This is a good point. The really interesting thing about this decision will be that it will establish the current viability of Blockbuster's current business model. Is Blockbuster the force that moves this particular industry, or are they just a reactionary business at this point, trying to catch up. Also I don't see why Blockbuster would really have an opinion in this matter. They rent movies, who cares what the technology is, from their point of view, just as long as it moves out the door. To that point, it does seem that HD-DVD is being rented.
Personally, I like Hollywood Video, don't ask me why. The *very* small shelf that current contains the HD formats there is overwhelmingly dominated by Blu-Ray. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the number of HD-DVD titles versus Blu-Ray titles being offered for rent are the in the same ratio that is cited by Blockbuster. The stats seem flawed on this one.
For the record, I declared Blu-Ray the winner when I saw the Disney Blu-Ray promo on the "Cars" DVD. Not that it matters, the players are too damned expensive. I'm thinking another technology is going to force the adoption of HD players, but not for another 5 years or so.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_Versatile _Disc
Finally! a Slashdot topic on this issue. Part of my job is to administer a 30 PC (plus a few Macs) lab at a large state university. The department I work for is in the sciences, and the largest usage of the lab workstations is by freshman and sophomores taking introductory level courses. The state contract price for each seat for MS Office 2004 is around $50 (30 x $50 == about the same a new AD server). So, throwing caution to the wind we tried OOo (1.1, I believe at the time). BIG MISTAKE!
I use OpenOffice.org personally, it's not what I would consider fully-featured, but one expects that from open source (yes, I said it!). THE big issue that the end users (freshman, sophomore college students) had is that the default file type is the "StarOffice" format. One HAS to override this everytime a new file is saved to a.DOC file. THEN, when saving that.DOC in OOo in the future the application will prompt the user with a cryptic message about.DOC not being able to save all the features that can be contained in the StarOffice format. This is VERY confusing to the users (which BTW, can't use the StarOffice format in other campus labs, which is a very real reality I'm sure you will all agree). From what I could find there is no way to override this behavior.
The other issue is that (forgive me if I'm out of date, but I've let OOo fester for a while in Open Source land before trying it again) the spreadsheet functionality is woefully inadaquate. The research graduate students had a horrible time finding the trend line equation. Yes, I know there is a work around, but it's TOO HARD.
So, one day I enter my lab for my weekly maintenance duties to find that some industrious individuals had scribed the words "WE NEED OFFICE, NOT FREE OFFICE" on every white board in the room! We made the $1500 purchase for MS Office 2004 the next day.
The user experience in OOo is not close enough to the user experience in MS Office. If OOo decides it wants to take a "Firefox-level" market share away from Microsoft, or even approach it, the important functionality in OOo has to be very very similar to MS Office.
Slashdot Mirror
This is a good point. The really interesting thing about this decision will be that it will establish the current viability of Blockbuster's current business model. Is Blockbuster the force that moves this particular industry, or are they just a reactionary business at this point, trying to catch up. Also I don't see why Blockbuster would really have an opinion in this matter. They rent movies, who cares what the technology is, from their point of view, just as long as it moves out the door. To that point, it does seem that HD-DVD is being rented.
e _Disc
Personally, I like Hollywood Video, don't ask me why. The *very* small shelf that current contains the HD formats there is overwhelmingly dominated by Blu-Ray. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the number of HD-DVD titles versus Blu-Ray titles being offered for rent are the in the same ratio that is cited by Blockbuster. The stats seem flawed on this one.
For the record, I declared Blu-Ray the winner when I saw the Disney Blu-Ray promo on the "Cars" DVD. Not that it matters, the players are too damned expensive. I'm thinking another technology is going to force the adoption of HD players, but not for another 5 years or so. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_Versatil
Finally! a Slashdot topic on this issue. Part of my job is to administer a 30 PC (plus a few Macs) lab at a large state university. The department I work for is in the sciences, and the largest usage of the lab workstations is by freshman and sophomores taking introductory level courses. The state contract price for each seat for MS Office 2004 is around $50 (30 x $50 == about the same a new AD server). So, throwing caution to the wind we tried OOo (1.1, I believe at the time). BIG MISTAKE!
.DOC file. THEN, when saving that .DOC in OOo in the future the application will prompt the user with a cryptic message about .DOC not being able to save all the features that can be contained in the StarOffice format. This is VERY confusing to the users (which BTW, can't use the StarOffice format in other campus labs, which is a very real reality I'm sure you will all agree). From what I could find there is no way to override this behavior.
I use OpenOffice.org personally, it's not what I would consider fully-featured, but one expects that from open source (yes, I said it!). THE big issue that the end users (freshman, sophomore college students) had is that the default file type is the "StarOffice" format. One HAS to override this everytime a new file is saved to a
The other issue is that (forgive me if I'm out of date, but I've let OOo fester for a while in Open Source land before trying it again) the spreadsheet functionality is woefully inadaquate. The research graduate students had a horrible time finding the trend line equation. Yes, I know there is a work around, but it's TOO HARD.
So, one day I enter my lab for my weekly maintenance duties to find that some industrious individuals had scribed the words "WE NEED OFFICE, NOT FREE OFFICE" on every white board in the room! We made the $1500 purchase for MS Office 2004 the next day.
The user experience in OOo is not close enough to the user experience in MS Office. If OOo decides it wants to take a "Firefox-level" market share away from Microsoft, or even approach it, the important functionality in OOo has to be very very similar to MS Office.