It seems to me that a better anology would be software... after all, that's what a music CD is. I bought the Mac OS X Public Beta, which very well could have crashed my computer (or potentially worse). Even finished software can harm your computer if it isn't compatible with your system. Do I think this is wrong, or illegal? Of course not. (It's perhaps unfortunate, but that's a different topic.)
If a company wants to sell software -- music or otherwise -- that will only run on specific machines, it seems to me that's their business. However I don't see how limiting your customers' options is good business, especially after they're already quite used to those options. I can't think of one case where that sort of practice proved successful in the end.
The way I see it, the music industry is still pretty new to the world of computers, and they're trying to figure out how to cope. It's an understandable concern, when suddenly people can make unlimited copies of what you're trying to sell, without any loss in quality. They'll figure it out eventually: those that have no intention of paying will always find a way around it, and the rest of us will gladly pay for good stuff we can use how we want to.
I grew up on Space Quest - they helped make me the geek I am today - and I really hope this sequel happens. Hopefully it will be done properly... while I enjoyed Kings Quest's foray into the 3D world (Mask of Eternity), it was so different from the classic games that it lost a lot of the magic.
Something else I'd love to see is some sort of graphical sequel to the Planetfall games. I loved Floyd and I always wanted to SEE him. Sure, there was the cancelled Activision sequel but something far better could be done these days... Alright, enough dreaming...
I think the Monkey Island games are a good example of a series that has managed to retain its charm throughout all its visual and audio updates. It's unfortunate that a lot of other games have fared much worse. I wasn't even particularly fond of Space Quest 6, myself... Hopefully they will look to Space Quest 4 for much of their inspiration while they figure out where to go with the new game.
As mentioned elsewhere, eMusic.com actually has a pretty good selection of more obscure stuff. All depends on what you're looking for, but they're worth taking a look at.
Sure, there's a lot of stuff I'd like to have that eMusic doesn't have, but for 10 bucks a month I don't expect to get all the music I ever want to listen to. What I do get is some of the stuff I want -- easily $10 worth a month -- and a chance to check out a bunch of stuff I wouldn't have heard otherwise, for no extra cost. If I like it, it's mine. If I don't, I delete it.
I love my eMusic subscription... they're adding good, new stuff all the time (all the stuff from Matador is worth the subscription alone). Thanks for pointing out RuMPsucker, I just downloaded it and eMusic just got 10 times better.
Personally all I ever needed was System 3.0 and MacPaint. Then they added MultiFinder and things started getting so unnecessarily complicated. I miss my 512K, it finally broke last year.
Seriously though, OS X has amazed me. I was a little unsure starting with the public beta and up until 10.1, but I can honestly say that it is now the most reliable, friendly operating system I've ever used. Sure, I still have some minor complaints, but it actually runs faster now on my 400 MHz G4 than OS 9 does. I'm pretty sure I've never installed a major Windows revision that ran faster than the previous version... and they're only ever slightly more stable. I've managed to crash OS X a few times, but only when I've made the mistake of installing some bit of not-quite-finished software. I feel like I finally have a machine that's as reliable and powerful as my Linux box, but so much more friendly to use.
As for usability, my grandma has an iMac we got her a year ago. This was her first computer. My mom's been using Macs and Windows machines as long as I have... a good 14 years. Now she has a Dell with Windows ME. They both come to me when they need help. I hear from my mom a lot more often.
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It seems to me that a better anology would be software... after all, that's what a music CD is. I bought the Mac OS X Public Beta, which very well could have crashed my computer (or potentially worse). Even finished software can harm your computer if it isn't compatible with your system. Do I think this is wrong, or illegal? Of course not. (It's perhaps unfortunate, but that's a different topic.)
If a company wants to sell software -- music or otherwise -- that will only run on specific machines, it seems to me that's their business. However I don't see how limiting your customers' options is good business, especially after they're already quite used to those options. I can't think of one case where that sort of practice proved successful in the end.
The way I see it, the music industry is still pretty new to the world of computers, and they're trying to figure out how to cope. It's an understandable concern, when suddenly people can make unlimited copies of what you're trying to sell, without any loss in quality. They'll figure it out eventually: those that have no intention of paying will always find a way around it, and the rest of us will gladly pay for good stuff we can use how we want to.
I grew up on Space Quest - they helped make me the geek I am today - and I really hope this sequel happens. Hopefully it will be done properly... while I enjoyed Kings Quest's foray into the 3D world (Mask of Eternity), it was so different from the classic games that it lost a lot of the magic.
Something else I'd love to see is some sort of graphical sequel to the Planetfall games. I loved Floyd and I always wanted to SEE him. Sure, there was the cancelled Activision sequel but something far better could be done these days... Alright, enough dreaming...
I think the Monkey Island games are a good example of a series that has managed to retain its charm throughout all its visual and audio updates. It's unfortunate that a lot of other games have fared much worse. I wasn't even particularly fond of Space Quest 6, myself... Hopefully they will look to Space Quest 4 for much of their inspiration while they figure out where to go with the new game.
As mentioned elsewhere, eMusic.com actually has a pretty good selection of more obscure stuff. All depends on what you're looking for, but they're worth taking a look at.
Sure, there's a lot of stuff I'd like to have that eMusic doesn't have, but for 10 bucks a month I don't expect to get all the music I ever want to listen to. What I do get is some of the stuff I want -- easily $10 worth a month -- and a chance to check out a bunch of stuff I wouldn't have heard otherwise, for no extra cost. If I like it, it's mine. If I don't, I delete it.
I love my eMusic subscription... they're adding good, new stuff all the time (all the stuff from Matador is worth the subscription alone). Thanks for pointing out RuMPsucker, I just downloaded it and eMusic just got 10 times better.
Personally all I ever needed was System 3.0 and MacPaint. Then they added MultiFinder and things started getting so unnecessarily complicated. I miss my 512K, it finally broke last year.
Seriously though, OS X has amazed me. I was a little unsure starting with the public beta and up until 10.1, but I can honestly say that it is now the most reliable, friendly operating system I've ever used. Sure, I still have some minor complaints, but it actually runs faster now on my 400 MHz G4 than OS 9 does. I'm pretty sure I've never installed a major Windows revision that ran faster than the previous version... and they're only ever slightly more stable. I've managed to crash OS X a few times, but only when I've made the mistake of installing some bit of not-quite-finished software. I feel like I finally have a machine that's as reliable and powerful as my Linux box, but so much more friendly to use.
As for usability, my grandma has an iMac we got her a year ago. This was her first computer. My mom's been using Macs and Windows machines as long as I have... a good 14 years. Now she has a Dell with Windows ME. They both come to me when they need help. I hear from my mom a lot more often.