Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

HP Dumps Linux for Windows XP MCE in New Media Player

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the switching-it-up dept.

An anonymous reader writes "There hasn't been much said about this, but HP's new z545 Digital Entertainment Center appears to be a Windows-based re-spin of an earlier Linux-based model that HP unveiled three years ago at the Tech X NY trade show in New York, and which was sold for some time as the de100c Digital Entertainment Center. Seems like the joint's gone downhill ever since Perens left."

3 of 225 comments (clear)

  1. Re:My Guess by glMatrixMode · · Score: 4, Informative
    You know TurboLinux 10 F (http://www.turbolinux.com/products/10F/) ? A commercial distro that comes with legal-in-the-US, proprietary codecs like WMA (and also DVD decryption). From their website
    Turbolinux is the first distribution to license the official Microsoft WMF codecs.


    So the answer to your question is yes. Now I really didn't want to give it free advertising, as I think that it's wrong to encourage proprietary, closed formats like WMA.
    --
    War doesn't prove who's right, just who's left.
  2. Its not about HP or WMA, its about Microsoft. by BrookHarty · · Score: 4, Informative

    Microsoft stated they wanted to be the major company for home media, and following that trend of embrace, extended and buy out, you can expect more companies to choose microsoft due to cheap contracts with almost free support.

    Microsoft is already trying to take the HDDVD consumer market with WM9, this is just another area for them to get a foothold.

    It will be the same tactic they have used in the PC Vendor market for years. Microsoft will give the product away, vendors will bite, use the product, then get locked it.

    And companies no longer look for the long term goals, just what makes money the next quarter. If HP was smart, they would stick with linux, develop the software they own, and pay no licensing fees. You think they would have learned from their past experiences with Microsoft.

    Call me jaded, but I see the trend everywhere, sell/buy now, whatever makes my books look good this year. This is how CEO's dump and run companies, and why mergers are so common.

    Now, think 5 years from now, HP's product will look like everyone elses, what will be the difference? Nothing, they use the same software, the hardware is off the shelf. The CEO's will sell HP, another merger. Meanwhile, another billion for Microsoft.

    It's good to be the only vendor, the only one choice. Er, lack of choice I should say. I bet Microsoft's stock goes up again tomorrow from this news.

  3. It isn't a dump, they have different functions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    I find it hard to compare the functionality of these 2 systems.
    The first one had:
    - a cd rewriter.

    It offered:
    - playing of music.

    The second one has
    - 2(!) tuners
    - a processor which can easily decode 3 dvd's parallel
    - a video card which will be able to play doom3 (once the linux install is done)
    - look at the I/O (which is the most important thing)

    So, it is easy to see why the first one was a big miss: It didn't have/promise any functionality.

    The big minuses about this system:
    - a fan/harddisk. You don't want fans or harddisk hums in your living room. They are really anoying!
    - $2000 for that?
    - No DVB (digital tv), so it is already outdated before it is selling. (you can attach a DVB-USB device. Ah, and which software is going to support that? Just wait for the linux install guys).