Pen and paper doesn't crash and still works the same when the power goes off. If you write your password with good ink on acid free paper kept in a dry dark place, someone may find your password intact 3000 years from now. I don't know about the computer system though....
...I have no idea how my mind (or anyone elses!) works, and my claim is that I will never know nor will anyone else....
No kidding! Like I wrote, analogies break down. The similarities are striking though. Besides perception, the mind is also not deterministic like a computer, at least not that we can make that a valid assertion. In order for us to make non-deterministic software, we'd have to invent true randomness, which is a mathemetical concept that has not been shown to exist in our world. The human ability to truly love could not exist if we were of deterministic construction such as a computer. But with that we getting into areas that science cannot investigate and so we'd better leave it be.
Well sort of, but analogies usually break down at some point. Software is the product of the mind of its designer and programmer. It is not dependent on any atoms. While the software is in transit on a radio wave it is not associated with any atoms. My basic point is that software and mind are not subject to some of the laws of physics of our time-space universe. Mind and software are not subject to the laws of entropy either and therefore are eternal. The physical carriers of the software are of course and that can and often does affect the software stored thereon. However, software could be correctly transferred to other media again and again and theoretically exist forever. This is the reason the **AA's are so worried about the unauthorized proliferation of their IP (products of minds).
...You made a false assumption, because the atoms of the two computers aren't the same...
The number of atoms are exactly the same. Without turning the computer on, there is NO way you can ever tell whether it has a program in it. The software can also be stored somewhere else, the current hardware destroyed and the software reloaded into new, completely different hardware. I can load the complete contents of a Windows x86 based computer into a Mac PowerPC based machine and run it under a program called Virtual PC. Software can be completely independent from any particular arrangement of atoms.
...I am paying for media with a specific configuration of atoms...
No you're not! There is no change to the atoms, at least not to how many of them there are. A blank disk and a fully programmed one will have exactly the same mass to whatever accuracy you care to measure. It's not like buying a physical object. If you can't power a HD on, or put a floppy into a drive, there is NO way to tell what software is on it or even if it has any on it at all. Software is NOT a material object, because it can travel at the speed of light. Einstein proved that nothing having mass can travel at the velocity of light. Information in itself is eternal, only the physical carriers thereof are subject to entropy.
Information is the product of the mind. In computers a compiler, itself a product of the mind, takes other products of the mind and translates them for a particular piece of hardware so that that hardware can communicate to you what the programmer's mind created. That product of the mind can also control a machine, such as a numerically controlled lathe, which will create a physical object using the information originating in the mind of the designer. When the part is finished, it represents an abstract of and contains the information put there by the designer of the software than controls the machine. The information content is still present in the finished product.
...that software on a hard drive DOES have a physical presence...
The possible re-arrangement of the atomic (magnetic) orientation is an EFFECT of the software, just as its display on the monitor. It still is not the software itself. If the software does not have an effect, it is useless. The presence or absence of the software does not affect the mass of the hardware in any way whatsoever. Software is NOT material, otherwise it could not be tranmitted at the speed of light, since matter cannot travel that fast. According to Einstein, matter can approach the speed of light, such as the electrons in an accelerator, but never quite reach that speed. Software does not depend on any particular hardware architecture. I can run Windows software on an Intel/AMD box or on a Mac via Virtual PC. The two hardware systems are very different. The real "you" is software, immaterial and eternal, not subject to entropy. The hardware, your body, the present carrier of that software, is perishable. However the immaterial part, often called the soul or mind can be and will be stored by your Creator on an "external backup device" as it were and someday re-loaded into new, better, much advanced hardware of which we have no inkling yet.
When you buy some software for your computer, you don't pay for the disk, but for the information, the program thereon. If someone gave you an identical disk without the information on it, you'd likely feel gypped out of your money. Information is real, but not tangible.
...because software does not actually exist in the real world...
What is then that you buy when you get say a word processing program? Do you just buy the disk or do you pay for some real work done by real people so that you can do some real work writing a fiction story on your computer? If that disk were blank or had some other stuff on it, wouldn't you feel gypped? Software is very real, but not physical. It is the product of one or more MINDS which are also very real.
...No contemporary historians (of which there were many) record Jesus' existence,...
