[Gllug] Finally some mainstream coverage of EUCD

[Christopher Hunter]

On Tuesday 11 Nov 2003 12:04 am, Mike Brodbelt wrote:

//snip//

> In 5 years, if the RIAA/MPAA/BFPI have their way, we'll all be running
> Longhorn, content will all be encrypted, the hardware will be
> tamper-proofed with Palladium, disks will have the CPRM stuff thats in
> them already turned on, and the open PC architecture will be dead.
>
> I actually think that the single biggest threat to that plan is Linux
> getting enough of a foothold on the desktop to stop it being possible to
> lock everything down. The time from now until the release of Longhorn
> may well be the most critical period in the PC industry.
>
> Mike.

You're possibly right.  One view is that Palladium / Longhorn will be the end 
of cheaply available computing, and that "copy-protection" schemes of 
ever-increasing complexity will be included in all media.

Another view - Palladium / Longhorn won't work (after all, we're talking about 
MS products here!), and each new "copy-protection" method will be bypassed as 
soon as it's released!

Luckily, Linux is rapidly becoming "mainstream", and as soon as it is 
generally perceived as easy to use and more reliable, a greater proportion of 
the (largely) computer-illiterate masses will make the migration away from 
closed-source.

We already have (largely) self-installing distros, and we just need to get 
"usability" really right, and we can stop worrying.  The in-fighting and 
politicking within the OS community will have to stop, and we must accept the 
"windowed graphical desktop" as the general default method of use!  

Chris

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