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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Charles Tutt who wrote (35213)	12/8/1999 7:27:00 PM
From: Valley Girl	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

No one would, but Windows is more reliable than that in my experience, and of course MSFT will deploy a cut-down ultra-reliable version in this space. The PC/TV convergence is for real. Right now it's a geek-sheek phenomenon, but with DVD becoming common, large hard drives getting cheap, MPEG-2 decoders and encoders common features of video cards, and hi-res TV monitors starting to show up, you can't help thinking this is the next in-home killer app. Cost reductions, standardization, and appliance-level simplicity are the keys. I was at a party last month where a friend showed off his rig, very expensive and a bit clumsy, but quite impressive. He showed a movie on his home theater played through his PC's DVD drive and MPEG2 decoder. With a hardware encoder and a large hard drive he's set up his PC to serve as a VCR, only it has better quality, higher capacity, and random access. All he needs now is a writable DVD drive and he won't need a VCR anymore. The clumsy bit was using a wireless keyboard as a remote control (I guess it's a guy thing). MSFT will face lots of competition, so it's not clear how to invest in this market (there are the obvious plays such as Tivio). I can't see that Windows has any advantage over any other OS, unless you also plan to use the system as an internet appliance or need the diverse hardware support available (which you would not in a true appliance). BeOS was specifically designed for this sort of application with numerous real-time I/O features. Jean-Louis was kind enough to give me a pre-release copy of the Intel version some months ago, which I've installed and played briefly with. Boot-up is extremely fast, way faster than the runner-up OS (Linux). Installation's a snap, too, takes the ribbon for the least fussy OS I've tried (Solaris x86 gets the booby prize). Retails for $79 if anyone's interested (hey, Judge J., are you paying attention to OS pricing?).