A Plex alternative Pilot Program

Dim, a relatively new open source media manager, looks to implement the appearance and feature set of the commercial Plex media center.

- By Ferdinand Thommes

Many media players, also known as home theater software suites or media managers, are available for Linux. Of particular interest are the candidates that rely on the client-server principle, which users can host themselves and which also support secure access from the outside. The better-known representatives of this genre include the open source projects Kodi, Emby, LibreELEC, and Jellyfin, and the primarily proprietary Plex [1], which originated as a fork of the Xbox Media Center's (XBMC) Frodo version.

Although not open source, Plex is very popular on Linux because of its extensive functionality, good user interface, and suitability as a streaming media server. However, it has shifted too heavily in the direction of Netflix and Amazon Prime for many users, while basic features have been missing for years, such as smooth fading in and out of audio tracks.

For about a year, developers have been working on Dim [2], open source software that emulates Plex's appearance and functionality as closely as possible. First released in April 2021, the current version is Dim 0.3.0-rc6. By the time you read this article, version 0.3.1 should already be available or close to official release.

Developed from scratch, Dim is not based on an existing application. It aims to scan and play media from anywhere with minimal setup effort by the user. The project is still at an early stage, but Dim already promises to morph into a viable free alternative to the proprietary Plex. For that reason, I will take a closer look at how to install Dim, where the project stands today, and what its future plans are.

Installation