Everyone who uses any electronic devices such as computers, VCRs, PVRs, mobile phones, etc… should read this FAQ on TCPA / Palladium. It has some important information in it about recent moves by Intel and Microsoft that will affect the ways in which you are allowed to use your electronics in the future. Also take a look at this week’s and last week’s columns by Robert X. Cringely, in chronological order (if you want them to make sense) with more information on this, plus a recent change to Microsoft’s EUL.
What interests me is that as Intel/Microsoft go this way, Apple will have a new tool to convert consumers; freedom. TCPA takes your right to use your computer and the software and media you purchase, and puts it in the hands of the companies you purchased them from. If content providers are in control of how and when you can and cannot use content you purchased from them, and can revoke your priveliges at any time with no notice, I don’t want to buy their content. Same as I won’t buy Shakira’s music; did you know that if I were to just put that CD-like disc into my computer, it would void the computer’s warranty and prevent the computer from booting or ejecting the CD? Copy protection, they call it. I can’t wait to see what they come up with next.
If buying a new PC means you are giving up your right to control your use of that PC, or any software/media you put on it, and there was another computer available that let YOU decide how and when and for what you want to use it, wouldn’t you chose the latter? I would. I did. I chose a Mac instead of a PC running WinXP. Did you know that if you upgrade the hardware of your PC, you have to re-register WinXP? And if you don’t re-register, you get locked out of your computer completely? When I used PCs, I changed out a card or two every month. I didn’t even bother using a case for the last couple of years with PCs because I was changing out parts so frequently. I could never use WinXP. On a Mac, I don’t have to change out the hardware; everything just works.
I think that Apple’s choice on whether or not to try to support this or a similar initiative will be vital in its control of the consumer market.
You can change most of the hardware on your Windows computer without “re-registering.” Adding and removing PC cards & drives won’t make a bit of dfference. Not that I’m a fan of product activation (which doesn’t submit any personal information anyway), but it just goes to show that as always, Mac bigots rely heavily on being uninformed.
You can change most of the hardware on your Windows computer without “re-registering.” Adding and removing PC cards & drives won’t make a bit of dfference. Not that I’m a fan of product activation (which doesn’t submit any personal information anyway), but it just goes to show that as always, Mac bigots rely heavily on being uninformed.
I always feel silly responding to comments of this nature, since I doubt the people who posted them will ever see my response. Perhaps I will also email it to him.
Anyway, I’ll point out that at the time that I posted this I was a professional doing technical support for software on windows PCs, working on 2000 and XP machines in the office and using a mac at home. I still have to work with PCs once in a while, and in the next week or two I’ll be building a new Wintel PC for my brother from new parts, and that I’ve recommended XP for it. While I am no longer a full time technician, I still do a little bit on the side (an unfortunate side effect of being one of the few people who is capable of fixing Windows when it decides to go crazy), and these days that means XP.
So if you think I’m uninformed, you’re sadly mistaken. Windows XP tracks your hardware and if you change too much you have to get it activated again. I have had to help people with this, and while it is easier to activate it today than it was when XP was first released, it is still a stupid hassle.
More importantly (to me) was that the whole point of that paragraph was that on a Mac, I don’t have to keep changing the hardware, but on a PC I was changing hardware constantly AND facing multiple re-activations as a result, just to keep running.
I’m using a (nearly) two year old flat-screen iMac right now, and while I plan to buy a new iBook next year (2004), I probably won’t have to replace this iMac as my desktop (or think about upgrading) for another year or two. The PC I’m helping put together for my brother from nearly top-of-the-line parts will need updating in nine months and will need replacing in 18, if not sooner. It just doesn’t compare.
I always feel silly responding to comments of this nature, since I doubt the people who posted them will ever see my response. Perhaps I will also email it to him.
Anyway, I’ll point out that at the time that I posted this I was a professional doing technical support for software on windows PCs, working on 2000 and XP machines in the office and using a mac at home. I still have to work with PCs once in a while, and in the next week or two I’ll be building a new Wintel PC for my brother from new parts, and that I’ve recommended XP for it. While I am no longer a full time technician, I still do a little bit on the side (an unfortunate side effect of being one of the few people who is capable of fixing Windows when it decides to go crazy), and these days that means XP.
So if you think I’m uninformed, you’re sadly mistaken. Windows XP tracks your hardware and if you change too much you have to get it activated again. I have had to help people with this, and while it is easier to activate it today than it was when XP was first released, it is still a stupid hassle.
More importantly (to me) was that the whole point of that paragraph was that on a Mac, I don’t have to keep changing the hardware, but on a PC I was changing hardware constantly AND facing multiple re-activations as a result, just to keep running.
I’m using a (nearly) two year old flat-screen iMac right now, and while I plan to buy a new iBook next year (2004), I probably won’t have to replace this iMac as my desktop (or think about upgrading) for another year or two. The PC I’m helping put together for my brother from nearly top-of-the-line parts will need updating in nine months and will need replacing in 18, if not sooner. It just doesn’t compare.