Re: Big Bill for Gates

Hello Chris,

So you really want to choose which OS to install in your TV, cell phone, washing machine, automobile (all 50 or so computers), etc., etc., at the time of sale because the vendors of the devices are barred from preinstalling the OSes?


With the exception of maybe the cell phone, yes. When I buy a TV I want no OS. The minute that you can only buy TVs that show the occasional "system has generated errors and is being debugged" we'll just quit watching TV.

When I buy a car I will accept an ignition controller that most likely runs a programm written in assembler. By law we need ignition controllers out here. I still liked my first car best, the one I had back in college. It didn't have any electronics, not even a lone diode. Consequently it always worked until it rusted out from underneath me. It was also the one that had by far the best gas mileage, around 50mpg.

Our washing machine has a few switches, no electronics to write home about. It still does the usual clunk, clank, phssst, whoosh. Works just fine. Why would that need an OS? So it can set cookies and relay to some survey outfit what we are wearing?

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com
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