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Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 | |
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| Time: 00:00 EST/05:00 GMT | News Source: ActiveWin.com | Posted By: Jonathan Tigner | ||
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Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 has entered the OEM channel. Vendors such as Directron are now offering XP Media Center 2005 and the Remote Control. Look for the official launch next week. | ||
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| #1 By 23275 (68.17.42.38) at 10/8/2004 6:39:35 AM |
| This is great news and has been long anticipated. In the home theater, corporate media, and in educational learning centers, there is room for much higher end media systems. MS's emphasis on personal customization is dead on - delivering turn-key, complete solutions is highly profitable and a far greater value for customers. We plan to work this channel and deliver individually personalized systems with full on-site integration and no questions asked end to end support for four years. Two lab systems are shown here in various states of testing, http://lloyd.libertech.net/Media%20Center%20Library/Forms/AllItems.aspx |
| #2 By 23275 (67.32.52.10) at 10/8/2004 4:31:11 PM |
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Haven't seen any, yet - so far just OEM Systems Builders.
It really is quite nice. There are some nice additions and support for HDTV/EDTV is welcome. The support tools are also very strong and the remotes authorized builders can buy are of very high quality and easier to use than the models shipped from the current ;arge manufacturers. When deployed on very high end hardware [new socket 775 based P4's. etc..], the media performance is pretty amazing - very fluid. Since the product has been released into the channel today - to give OEM's time to build production systems for the 12th's launch, it may show up on MSDN. This post was edited by lketchum on Friday, October 08, 2004 at 16:31. |
| #3 By 23275 (68.17.42.38) at 10/10/2004 2:29:05 PM |
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Hi Hal, the four year coverage is for all aspects impacting the system and its users. We build and support a My Place and My Family Place for each customer - through these we deliver support, for each user, but more than that we harden the OS in many ways, and design the environment that these systems go into. We have found that if the systems and their supporting networks do not break in the first place, that support costs are actually quite low.
We work with Microsoft, as many OEM's do, to ensure that the OS is supported; however, when a user has an issue, we take care of them - up to totally rebuilding the system for them. All of our systems - regardless of OS variant, are delivered as fully configured turn-key systems. All old data a user may have and all user settings are migrated for them into a new profile. IE is carefully configured and even zones are set up for the user. Finally, we maintain perhaps the best support I know of - it comes down to knowing users and how they use their systems, then configuring them to make the systems work for them. We do charge more, but not much more. The value is there and using solid non-white box components is a big part of ensuring that. For example, each of the systems show at the link use Intel's new matrix RAID - combining RAID levels 0 and 1 on only two drives as supported by ICH6's new features. By doing this, we can provide both increased performance, and also an ability to insulate a system from HD failure - an issue in homes. A lot goes into this, and helps drive sales in many directions - e.g., business clients become home theater clients and vice versa. Since we do not work accordinding to over-subscription, but under-subscription and over-service, we and the customer are insulated from the worst and most costly influences in the market. Some customers have domains at home and ISA server that we manage for them and many company leaders are finally recovering some of their personal lives and quality of life because of it - many being like myself, and working 16 or more hours a day. It's just a different approach, but it works for all of us and it results in some great systems, networks and software and some very happy customers who enjoy computing again. |
| #4 By 23275 (68.17.42.38) at 10/10/2004 2:30:48 PM |
|
The upgrade path for MCE is clear - it will be supported, because far too influential personalities at MS will not let it go otherwise - they, for many of the same reasons as above, support this model. I assess this trend will continue as digital content of all types - business intelligence in particular, are sewn throughout peoples' lives. We intend to drive a part of that and help people build more value into their businesses and lives. For example, very intelligent personal interfaces, with custom web parts that know where a person is - office, home, or elsewhere and a dynamic shift in focus from one to the other. See, small business owners are never separated from either work or home and family - so interfaces and useful information have to be available at all times, but weighted to support one or the other depending upon where a person is at any given time. The idea is to provide a seamless environment that is easy to use and still make it powerful. That creates a lot of room for customization and personal code - a huge opportunity for a lot of developers and builders.
