Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005

Has anyone seen a demo of this OS? It seems pretty cool. BUT, when I got reading into it further I started to get annoyed. Here's why...

Have you ever had a PC user tell you that there PC is better because they can upgrade it with tons of different parts, or just that there are so many companies out there who make hardware for their PC? We as Mac users know this is true. And we usually come back with "Well... our Macs are built with everything in mind and everything works so well together."

The Windows XP Media Center Edition OS is available as an OEM version only. Meaning that it needs installed by a system builder (you can't just go buy it off a shelf at Walmart). Microsoft is being very strict on this OS because you MUST have specific hardware in order to install the OS. Looks like Microsoft actually wants to be sure the end-user has an enjoyable experience with the OS which they would not have if an incompatible motherboard or video card is used.

Meanwhile, us Mac users sit back and enjoy OS X with iChat, iMovie, iTunes, iDVD, Safari, and no spyware because our systems were built to ummm... work.

Just some info.

So... what's your point? Ok, so you're annoyed. Why are you annoyed? Because Microsoft wants to limit the amount of hardware that is compatible with their Media Center PCs and/or limit the companies that are able to use them so that they can create more stable platforms to work off of? I don't see why this is so bad... That's a good thing. Sure, he's doing something similar to what Apple has been doing this whole time, but it's not as if he's copying Apple directly; because, even the Media Center version of Windows is compatible with a very wide range of hardware, unlike the Mac OS which is meant to only work on a small set of processors, motherboards, etc. Personally, I don't see what the problem is. I own both PCs and Macs. I like the interface of my Mac quite a 'bit more than the interface of the XP Pro OS. That's why I prefer to use the Mac more often. But, to come on here and say that you're annoyed just because Microsoft is trying to make their OS more stable is, well, kind of lame... to put it bluntly. Unless, of course, you'd like to expound upon your statements and give specific reasons why you're annoyed. I don't mean to put you down, or bash you, or anything of that sort... but, it simply does not make sense to me why you're annoyed at all of this.

Sorry for the fairly long response, lol. :bomb:

I think what dziner wanted to point out is that Microsoft is changing it's philosophy. MS was always so proud of having an OS that runs on any PC, with any hardware, having the advantage to expand and change any piece of hardware you want.
But this doesn't really make it easy to make a stable OS.
Now, with the Mecia Center Edition, the idea comes closer to Apples way. I would say, they finally learned something. MS finally found out that you can earn a lot of money with a system that just works, and includes all the user needs.
What's annoying about it is that they are doing now what they blamed before, just for profits sake.
Apple always made it their way. This gave them only a little, but steady marketshare, with loyal users. This might not be the perfect way, but trying to dominate everything definitely isn't the right way either. It's like the old empires, one day or another, they just collapse of being too big. And the same will happen to big companies, including MS.

Thank you Avalon. You summed it up pretty well.