so your saying there are only 250million computers in the world....
there are 10 thousand in my wifes call centre alone
not to mention how many call centres there are in the worl, plus schools ect ect ect
Check your math. I said half a billion people who are capable of and probably own a computer, or thereabouts, most of whom will possess machines that have been bought used. This does not take into account large entities like governments, corporations, universities, and so on, who have massive amounts of money to invest in purchases.
However, my family is a decent example. When I was growing up, we started with one computer for the whole group. By the time I went away to college, we had at least one per person - only one of which was ever a current purchase. My parents both have Masters degrees or higher, and make several multiples of the median income (which, as I recall, is pegged around $23-28,000 right now, in the US).
pjkelnhofer said:
Wow! Talk about a dismal world view. C'mon, do you really believe all that? I don't think that there is this massive conspiracy between MS and the hardware makers. In some ways, the PC world benefits from seperate OS and Hardware manufactures. It causes them to push each other, not secretly force people into buying the latest equipment.
You don't believe corporations do things like this? How do you explain the five major recording studios and the RIAA, if not as an anti-competitive unit? What's the deal with Microsoft's anti-competitive and monopolistic tactics, if not an attempt to lock the market place to their product?
I'm not dismal, I'm realistic. Stop and think about the benefit to everyone I named for a moment:
1) Microsoft continues to sell client licenses, gains a royalty market from "securing" content for the digital providers (music, movies, images, and even text), has even more of a chance to push their standards, and locks a new round of hardware updates so that they have even more headroom to do bad code.
2) The hardware manufacturers, who are rapidly hitting a wall for anything but the most serious of gamers and scientific/mathematic/creative applications, will be given a firm reason to continue their upgrade cycle. With the application of new technology that hasn't been widespread in the marketplace, and the addition of TCI hardware on motherboards, they will have all the pieces in place to start a real media monopoly the likes of which has never been seen, and the PC manufacturers will be gladly gobbling up the profits. For them, more expensive machines are a godsend - lower per-unit proportional expenditure and higher profits.
3) Content owners that tap TCI will have signed reference to the hardware that the media is being used on, and will know if you've done anything with it that you shouldn't because your CPU, motherboard, and OS (all of which likely have your credit card attached to them in records somewhere) are tagging your information to any transactions you make. It's an advertiser's wet dream, because they'll be able to see everything you read, watch, download, and otherwise take part in. Royalties will be almost assured, as the pay-for-play mentality gains mindshare and the hardware openness to the people who hold the TCI reins allows them to check for your right to use anything you have on your drives.
Basically, D*I*S Frontman got to this before I did, but I agree with him wholeheartedly, and expand his outline with the references to the media control elements.
Don't you think that if Apple suddenly got huge marketshare they would get slammed for insisting that they control both the Hardware and Software ends of their equipment?
This is irrelevant and immaterial to this discussion. Apple doesn't have that market position, is unlikely to have it, and they already get slammed for controlling both. This is not the point of the discussion, because Apple has been extraordinarily good about having older hardware run the latest OS fairly well and are not leveraging hardware and software DRM.
Sometimes, I wonder if a lot of the people who buy Macs buy them just because the are not the dominate computer, not because they are simply better designed for what they want a PC to do.
My mac works, does what it's supposed to, and doesn't restrict me with ridiculous restrictions on calling in my system to the company I bought the OS from. With each successive release of OS X, even my oldest machines are getting faster. I can navigate and do things more easily in OS X because it works in a way that I am comfortable with and doesn't make me feel like I have to go debug the registry, apply eighteen drivers, and download all the patches as soon as I get a new copy of the OS installed.
I use maces because they're better for how I computer.
SiliconAddict said:
Umm actually I expect to see RAID become standard in the future. A failed HD is the biggest potential for data loss on a computer. I'm betting in the next 4 years you are going to see SATA RAID become mainstream with 3x 500GB hard drives RAIDed. Cheaper end computer will always stick with single drives for price but higher end system will probably start to incorporate poor mans RAID.
Actually, I expect SATA RAID to become a standard in most general-use computers within a year. It cost me around $300 to buy a PCI controller and a single drive after-market. Another $100-120 gets me the same drive six months later, and then I just plug them in and format.
I know OEMs can do it even cheaper, especially with on-board controllers.
SiliconAddict said:
It WILL NOT. The feature will come disabled by default. Microsoft has stated this time and again because they don't want to scare the crap out of people.
You believe a promise from Microsoft?
They have two to three years to start pushing the idea of the TCI, to hype it and spin it so that people are excited about giving their rights away. After all, look at how the average American is willing to just hand over their liberty to the federal government just because it supposedly makes them safe, when the statistics haven't changed and they're more likely to die from car crashes than terrorist acts. People are sheep. They'll accept anything that's said in a certain way, and the TCI will be pushed over the next few years, until the public is ready to accept it.
MorganX said:
I don't think it would scare people at all since security is the buzzword. Additionally, everyone is going to have Rights Management. Everyone. Not just iTunes but everyone.
It's only "everyone" if people sit down and take it. This is the same attitude I run into with politics, social change, and anything else around us that people have grown unnecessarily resigned to. The system exists how it, and people are going to try to take control of you, but the only success they can have is if you let them have it. If enough people said that they didn't want DRM, didn't buy DRMed materials, it just couldn't happen. It would choke the industry and they'd have no choice.
People are selfish and lazy, though, and won't forgo some trinket because they want it too much.
