[mythtv-users] Interesting Reading: Windows Secrets reviews AppleTV and GoogleTV

Brian Wood beww at beww.org
Thu Dec 23 15:39:18 UTC 2010


On Thursday, December 23, 2010 08:19:13 am jedi wrote:

> 
>     Very little that is of relevance to the normal user is open
> source.

Oh come on, the "normal user" wants to do email, visit web sites and 
perhaps do a little word processing.

ALL of that can be done easily using nothing but open source.

Games may be an exception, but the last computer game I remember playing 
was Pong which, I admit, was not Open Source.

Most often things that Open Source can't do are because of artificial 
restrictions like DRM, and market forces that try very hard to exclude 
OS because it doesn't fit many business models.

If it were not for commercial forces, Open Source would be even more 
capable that it is. Notice how MS saw that netbooks were selling well 
without Windows, and immediately came up with the W7 "Starter Edition" 
to fight this terrible threat.

Many home appliances run on Open Source without the user even being 
aware of it. I'd guess it would be hard to find a modern home without at 
least something running Linux or a variant - a Roku box, an Android 
phone, a router, TV set, or something.

</OSS Advocate>




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