[plug] Looking for a quote

Senectus . senectus at gmail.com
Sat Jun 19 00:28:19 WST 2004


On Fri, 18 Jun 2004 19:20:47 +0800, Michael Collard
<quadfour at iinet.net.au> wrote:
> 
> Sorry to reply to myself but I have room for another question and answer
> from someone. The question for this one is "Where do you see Linux in
> say 5 years?" unless someone can come up with a better one :)
> 
> Regards
> Michael Collard

This is where I see Linux in the future:
On the majority of home desktops around the world.
I believe that the system of buying software for taking home and
installing then "activating" it to your specific hardware is not a
sustainably profitable business.
Here is how it will work (some specific technologies will obviously
change as what is available now is not necessarily what would be best
in the future), You will decide its time to buy a computer or upgrade
your current system. Its a pretty good chance that you will buy this
system from your ISP (now named Infotainment Service Provider's) and
if you didn't buy it from them you definitely had a chat to them first
or read up on their pages as to what they prefer you buy.
You then take your computer home and plug it into a broadband
connection (xDSL, wireless, Fiber, Cable or some other new method of
transporting massive amounts of data at great speed), you will then
contact your ISP with your CC in hand and sign up for the services you
want.
These services that they offer will now include things like:
Public TV
Radio
Internet
Streaming movies on demand
Pre-requested recordings of a show you missed last night that was on
public TV (think PVR but stored at the ISP as they offer this service
free of charge, "value add")
Anti virus/Anti spam/Intrusion Detection/Firewall/security services
Backup/Disaster recovery services
Software

That last one is the kicker.

You at this stage have no OS or Software or Games on your PC that you
just bought.
All it is, is a hunk of hardware already put together (I have future
theories on how this will work too if you want to hear them ;-).
So you tell your ISP that as well as various TV shows and movie
subscriptions you want an operating system to be installed on your new
PC for the purposes of playing a few of the latest MMOG's and maybe
for nostalgia's sake... Doom3 and Halflife2 ;-) (oh and hey is that
Game Duke Nukem Forever available yet?? ;-) )
You also want an accounting package, some sort of school tutor
software for your kids and maybe a floor plan design package so you
can design your next house your planning on building.
Your ISP signs you up on a deal and debits your card, asks you to
please make sure your PC is plugged in and turned on as says please
leave it alone until we contact you again... thank you
Now comes the fun part... 
Your ISP remotely installs the OS (Linux, and probably their own
flavour distro) and all the necessary software you need while you
sleep that night, over your now common as mud and reasonably cheap
ultra fast 100 meg net connection.
You wake up the next day with a fully working and ready to use/play
games on Linux OS powered PC.
Of course, unless your a tech head... you have no idea it is LINUX on
your machine, but then most people don't care.

If you decide that you've forgotten something you ring up and ask the
ISP (probably WHN - Western Hemisphere Net "its the service that sets
them apart") to add it to your account and install it during your next
scheduled planned outage.

I could go on and on... as its a dream of mine to see this in action.
Especially seeing as the only thing holding this dream back from
coming true today is the Internet connections... and even then.. its
could be done using the Foxtel cable network.

Services are the way of the next tech boom. 
Thats where I see Linux in the future...
 Marcus Giles



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