Actually, a historian named Josephus, from Jesus' time does make mention of him and the fact that he was crucified under Pilate. The life and accounts of Jesus, as related in the Bible have affected life on this planet more than the life of any other person that has ever lived. Even our calendar is measured from the time of His appearance. It is recorded of Him that He claimed equality with God and that He is resurrected and eternally alive. It is recorded of Him that He had power over the forces of nature. All this is either true, or the most outrageous, long lived set of lies that was ever foisted on the human race, which millions have believed for almost 2000 years. Millions still believe this today and their lives have been dramtically transformed because of this belief. No one's life has ever been radically transformed from a habitual thief or a drunken loser to a sober, honest and productive person by belief in any other person or story.
The Bible is a coherent library of 66 books, written over at least 4000 years of time by 40 different writers. All efforts to destroy or discredit this book have so far failed and will continue to do so. It has been translated into more languages and dialects than any other writings. It has been and continues to be the best seller of all of the worlds books. None of the pictureseque, but wrong ideas of the ancients about the physical world were incorporated into its writings. Like no other book, it accurately predicts the future, of long ago, our present time and things yet to come. Maybe it is time for you to carefully read it for yourself.
....if the individual neurons of your brain were replaced basically one at a time with a functionally identical artificial neuron in a sort of hot swap fashion as the conciousness continued to function...
Why would that be neccessary? I can download the complete contents of a hard-drive bit for bit from one computer to another. There would be NO way anyone could tell them apart. No exchange of atoms is needed, only the transfer of the immaterial software. The atoms of the body are only a storage mechanism for the software, the mind or soul. The real "you" is software, not hardware. Software can be stored on some other storage device or transferred at light speed, to another galaxy if need be, to another computer, where it can once again can "come to life" when the computer is booted.
.but what do you suggest is the difference between someone's atoms a millisecond before death and a millisecond after death?...
You have two identical computers. Their atoms are all the same. One is loaded with Windows XP and the other is loaded with Linux. Are the computers really the same? What is the difference between the two? Can you tell them apart if you can't boot them up? If they are both unplugged (dead) are they still different? The difference does not lie in the atoms, but in the software, which is immaterial, not subject to physical constraints. It is the same with people. The software is called the mind or soul.
In order to have a functional computer, you need three distinct parts. 1) the physical hardware, 2) the software, 3) a source of power. Applying this to humans is equivalent to 1) the body, 2) the mind or soul, 3) the spirit or life force.
The last two are disputed by many to exist, because they cannot be easily examined and analyzed by scientific methods. It is possible to minutely examine the physical components of a computer, but never even get the slightest clue to its function unless it can be booted up and run its software. If it's power source is absent or there is no software it cannot function. Software as such is not subject to the laws of physics. If a HD or floppy for example, being completely blank, would be weighed on the most sensitive scale possible, it would still be the same weight after it was loaded with the maximum amount of software. Matter cannot travel at light speed, but software can be modulated onto a light beam or radio wave. The "personality" of a computer is in its software. In a human the personality is in the mind, which is software. Software as such is eternal. Only its physical carrier is subject to entropy and thereby may cause the software to be possibly damaged.
If an exact backup of all of the software in a computer is made and safely stored somewhere, then the complete destruction of the actual physical hardware can take place, yet the "personality" of that computer remains. It may at some later time and place be loaded into other, better, faster hardware, in a sense "resurrected". This new hardware could even be an entirely different architecture. An old DOS or Windows 95 system for example, can be loaded into a modern Macintosh running Virtual PC. That same old software will run much faster than it ever did on the original old Intel based system.
If we humans, we can do this with one of our creations, why could our Creator not do the same with us? Could He not take the software, the soul, and re-load it into a newer, much better body after the present one stops functioning? Just because we cannot imagine this doesn't mean it could not be. This is in fact exactly what He tells us in His book, the Bible. There will be a resurrection, where everyone's eternal software will be re-loaded into new, better hardware, a new, eternal body.
...Where are the tools to manage those permissions?...
It is possible to set user and file permissions very nicely in Win2K and XP. The problem is that many programs want to write data in places that are off limits to non-admin users. These programs then die outright or misbehave in other ungraceful manners. Most users become unhappy when their programs don't run any longer after they installed a newer version of and OS or bought a new computer. Even installing some updates causes programs to cease working correctly at times. Therefore, to prevent the wrath of the users coming down on them wholesale, MS takes the easy albeit unsecure way out by making everbody an admin by default.
Answer: Keep the monitor, keyboard and mouse. Connect them to a Mac mini and you will have a secure computer. If the PC is good enough, get another monitor, keyboard and mouse and use it to play games. Make sure this PC is NEVER connected to the Internet or any other network and it will be very safe from worms and other malware.
