Update:  I just got an invite to try Boxee Alpha for Windows, I’m currently installing it, and will post my thoughts later.

So I was finally able to use my boxee invite, and for all the hype, it’s not that great an app…

I fully understand that this is an alpha application, but my overall impression was pretty bad. The first thing that I tried out was the access to Hulu and the integration was pretty terrible. I’m not fully sure if the ‘problems’ are Hulu’s fault or not but in simple terms, the Hulu player controls popped up whenever I used the mouse as well as the boxee control widget. My only other really big complaint was that I couldn’t skip to a time by clicking on the scrubber bar and the fast-forward and rewind buttons were non-functional at best. Also, there were two buttons on the outermost of the play, stop, ff, & rw buttons that also did nothing.

The only other concern that I had was how slow the show/channel thumbnails loaded which became very annoying. (I’m not sure if this was my internet connection, but I doubt it)

Other than those two things, I haven’t noticed anything else that really bugged me. But still, if you get the opportunity to try boxee out definitely seize the opportunity. I personally can’t wait for the beta and windows releases, there’s a lot of room for improvement but I think that they can do it.