autocratic for the people.

Bad Zune Rising.

The official Zune launch was Tuesday, November 14th, and as the dust now settles the prevailing opinion is revealed: thar, she blows. Uselessly restricted Wi-fi¹ and general DRM crapitude have joined forces with unabashedly consumer-hostile² business tactics, producing what may just be Microsoft's least desirable piece of consumer electronics yet.

And yet, you might just want one. The Zune presents tantalizing possibilities for the Linux community – possibilities that most nerds either haven't yet realized exist, or that most nerds are purposely keeping quiet about until it's too late. Because the Zune is possible the best iteration yet of what I was pining for back in January – a cheap, general purpose mobile platform.

It's no secret that, as usual, Microsoft is losing money on each Zune sold. A big screen and on-board wireless will do that. So that already appeals to the OMG MICRO$OFT crowd. Add in the ease with which current tools can be applied to the out-of-the-box Zune – already, there's a disk mode hack, a replacement hard drive hack, and a wireless "hack" (of course the key to the city is fast approaching as well) – and it's clearly just a matter of time before Microsoft ends up subsidizing another home theater PC.

The difference is, this one might actually have mass-market appeal.





¹ Although of course their implementation is hopelessly inept and trivially hackable. It'd be evil, if it weren't so stupid.

² "Each of these devices is used to store unpaid-for material (...) This way, on top of the material people do pay for, the record companies are getting paid on the devices storing the copied music." – David Geffen. Although note, this payment does not legalize any stolen music you do have on there.

posted by avixe @ 8:41 PM