The 1992 MS Word 5.1 still works just fine to make nice looking letters. It runs on an old Color Classic and still also works on a new 2Ghz dual PowerMac. Office 2004 on the PowerMac opens the old Word 5.1 files without problems. Both computers print perfectly to an ancient Laserwriter 2g on the network. The old Classic is used mostly as an answering/fax machine, but sometimes still get used with Word for a quick reply.
Indeed, there is data, information, knowledge and wisdom. Only the first of these is found on the Internet. It seems that we have lots of data, quite a bit of information, but very little knowledge and even less wisdom to prevent hatered, war, selfish greed, etc... a list as long as you want to make it. If a person has much knowledge without the wisdom to apply it, the usual result is pride leading to a downfall.
...Try to make those changes while logged in to a headless server using ssh...
I thought this article was about Linux desktop systems for the ordinary non-geek users. The command line is like an old truck with a non-sychro transmission. I order to shift gears the driver has to double clutch it. It works fine once you get the hang of it. The GUI is a modern 5 speed automatic transmission. This is what most people want -- namely to do their work instead of futzing with the inner workings of the machine. Until Linux gets to the place where you never or seldom have to deal with the computer itself, Windows or better yet the Mac is the way to go. The ordinary driver just wants to get into the car and use it to get to the destination as safely and economically as possible. If the vehicle does that, many people would not care if it was powered by a squirrel running in a cage. The Mac OSX is the one that give geeks all the power they normally want, including a command line, and at the same time ordinary users get a machine that lets them do what they want with a minimum of fuss over the computer itself. Freedom from malware is icing on the cake.
...But in absolute dollar terms, as the entire software industry grew...
I wonder how many commercial software vendors went bankrupt because of "piracy" of their stuff? Overall, they all seem to be making plenty of money. Maybe this "piracy" can be thought of like the common cold or mosquitoes --- you'll never eliminate them, but keep them under enough control to not be an overwhelming problem. MS has begun to address the problem in some of the "third world" countries by making lower cost software available there. If a common piece of software cost a half a years wages here in the USA, I think there would be way more piracy and people like Bill Gates would not be nearly as rich.
...Today no cellphone exists that challenges the iPod...
The reason for this has nothing to do with technology. Apple and Motorola would have had such a gadget out already. The problem is the greedy cell phone companies won't allow it. They want their phone customers to pay for downloads of music over their networks, rather than getting it through their computers via CD ripping or iTunes. There is no money advantage in an iPod phone for Verizon or any other phone service provider. Since cell phones are often subsidized by these service providers, they also want a piece of the music download pie. In the end, if a song will sell still for $0.99, someone has to make less money, either the distributors or the entertainment moguls. I doubt that many people will pay Verizon more for the priviledge of downloading a song from them than from existing on-line services. The music providers will certainly not take less per song, since some of them are wanting to or already have increased the cost.
...a cell phone with their over priced billing and crappy service...
In many areas of a city, and very definitely in the countryside, cell phones are very unreliable. It will still be a long time, if ever, until cell phones become as reliable as POTS. My daughters have cell phones only and rare is the time when we can have an extended conversation with either one of them without the call suddenly getting cut off. Cell phones are extremly convenient adjuncts to regular phone service with call forwarding though.
As for the iPod being repaced by a cell phone, that will not happen on a large scale since listening to music and talking on a phone are very different activities for most people. I keep my phone in the car almost all the time, but take the iPod into the house and plug it into our stereo system.
If a user is computer savy enough to be able to install and run Linux on the cheap PC box, it is likely that the same user is also smart enough to be able to secure the Windows system against malware attacks and configuring a good firewall. Windows CAN be made reasonably secure, but it requires quite a bit of computer smarts. Most/. denizens certainly have these skills, but most Windows users do not or don't care.
I have booted my mini from the same 3.5" backup/movie 250G firewire drive that also boots my TI powerbook. Both systems run OSX 10.3.9 just fine. Yes, the mini and the PB both run faster when booted from the firewire drive.
.... came real close to buying a Mac Mini, and didn't due to performance reasons...
Of course the "large/ugly/beige/boring generic PC" will operate much slower if at all, in a relatively short time, after it is infested with a number to malware programs and is zombiefied to send out 10000 spam e-mails every day.
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The OSX keychain is a pretty good password protection system provided your log-in password is hard to guess.
