Can We Trust Microsoft On Palladium?
from the hear-them-out dept
The general response in the techie community to Microsoft’s announcement about Palladium was one of mistrust. Given past experience this is completely reasonable. Salon, though, is running a piece that looks critically at some of the claims against Palladium. I realize a lot of people have knee-jerk anti-Microsoft reaction, but this is still definitely worth reading. While I still don’t trust Microsoft, some of the points made in the article do make sense. If everything that people are claiming Microsoft is trying to do come true, they will actively drive people away from Microsoft – which can’t be good for business. While I think people need to watch Microsoft’s moves carefully, I think we also need to realize that a lot of the “worst case scenarios” may be a bit far-fetched.
Comments on “Can We Trust Microsoft On Palladium?”
good article.
…but I’m afraid the answer to this question is still a resounding NO!
New bottle, same genie
Just because the genie is out of the bottle, doesn’t mean you can stop his actions by making a new and safer bottle.
It seems a lot of this paranoia around new technologies, such as DRM’s, hinge on the fact that all new computers will have these features and you wont be able to upgrade without submitting to it.
Well I can honestly say that I can not envision doing anything on my computer right now that or in the future that would require such a huge change in hardware and software that would force me into upgrading to something that had all this stuff built in.
This is a lot of the problem with stalling computer sales too. It’s the fact that there isn’t any software or usage out there pushing the hardware envelope and thus not creating the cyclical upgrade/innovation environment we were all used to.
Let whoever make whatever they want, I am sure I will be fine with my 2.2ghz machine packing 1.5 gigs of PC3000 RAM and 800 gigs of storage and jamming the sights and sounds of the computer world to my eyes and ears via my Radeon 8500 and Sound Blaster Audigy.
Create a tool or a program or a service that would require me to upgrade from what I have now and then I will start to be concerned.
Re: New bottle, same genie
That may be true for the home user, but businesses will have to upgrade to maintain vendor support. Well, actually the don’t HAVE to upgrade, they could always go open source and actually have control of their computing infrastructure. Nah, they’ll never do that.
Re: Re: New bottle, same genie
And what about gamers?
I am not a rabid gamer by any means, but there does sometimes come a game I’d really love to have…and that sometimes means getting an upgrade. And how long before the next killer home app forces you to upgrade?
Or when the next M$ security hole requires you to upgrade to the next OS which requires this hardware? (This wouldn’t affect me all that much…but for some it might).
Lets face it, they can and WILL put pressure for the home user to upgrade if they need us to.