The best evidence of this is when new customers turn on to what we do, and ship their new Dells, or MACs to us - we fry them down and rebuild them using new boxed retails OS versions and components - transforming these systems into much more personal systems. After that, they tend to buy all new systems from us, because they can feel the difference and are tired of the lack of meaningful support from the large OEM's. Using service accounts, and properly configured restricted user profiles, and good education, we can ensure users do all they want to whenever they want to and also control support costs - instead being able to focus on new ideas and new revenue streams - after all, we only grow if our customers grow. We are holding an open house this Wednesday - come by if you can and meet some of our clients who are coming in from all over - I'll show you what I mean. |
| #5 By 23275 (68.17.42.38) at 10/10/2004 3:10:05 PM |
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#7, Perhaps, in the coarsest of technical contexts, you are correct; however, a system capable of delivering an easy to use, yet powerful mix of digital experiences is more about how it is delivered than it is the hardware used to deliver it. We can all hack together media capable systems with off the shelf components, but building a media center compliant system is a complex process that requires some experimentation, and a lot of testing and configuration.
In an AV form factor for example, we place thermal sensors at key locations in the case and monitor and record these values both during design and in production. New socket 775 based systems run a lot hotter and while technically excellent, it took many cooler configurations to get the noise levels down and at the same time run the systems a lot cooler than stock retail Intel coolers [the new cooler is great, but loud when the system runs up, or in a home where people like it warmer than we do in a lab]. That said, the most significant difference is in what value and experience is delivered - this has less to do with hardware, and a lot more to do with software and service/education/training integration. "What does the person, family, or business experience; how enjoyable and pleasant a session may one deliver?" These are far more important and users know it. Remember, most people do not have the time, or interest to become and sustain themselves as IT/MIS professionals. They are professionals in other areas and need and want both an advantage, and very personalized support. Intuitive support and proactive IT/MIS solutions work best. Custom systems and especially custom media systems can provide for a great experience and serve as great tools for people and business. The proactive education component is key - it creates a "healthy reliance" as opposed to an unhealthy dependence. This post was edited by lketchum on Sunday, October 10, 2004 at 15:12. |
| #6 By 23275 (68.17.42.38) at 10/10/2004 4:12:10 PM |
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#9 Good questions.
Microsoft does not compensate us for what we do. We are not dependent upon that. We do not charge for incidents - we simply take care of the user and quickly. As regards mal-ware: we control the process of which software is installed and configured at a build and use a mix of tools to harden our systems. So far, we have been able to run them for months without noting any ad, or spy ware. Auto updates of signatures, user type and locking IE down is key, here. It is possible and for us, even a cold system can be configured to our standards in about 30 minutes. Grant it, our crew is very good and we have long established standards for this purpose. The tools are set to update and run at regular intervals and in real time - keeping the systems clean. We migrate in the OS at the CLI - it is the only way to get it all. We then customize the rest to our standards [which are very high]. MS iteself has some awesome set up guides for default configs; however, the OEM's are the ones not following them. Since they sell systems and offer little meaningful support, they turn users over to their own devices. Economics drive this. We are different in every way with a different model based upon over-service and under-subscription. The costs to end users are lower - "they can actually fully use and enjoy their systems and we do not charge for the service...it is part of what it is to be as we refer to it, a customer colleague." These services are in one sense delivered as part of managed IT/MIS services, or serve as an opportunity to grow business with new clients. Once they feel the difference and note the real differences in support, we never have to sell to them again. Since sales costs go down to nill, we can afford the higher levels of support. In economic terms, the cost of goods and services sold goes way down - so both sides win and I chase less paperwork and have lower accounting costs over all. Once a system and its network are properly configured, they are also properly maintained. This is where a manageble platform is key and MS provides for this. With more than 1.5 million people coming to work in our centers each day, we address fewer than 20 support calls each day - perhaps we are just lucky, but I think it is more than that. Of these calls, about half are for IDS instances where the home networks users are on get blocked by our IDS systems - these are cleared easily. The others tend to be, "how do I x, y, or z? - applications questions we welcome" As i said, it is entirely possible to engineer solutions well enough that they do not break. Patch proliferation is key, as is active administration. We also support free on-site training, because it is a lot cheaper than fixing broken systems. Candor helps, too. For example, we educate users about adult content sites and P2P sites. Our policies allow us to fix systems damaged by such activity, but in such cases, moms and dads pay out the backside for such recoveries - how they address that at home is their business but we also sell a knot on a rope that they may elect to jerk through a teenager's backside at their discretion. [$4.99 + tax and I'm not kidding]. We have considered publishing our build guides. We do reward developers with cost plus 10% donation fees for their effective anti-spy/ad-ware tools. This is key - encouraging developers to improve these. Finally, we host our customers' mail. This is scanned many times in and out-bound for mal-ware and spam. We also sell most of our clients' bandwidth and manage their Internet - also scanned for mal-ware. This lowers the risks for all, without controlling what they choose to do. [CCOEF and Bridging with IRB to our IOC]. As I said, it is a different model, but it works. This post was edited by lketchum on Sunday, October 10, 2004 at 16:13. |
| #7 By 23275 (68.17.42.38) at 10/11/2004 1:22:26 AM |
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In our case, it is easier as we are the ISP, builder and integrator - so staying ahead of what would normally be very challenging, is a great deal easier. None of it happened over night, either. It evolved, but seemed to as the "blend of blended" threats emerged alongside some user behaviors that weren't helpful.