Pen and paper doesn't crash and still works the same when the power goes off. If you write your password with good ink on acid free paper kept in a dry dark place, someone may find your password intact 3000 years from now. I don't know about the computer system though....
...I have no idea how my mind (or anyone elses!) works, and my claim is that I will never know nor will anyone else....
No kidding! Like I wrote, analogies break down. The similarities are striking though. Besides perception, the mind is also not deterministic like a computer, at least not that we can make that a valid assertion. In order for us to make non-deterministic software, we'd have to invent true randomness, which is a mathemetical concept that has not been shown to exist in our world. The human ability to truly love could not exist if we were of deterministic construction such as a computer. But with that we getting into areas that science cannot investigate and so we'd better leave it be.
...the mind is the equivalent of software...
Well sort of, but analogies usually break down at some point. Software is the product of the mind of its designer and programmer. It is not dependent on any atoms. While the software is in transit on a radio wave it is not associated with any atoms. My basic point is that software and mind are not subject to some of the laws of physics of our time-space universe. Mind and software are not subject to the laws of entropy either and therefore are eternal. The physical carriers of the software are of course and that can and often does affect the software stored thereon. However, software could be correctly transferred to other media again and again and theoretically exist forever. This is the reason the **AA's are so worried about the unauthorized proliferation of their IP (products of minds).
...You made a false assumption, because the atoms of the two computers aren't the same...
The number of atoms are exactly the same. Without turning the computer on, there is NO way you can ever tell whether it has a program in it. The software can also be stored somewhere else, the current hardware destroyed and the software reloaded into new, completely different hardware. I can load the complete contents of a Windows x86 based computer into a Mac PowerPC based machine and run it under a program called Virtual PC. Software can be completely independent from any particular arrangement of atoms.
...I am paying for media with a specific configuration of atoms...
No you're not! There is no change to the atoms, at least not to how many of them there are. A blank disk and a fully programmed one will have exactly the same mass to whatever accuracy you care to measure. It's not like buying a physical object. If you can't power a HD on, or put a floppy into a drive, there is NO way to tell what software is on it or even if it has any on it at all. Software is NOT a material object, because it can travel at the speed of light. Einstein proved that nothing having mass can travel at the velocity of light. Information in itself is eternal, only the physical carriers thereof are subject to entropy.
Information is the product of the mind. In computers a compiler, itself a product of the mind, takes other products of the mind and translates them for a particular piece of hardware so that that hardware can communicate to you what the programmer's mind created. That product of the mind can also control a machine, such as a numerically controlled lathe, which will create a physical object using the information originating in the mind of the designer. When the part is finished, it represents an abstract of and contains the information put there by the designer of the software than controls the machine. The information content is still present in the finished product.
...that software on a hard drive DOES have a physical presence...
The possible re-arrangement of the atomic (magnetic) orientation is an EFFECT of the software, just as its display on the monitor. It still is not the software itself. If the software does not have an effect, it is useless. The presence or absence of the software does not affect the mass of the hardware in any way whatsoever. Software is NOT material, otherwise it could not be tranmitted at the speed of light, since matter cannot travel that fast. According to Einstein, matter can approach the speed of light, such as the electrons in an accelerator, but never quite reach that speed. Software does not depend on any particular hardware architecture. I can run Windows software on an Intel/AMD box or on a Mac via Virtual PC. The two hardware systems are very different. The real "you" is software, immaterial and eternal, not subject to entropy. The hardware, your body, the present carrier of that software, is perishable. However the immaterial part, often called the soul or mind can be and will be stored by your Creator on an "external backup device" as it were and someday re-loaded into new, better, much advanced hardware of which we have no inkling yet.
When you buy some software for your computer, you don't pay for the disk, but for the information, the program thereon. If someone gave you an identical disk without the information on it, you'd likely feel gypped out of your money. Information is real, but not tangible.
...because software does not actually exist in the real world...
What is then that you buy when you get say a word processing program? Do you just buy the disk or do you pay for some real work done by real people so that you can do some real work writing a fiction story on your computer? If that disk were blank or had some other stuff on it, wouldn't you feel gypped? Software is very real, but not physical. It is the product of one or more MINDS which are also very real.
...No contemporary historians (of which there were many) record Jesus' existence,...
