digital convergence

I have noticed that in the last few public appearances of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs the underlying theme is digital convergence of phone, TV, video, music and photos within the home. The PC plays the role of server and data storage; the xbox 360 and apple TV act as the router and menu system, and the flat panel, large screen TV is the display device. I believe this model will become dominant within the next few years and then will migrate into the work place for training and meeting (collaboration) functions

microsoft linux deals

Lately, there have been several deals between Microsoft and several Linux distributions that involve cross patent indemnifications and technology cooperation agreements. These deals have caused much comment and concern within the Linux community. There is a miss-trust of Microsoft (rightly so in my opinion) and a fear that this is a plot on Microsoft's part to harm Linux.

I suspect that Microsoft is trying to protect its future; that Microsoft sees, as many commentators have noted, that Linux is slowly winning on the server and desktop fronts in governmental, military, and educational areas. Also Linux is gaining in Asia, the Pacific rim, Africa, South America, and even in Europe. I suspect that Mircrosoft prefers to get the total sale dollar in the sale of software, but if it can not get all of the sale, then it wants at least a part of the sale and that this is what is driving its recent deals with Linux providers.

I do not think that the paten indemnifications are past oriented, but rather are future oriented. Without such indemnifications, no distribution can include software that lets users (especially desktop users) use Microsoft products (or compatible software) such as meeting, messenger, outlook, etc. I think that Microsoft is laying the ground work to keep it from finding its products excluded in areas where Linux replaces Windows. I don't think that the Kernel is involved as much as kernel loadable modules and user area software. The real issue is that if the software uses Microsoft developed and patented software, then no Linux distribution can use it without Microsoft's permission.

As the reaction to the Novel deal has shown, there is likely to be a very adverse reaction from the Linux community when a distribution enters into an agreement with Microsoft, and thus a tendency for distributions to refrain from using Microsoft compatible software if Microsoft's permission is required. The patent indemnification provides the distribution with a competitive advantage (i.e. legal Microsoft compatibility) as well as the legal framework for including patent protected software. It also gives Microsoft a way to get distributions to share in revenue.

Microsoft has made it clear that they see a big future in the SMB area as well as the home entertainment area (i.e. digital convergence). Linux, with its cost advantages, resistance to viruses and intrusion, and stability, has an appeal to vendors servicing the SMB and home markets. While Microsoft can slow Linux's penetration into these markets, it can not stop it and it is almost inevitable that Linux will dominate or at least gain a large market share. Mircrosoft is trying to ensure that it will be able to participate in these markets, even if it loses its monopoly advantage.

current pc environment

I wonder why, after 25 years, the PC environment is still so poor. Regardless of the operating system, there seem to always be problems. In the Windows world, with such a wide selection of software, it seems that we should be able to find applications that do not fail, but unfortunately, I find that most software fails to live up to expectations - ether features do not work as documented and/or the programs crash at times.

I am sure that part of the problem stems from too great a variety in hardware, but I also feel that software is poorly constructed. This is true for both proprietary and open source software, but in the open source software arena, bugs are usually fixed very quickly and, my impression is that for main line OSS there are fewer bugs than in main line proprietary software.

Fundementaly, I believe that much of the problem is that the consumer is too tolerant of software that does not perform well. The expectation is that at some level all software will fail.

aacs digg user revolt

When digg.com management tried to remove the aacs hd-dvd key, there was a major revolt by the users and within a few hours the users had won and the key remained posted.

Begining in the late 70's when the government tried to stop the public presentation of the rsa algorithim (M.I. T. went to court so it could be presented) , there has been an angry reaction to censorship. This is seen in the saga of the government trying to supress pgp, then mpaa trying to block decss, sony's failed root kit adventure, riaa's efforts to kill p2p networks, and now aacs-la trying to have the aacs decryption key (really just a large number) removed from the Internet.

In all of this activity over the past 25 years, what has become clear is that the public views drm as essentially unfair and that there is no enough public benifit to justify the inconvience to the public. Riaa, mpaa, aacs, etal have yet to realize that in a battle with an angry public, they lose.

podcasts are becoming the oral history of the Internet

I was listening to J. (mad dog) Hall on a FOSS podcast (http://www.twit.tv/floss17) in which Hall recounted his early experiences with open source software and Linus Torvalds and Linux. I realized that this podcast is part of the oral history of the Internet.

drm and apple

I might as well join everyone else and comment on the dropping of drm by emi for apple itune sales.

First, I think that this is going to become the norm and that the other major music providers will soon follow suite. I think that the absense of drm and the higher quality will justify the aditional 30 cent charge for many consumers and that emi's sales will rise dramatically. This will put competitive pressure on the other music providers to do the same.

If this leads to greater inter-oeprability, I don't think that this is going to cause apple to lose any market share. Apple has been sucessful because it has made it very easy to buy and play music using their software and players (i.e. ipod). They have demonstrated an ability to produce what consumers want that far exceeds that of their competitors. Apple makes better stuff and at a reasonable price and this is hard to beat.

I am not sure if the same thing will happen in the movie industry because the css has not been as bothersome as what has happened in the music arena. Dvd copy protection has become incorporated into all the dved players and software. In the open source world decss must be used but it is not a difficult task to find and install it. So getting and playing dvd's is not hard but making copies is not easy. With music and video available on the internet, especially for open source users, finding the right codec and software can be a bear, but playing dvd's on a Linus system is fairly easy (freespire/Linspire has it built in I believe).

In the long run, Apple's strategy of making it easy for users to find, buy, download, and play multimedia (right now limited to music) will prove the most successful because it encourages end users to buy the product. When drm gets in the way, users don't buy and this is not a very good marketing policy.

windows and open source software

It seems to me that the ifrastructure supporting open source software has never developed in the windows environment. In the *nix world open source software is highly regarded and accepted. Sourceforge and freshmeat are primary sources for open source software. Distribution repositories routinely accept and distribute open source software. The tools for developing software (compilers, libraries, and ide's) are free and very available (often included in a distro's main selection of software). THe companies involved in the development of software (IBM, NOVEL, RED HAT, HP, SUN, UBUNTU, etc.) encourge people to develop and distribute open source software. None of this exists in the windows environment. Compiles, libraries, and ide's often cost many hundreds of dollars; sourcefore and freshmeat are hardly used, and open source is not trusted or distributed by the main suppliers of software.
I wonder how these different cultures developed and why.

digital right management

I am noticing an increasing amount of negative comments on digital rights management (drm) in the popular press.

The law suite against consumers by riaa and mpaa probably has ticked off a lot of people, but I think that large content providers such as google, apple, etc. are comming to the assessment that the road blocks that drm puts up infront of the consumer is not worth the decreace in piracy that is achieved.

Steve Jobs and others have noted that what is really sold on-line is convience and drm goes counter to this.

I find drm a real pain since I am a Linux user (codecs, etc). I don't steal stuff so the upshot of the drm aspects is that I need to work harder to get things such as music and movies to work on my computer.