Where is Linux on Intel’s Desktop and Laptop Roadmap?
By Alexander Grundner |
February 14th, 2006
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Go Doc, Go! Doc Searls is asking some valid questions regarding what’s next in the world where DRM now plagues hardware components, besides typical software applications – with Intel’s new Viiv platform being a prime example. Below are some of his questions:
- What happened to LaGrande? Is it now part of Viiv? Is it moving forward on its own? Is it tied only to Microsoft’s Trusted Computing Platform?
- Is the center of the open-vs.-closed debate moving below operating systems, to hardware? If so, what should we be arguing about?
- Should we look for Linux-based hardware platforms to start flourishing, once it’s clear that the entertaining alternatives from Microsoft and Apple are all not only closed, but incompatible? What positive help could we give Intel (or AMD) on that?
- What are the other questions we should be asking here?
All good questions in my opinion. As of right now, HTPC DIY-ers are in a similar boat in not knowing if they will ever be able to build a Windows Media Center PC with off-the-shelf components once Vista is released. Linux users, on the other hand, are in the dark in not knowing if they will be able to build machines with the latest hardware due do the fact many hardware makers are including even more closed-source, proprietary technologies and DRM that make using these components a nightmare or a non-option.
Doc closes with:
If, five years from now, the only practical way we can watch videos, or listen to music, is on our choice of Apple or Microsoft DRM’d hardware, a huge battle will have been lost. One we should be fighting right now.
On the other hand, it could be that your-choice-of-silo will fail in the market we already have.
Either way we bet, we need to know more than we do right now.
How do you see the future playing out?
Filed in: Industry Buzz