Actually, a historian named Josephus, from Jesus' time does make mention of him and the fact that he was crucified under Pilate. The life and accounts of Jesus, as related in the Bible have affected life on this planet more than the life of any other person that has ever lived. Even our calendar is measured from the time of His appearance. It is recorded of Him that He claimed equality with God and that He is resurrected and eternally alive. It is recorded of Him that He had power over the forces of nature. All this is either true, or the most outrageous, long lived set of lies that was ever foisted on the human race, which millions have believed for almost 2000 years. Millions still believe this today and their lives have been dramtically transformed because of this belief. No one's life has ever been radically transformed from a habitual thief or a drunken loser to a sober, honest and productive person by belief in any other person or story.
The Bible is a coherent library of 66 books, written over at least 4000 years of time by 40 different writers. All efforts to destroy or discredit this book have so far failed and will continue to do so. It has been translated into more languages and dialects than any other writings. It has been and continues to be the best seller of all of the worlds books. None of the pictureseque, but wrong ideas of the ancients about the physical world were incorporated into its writings. Like no other book, it accurately predicts the future, of long ago, our present time and things yet to come. Maybe it is time for you to carefully read it for yourself.
....if the individual neurons of your brain were replaced basically one at a time with a functionally identical artificial neuron in a sort of hot swap fashion as the conciousness continued to function...
Why would that be neccessary? I can download the complete contents of a hard-drive bit for bit from one computer to another. There would be NO way anyone could tell them apart. No exchange of atoms is needed, only the transfer of the immaterial software. The atoms of the body are only a storage mechanism for the software, the mind or soul. The real "you" is software, not hardware. Software can be stored on some other storage device or transferred at light speed, to another galaxy if need be, to another computer, where it can once again can "come to life" when the computer is booted.
Without phasers, photon torpedoes and all the other technological imaginative wonders, you'd have a very boring program!
.but what do you suggest is the difference between someone's atoms a millisecond before death and a millisecond after death?...
You have two identical computers. Their atoms are all the same. One is loaded with Windows XP and the other is loaded with Linux. Are the computers really the same? What is the difference between the two? Can you tell them apart if you can't boot them up? If they are both unplugged (dead) are they still different? The difference does not lie in the atoms, but in the software, which is immaterial, not subject to physical constraints. It is the same with people. The software is called the mind or soul.
...Your body is you...
In order to have a functional computer, you need three distinct parts. 1) the physical hardware, 2) the software, 3) a source of power. Applying this to humans is equivalent to 1) the body, 2) the mind or soul, 3) the spirit or life force.
The last two are disputed by many to exist, because they cannot be easily examined and analyzed by scientific methods. It is possible to minutely examine the physical components of a computer, but never even get the slightest clue to its function unless it can be booted up and run its software. If it's power source is absent or there is no software it cannot function. Software as such is not subject to the laws of physics. If a HD or floppy for example, being completely blank, would be weighed on the most sensitive scale possible, it would still be the same weight after it was loaded with the maximum amount of software. Matter cannot travel at light speed, but software can be modulated onto a light beam or radio wave. The "personality" of a computer is in its software. In a human the personality is in the mind, which is software. Software as such is eternal. Only its physical carrier is subject to entropy and thereby may cause the software to be possibly damaged.
If an exact backup of all of the software in a computer is made and safely stored somewhere, then the complete destruction of the actual physical hardware can take place, yet the "personality" of that computer remains. It may at some later time and place be loaded into other, better, faster hardware, in a sense "resurrected". This new hardware could even be an entirely different architecture. An old DOS or Windows 95 system for example, can be loaded into a modern Macintosh running Virtual PC. That same old software will run much faster than it ever did on the original old Intel based system.
If we humans, we can do this with one of our creations, why could our Creator not do the same with us? Could He not take the software, the soul, and re-load it into a newer, much better body after the present one stops functioning? Just because we cannot imagine this doesn't mean it could not be. This is in fact exactly what He tells us in His book, the Bible. There will be a resurrection, where everyone's eternal software will be re-loaded into new, better hardware, a new, eternal body.
...Where are the tools to manage those permissions? ...
It is possible to set user and file permissions very nicely in Win2K and XP. The problem is that many programs want to write data in places that are off limits to non-admin users. These programs then die outright or misbehave in other ungraceful manners. Most users become unhappy when their programs don't run any longer after they installed a newer version of and OS or bought a new computer. Even installing some updates causes programs to cease working correctly at times. Therefore, to prevent the wrath of the users coming down on them wholesale, MS takes the easy albeit unsecure way out by making everbody an admin by default.
...how do I secure my home computer...
Answer: Keep the monitor, keyboard and mouse. Connect them to a Mac mini and you will have a secure computer. If the PC is good enough, get another monitor, keyboard and mouse and use it to play games. Make sure this PC is NEVER connected to the Internet or any other network and it will be very safe from worms and other malware.
