menues.

2) Windows Media Center Remotes (new version with Philips ID) are now working out-of-the-box.

3) Update of the 2.6.24 Real-Time Linux kernel and update of almost all applications to the very newest stable releases. The excellent Exaile audio player with iPod support has been added too.

4) New features in the MORE menu. You can easily extent the MORE features yourself, use the examples.

5) Firefox with support of QuickTime content and DIVX movie playback. For example, now you can watch the Apple Movie Trailers in High Definition.

6) Firewall to prevent incoming traffic. Permissions to run the firewall have been setup for you. Therefore the firewall is working out-of-the-box, just go through the wizard and specify your connection to the internet. The firewall is auto-started every time you start your PC.

We do hope you will enjoy the speed and the new features of the eAR OS, version 1.09b.

If you want furher features and a higher performance you are welcome to purchase the eAR RT-OS Enterprice Edition which comes with support, indeed.

For us it is time to have a vacation from the eAR OS Free Edition project and use the time to support eAR RT-OS Enterprice Edition customers.

Have a great summer and enjoy :-)



2008-05-26: Download mirror for directly ISO download
A kind person living in Australia has offered a download mirror with free traffic for free download of the earos_v1_08.iso file.
So has the Linux community at AAlborg University in Denmark.



2008-05-21: Torrent for download has been added
Our webhotel provider closed this wesbite in several hours because of too much traffic. Therefore we had to setup a torrent for downloading the earos_v1_08c.iso file. We are very sorry that you currently can't download the ISO-file directly. We do hope the problem will be solved very soon. In the mean time you can use the torrent for download.



2008-05-19: eAR OS Free Edition version 1.08 is very FAST and stable
eAR OS Free Edition Version 1.08 has been released for free download. Version 1.08 run fast, really fast and 256MB RAM is enough, but 512MB RAM is recommended for High Definition movie or HD TV playback.

New features have been added, for example you may now record your LP's to the hard disk in lossless FLAC format. Also the dockbar has been recompiled to be visible on all workspaces and users with too much RAM may enable the 3D desktop effects.

You can also run your Windows programs, that you for example can't run under Vista. If you are a gamer that feature is nice to have. Just insert the CD/DVD with your Window game and install it! Of course, not all Windows games are supported, but more and more Windows applications are working. Be aware: Windows applications may damage the stability of your system, because no one know what they are doing.

eAR OS Free Edition Version 1.08 has build-in recovery of the eAR Media Center. In case of for example a power failure occur during write to the hard disk the database and options files may be lost. If that ever happen then you can easy solve the problem without re-installing anything. Just execute the ear-recovery command and everything is fine.

eAR OS Free Edition Version 1.08 comes with semi-automatic installation of proprietary hardware drivers. Compared to previous release the Live CD now supports more than 20 extra sound cards to be working out-of-the-box.

Now it is also poosible to install eAR OS Free Edition version 1.08 in more than 50 different languages while everything really works right out-of-the-box. The Live CD is in English language and with default English keyboard layout too.

eAR OS Free Edition version 1.08 comes with Linux Real-Time kernel 2.6.24 for audiophile sound quality.

eAR OS Free Edition version 1.08 comes with 3 years of automatically program updates via the Internet. Therefore you will not see a new release for a long period. Only when the package system requires too many updates the Live CD will be updated to avoid you have to download update packages after a fresh install to hard disk.

eAR OS Free Edition version 1.08 is fast and stable.



2008-04-16: eAR OS Free Edition version 1.00 has been released
Download the ISO and burn either a CD or a DVD and try it out for FREE!

Click here to download the ISO via HTTP or FPT from a mirror, for example earos.LinuxFreedom.com
(www.UnixHeads.com offer one of the main mirrors.)

Please use the torrent for download you can find below on this site, and first:

What is a BitTorrent?
BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer (or P2P) protocol used for the distribution of large files over the Internet.

If you are a Windows user or a Mac user, then you may need a program to run this torrent after you have downloaded it.
Click here to download the BitTorrent program for free. Afterwards you can install it and then you can obtain the ISO file of the eAR OS Live CD.
If you are a Linux user you can use BitTorrent too. Check the package manager of your distribution.

Hardware Requirements:
Pentium Celeron 1GHz. For High Definition TV and High Definition movie playback a 1,8 GHz dual core CPU is recommended.
3GB free hard disk space plus space for music, video and photos.
256MB RAM is enough. 512MB RAM is recommended for High Definition movie and HDTV playback.

Click here to download a torrent to the Live-CD ISO of the eAR OS Free Edition version 1.10b (657,4 MB).

When you have downloaded the image, then burn image to a CD or a DVD. Remember it must be burned as an iso.

IMPORTANT:
Read the installation guide on this website. If you are not following the guide the installation may fail!

The installation to a hard disk is very easy, even when you have never tried it before, because eAR OS Free Edition comes with a very simplified installer.

Ensure your computer can boot from the CD/DVD-ROM drive (you may check the BIOS settings).

1) Turn on the power, insert the Live CD immediately and wait for the welcome menu and press ENTER.

2) When the Live CD is up and running then click the Install Icon. The password is earmusic.

3) Follow the installation steps.

4) When the installer is finished you should select to reboot.
Remember to remove the Live CD when it is automatically ejected. Then press ENTER to continue and your computer will turn off.

5) Turn on the power of your computer. When it is up and running you should read the README-FREE.TXT file you can find on the desktop. Here you can read how to adjust the video and audio settings to match your display and sound devices.


Watch Digital TV and DVD's, listen to Internet Radio, view Photos, rip some CD's, listen to Music while surfing the Internet.

Enjoy and share the eAR OS Free Edition with all your friends :-)

Feel free to review eAR OS
We address everything to improve the eAR OS. The more feedback the better it will be. We add what's possible in a snap!

Here is a really cool review of the previous eAR OS version 1.09 by one of the worlds biggest Linux Magazines (if not the biggest):
Click here to read the review at www.Linux.com.

Here is another cool review of the previous eAR OS version 1.09 by the Raiden Realm Magazine:
Click here to read the review at www.raiden.net.

eAR RT-OS Enterprice Edition contain newer software than the eAR OS Free Edition. It can be installed on more different machines since it support much more hardware.

eAR RT-OS Enterprice Edition supports IEEE1394 FireWire Audio in Real-Time out-of-the-box, remote controllers are working out-of-the-box and it has much MORE features that you can't find in the eAR OS Free Edition. We can help to fine-tune it to your needs, indeed.

eAR RT-OS Enterprice Edition Installer DVD can be purchased at www.ARhifi.com for just USD 99.

You may also purchase a compact machine that is certified to be working with eAR RT-OS Enterprice Edition.

Click here to visit Acoustic Reality's On-Line Secure and International WebShop.

Click here to visit Acoustic Reality's website.