A home theater PC (HTPC) or media center computer is a system that, although potentially having the capabilities of a personal computer, is centered around software that specializes in video, photo, audio playback, and video recording functionality. The HTPC is built to be in a setting with a television and other components of a home theater. One early example of HTPC software that has matured over the years is MythTV. MythTV provides a free and open source software using Linux. It seamlessly combines a digital tuner with digital video recording, program guides, and other computer capabilities.
MythTV has become the standard by which other HTPC software is compared. A more recent competitor to the Linux centric MythTV is XBMC. Originally XBMC was used to turn an XBox into a Home Theater device. Like MythTV, XBMC is free and open source. Today XBMC runs on Windows and Macintosh operating systems in various forms including Boxee and Plex.
On the bloatware Microsoft front is their offering to the HTPC arena in the evolution of the DRM embedded Windows XP Media Center Edition followed by later Windows releases using Microsoft Media Player.