... if MS were to drop Office for Mac today...
The 1992 MS Word 5.1 still works just fine to make nice looking letters. It runs on an old Color Classic and still also works on a new 2Ghz dual PowerMac. Office 2004 on the PowerMac opens the old Word 5.1 files without problems. Both computers print perfectly to an ancient Laserwriter 2g on the network. The old Classic is used mostly as an answering/fax machine, but sometimes still get used with Word for a quick reply.
...with a lot of gigabytes of data...
Indeed, there is data, information, knowledge and wisdom. Only the first of these is found on the Internet. It seems that we have lots of data, quite a bit of information, but very little knowledge and even less wisdom to prevent hatered, war, selfish greed, etc... a list as long as you want to make it. If a person has much knowledge without the wisdom to apply it, the usual result is pride leading to a downfall.
...Try to make those changes while logged in to a headless server using ssh...
I thought this article was about Linux desktop systems for the ordinary non-geek users. The command line is like an old truck with a non-sychro transmission. I order to shift gears the driver has to double clutch it. It works fine once you get the hang of it. The GUI is a modern 5 speed automatic transmission. This is what most people want -- namely to do their work instead of futzing with the inner workings of the machine. Until Linux gets to the place where you never or seldom have to deal with the computer itself, Windows or better yet the Mac is the way to go. The ordinary driver just wants to get into the car and use it to get to the destination as safely and economically as possible. If the vehicle does that, many people would not care if it was powered by a squirrel running in a cage. The Mac OSX is the one that give geeks all the power they normally want, including a command line, and at the same time ordinary users get a machine that lets them do what they want with a minimum of fuss over the computer itself. Freedom from malware is icing on the cake.
...But in absolute dollar terms, as the entire software industry grew...
I wonder how many commercial software vendors went bankrupt because of "piracy" of their stuff? Overall, they all seem to be making plenty of money. Maybe this "piracy" can be thought of like the common cold or mosquitoes --- you'll never eliminate them, but keep them under enough control to not be an overwhelming problem. MS has begun to address the problem in some of the "third world" countries by making lower cost software available there. If a common piece of software cost a half a years wages here in the USA, I think there would be way more piracy and people like Bill Gates would not be nearly as rich.
...Today no cellphone exists that challenges the iPod...
The reason for this has nothing to do with technology. Apple and Motorola would have had such a gadget out already. The problem is the greedy cell phone companies won't allow it. They want their phone customers to pay for downloads of music over their networks, rather than getting it through their computers via CD ripping or iTunes. There is no money advantage in an iPod phone for Verizon or any other phone service provider. Since cell phones are often subsidized by these service providers, they also want a piece of the music download pie. In the end, if a song will sell still for $0.99, someone has to make less money, either the distributors or the entertainment moguls. I doubt that many people will pay Verizon more for the priviledge of downloading a song from them than from existing on-line services. The music providers will certainly not take less per song, since some of them are wanting to or already have increased the cost.
...a cell phone with their over priced billing and crappy service...
In many areas of a city, and very definitely in the countryside, cell phones are very unreliable. It will still be a long time, if ever, until cell phones become as reliable as POTS. My daughters have cell phones only and rare is the time when we can have an extended conversation with either one of them without the call suddenly getting cut off. Cell phones are extremly convenient adjuncts to regular phone service with call forwarding though.
As for the iPod being repaced by a cell phone, that will not happen on a large scale since listening to music and talking on a phone are very different activities for most people. I keep my phone in the car almost all the time, but take the iPod into the house and plug it into our stereo system.
If a user is computer savy enough to be able to install and run Linux on the cheap PC box, it is likely that the same user is also smart enough to be able to secure the Windows system against malware attacks and configuring a good firewall. Windows CAN be made reasonably secure, but it requires quite a bit of computer smarts. Most /. denizens certainly have these skills, but most Windows users do not or don't care.
I have booted my mini from the same 3.5" backup/movie 250G firewire drive that also boots my TI powerbook. Both systems run OSX 10.3.9 just fine. Yes, the mini and the PB both run faster when booted from the firewire drive.
.... came real close to buying a Mac Mini, and didn't due to performance reasons...
Of course the "large/ugly/beige/boring generic PC" will operate much slower if at all, in a relatively short time, after it is infested with a number to malware programs and is zombiefied to send out 10000 spam e-mails every day.