On Sun, Nov 03, 2002 at 07:32:16PM +0200, Johan Ehnberg wrote:
> Yes, you really sound like you've attended a Microsoft talk. :=).
> Congratulations, you have been brain washed.
Hardly. Read RMS' comments on the issue. He, too, was at the MS talk,
and I hardly think he's been brainwashed. He does not seem to fear MS
killing open source software to a particularly great degree (at least,
that's not his primary reason for opposing it. He sees that the
possibility is there, which it is).
> The fact stands: Linux won't maybe load at all on a TCPA enabled
> hardware, eventually. And TCPA can't be completely turned off.
Paranoia. Unfounded paranoia. Besides, it's only the x86 CPU vendors
that are getting involved in this. Remember, Debian supports a whole
pile of non-x86 architectures, so even if we ever reach a day where all
new x86 hardware forces users to run Palladium (which I don't think will
*ever* happen) then the worst thing that can happen is that the next
machine you buy will have to be a PowerPC or something. But I really
don't think that the hardware vendors will go for that, no matter what
MS bribes them with. They know there's a significant market for x86
hardware that runs non-MS software. Hell, Intel and AMD both use open
source operating systems themselves, they're certainly not going to do
something to prevent their own machines from running.
> They said Palladium technology stops viruses and spam. Yeah, right.
>
Actually, they don't claim that at all. It won't stop viruses. If you
install outlook 2000 or whatever on a Palladium system, you're just as
vulnerable to Outlook viruses as if you were running on Win98.
Palladium is DRM, period. It's Microsoft caving in to Hollywood's
demands in such a way that they think they'll be able to turn a profit.
As the speaker at MIT (whose name escapes me) said, it's Microsoft's
attempt to virtualize a single-purpose piece of hardware (e.g. a
hardware DVD player) on a multi-purpose PC. They don't intent to kill
the multi-purpose PC.
RMS wrote an article after attending the MIT talk
(http://newsforge.com/newsforge/02/10/21/1449250.shtml?tid=19). In it
he acknowledges that it is possible that Palladium could be used to
prevent open source software from running. Yes, it could. But as I've
said, I think it's very unlikely. He also presents some DRM scenarios,
and those are, IMHO, the real issues with Palladium. That is what's
going to make life miserable for everybody, whether they're Palladium
users or not and whether they run open source software or not.
noah
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