If one looks deep into the designs coming out of the major OEM's one can see the decisions driven by business metrics that favor volume. It is easier to compete against this with a mix of services - ignoring the price only position many of them take. I worry for the custom builders most - they are capturing fewer parts of total available revenue - they also have some trouble maintaining consistency from what we see [in the OS]. It is very true, very few builders develop the level of OS skill and experience needed to offset the blend of threats and user behaviors seen. This is the hardest part and the most costly to build internally. It does take a craftsman to build up a proper system and a whole lot of "love" has to go into the system that will never be seen, but it sure will be felt. If one does it well often enough and gets a build down, it can be repeated a lot more easily. Getting any version of Windows to run well and do so in a way that it is insulated from threats is entirely possible. One can harden it and in such a way as it cannot be easily damaged - no matter what the user does. That said, there is a no-questions-asked policy where all systems and networks are simply repaired - this extends to helping external network operators get things like DNS settings right - so our systems will not reject their mail, etc... We package the event's logs, test results, etc... and publish them to the supported user. After a short time, they get used to external parties having an error and also get used to us fixing them - while more costly at times, it is worth it. The presentation of evidence insulates us and the customer. |
| #8 By 23275 (68.17.42.38) at 10/11/2004 1:23:09 AM |
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As far as the OS is concerned, there definitely is a huge opportunity for parties to address mal-ware of all types and spy/ad-ware in particular. I do know MS is working on this aspect of the OS, but do not have specific details yet. I do get sick of the whole ActiveX finger-point game that people fall into. It's just a COM Client and there are so many others equally porous - so killing all ActiveX isn't a viable answer. Presently, our position is to reward the smaller shops producing effective less well known third party tools and the same is true of anti-virus [we use Panda Enterprise and recommend their stand alone versions for all clients].
For Internet users, we also offer quarantines for all downloads - if they desire that - it's a little weird, because nothing happens as a download is examined - then it jumps in all at once. We solve this by staging most of the popular downloads and even offer to give space/bandwidth away to third parties - we can make certain downloads come from clean sources this way. Very smart [and costly] IDS systems at the edge and also on each host help a great deal but they are very costly to run well - one has to build a lot of understanding and sustain it for CVE. A more global solution is needed - standards at each ISP and certainly from MS. However, that isn't going to happen any time soon. The cost to the OEM's to ship locked down systems and educate users about user roles and the costs of maintaining equipment and staff at the ISP's would stall this. We do a test though that does help a lot [in sales]. We set one of our systems up and out and a high-end Dell. We ask the same user to start working and do what they normally would do - set up, whatever. In under 30 minutes, the Dell is still useless and loaded with junk. The same user begins to work immediately on our system and stays perfectly safe. One said, "Heck with this, I'm just calling you guys!" <as he worked to do even simple set up tasks>. On our systems, they system already knew him - he logged in and his digital world was there waiting for him. My hope is that the space for smaller builders will open up a lot more. They are in a position to offer a lot more value and a better product. |
| #9 By 23275 (67.32.52.10) at 10/11/2004 4:13:13 PM |
| #14, Thanks - yes, normally I keep it closed, but open it from time to time for people to get some files from. |
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