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[FYI] The open PC is dead - start praying, says HD guru
- To: debate@fitug.de
- Subject: [FYI] The open PC is dead - start praying, says HD guru
- From: "Axel H Horns" <horns@ipjur.com>
- Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2001 10:10:53 +0100
- Comment: This message comes from the debate mailing list.
- Organization: NONE
- Sender: owner-debate@fitug.de
[Man sollte das durchaus ernst nehmen, IMHO. ---AHH]
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/2/17419.html
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The open PC is dead - start praying, says HD guru
By: Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco
Posted: 07/03/2001 at 20:01 GMT
Apologies in advance if the following mailing list posting ruins your
next meal. It ruined ours too, but since we believe in equality of
indigestion here, we feel obliged to share it with you.
Hale Landis maintains the ata-atapi.com website, and has been working
for open standards for twenty five years. He has been a participant
in the ANSI X3/NCITS Technical Committees that developed the ATA and
ATA/ATAPI standards since 1990, and works as a consultant and
provider of test software.
His chilling, deeply pessimistic view is that the good times are
over. The fight for an open hardware platform is very real, and the
power has swung from the PC leaders to the entertainment industry.
It's a valuable strategic view from the trenches of the T.13
committee, where the fight over copy control mechanisms continues. It
was posted to the private T.13 mailing list, and we cite it here with
permission.
Missing the BIG picture
I think many of you discussing CPRM and similar things are missing
the BIG picture.
[...]
Basically your "general purpose personal computer", aka "home
computer", is history. This should not surprise anyone since
Microsoft has done everything in its power to convert the home
computer into an Internet appliance. And Intel still thinks it can
convert home computer into the central house and consumer electronics
"control center". But I think both Intel and Microsoft will find they
can't fight the entertainment industry either. They too will end up
doing anything so they can continue to sell hardware and software to
the "home computer" market. But we probably should start talking
about the "computer enhanced consumer electronics" market.
[...]
In my opinion if you are someone, like myself, that needs and uses
low cost general purpose computers then you should start praying that
there will be some hardware vendor left selling such a computer and
that you will be able to run some general purpose OS and adequate
applications software. And I would say it will be unlikely that such
a computer will have an Intel processor or that any of that
application software will come from Microsoft. This possible future
must be driving product planners at Intel and Microsoft crazy.
[...]
-- Hale Landis
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