VoIP Toolkit

Media Center will more than entertain us

David Coursey AnchorDesk

Published: 09 Oct 2003 11:45 BST

DRM, an important topic on which Microsoft seems to have no consistent policy, is the wild card in all this. It's still not clear what the courts and Congress will eventually decide consumers can do with the content they "own." An unfavourable decision would be a tremendous setback, and even a favourable one could result in major technology changes. Because Media Center is all about managing entertainment content, the DRM issue will keep the platform in limbo for the foreseeable future.

Rick and I didn't really talk about how much of Media Center will eventually find its way into the standard Windows installation. But my feeling is that Media Center, which rides atop Windows XP Pro, should be the standard load for consumer machines. As for business desktops, I can easily imagine the remote control and 10-foot UI being used in conference rooms. The media networking may likewise be useful, and I am sure that over time there will be other features that make sense in the business context.

My hope is that Longhorn -- whenever and in whatever form Microsoft's next generation OS appears -- will (optionally, at least) support features like these, and will allow you to install them on the machines that need them. Or perhaps Microsoft will migrate back to a single version of Windows, in which those features will be configurable as the OS loads, based on user preference and/or available hardware.