DVDs will be obsolete in 10 years: Bill Gates

[grinner]

DVDs will be obsolete in 10 years: Bill Gates

FRANKFURT (AFP) - DVDs will be obsolete in 10 years at the latest, Microsoft boss and founder Bill Gates (news - web sites) predicted.

Asked what home entertainment would like in the future, Gates said that DVD technology would be "obsolete in 10 years at the latest. If you consider that nowadays we have to carry around film and music on little silver discs and stick them in the computer, it's ridiculous," Gates said in comments reproduced in German in the mass-circulation daily Bild.

"These things can scratch or simply get lost."

Gates' vision of television of the future was: "TV that will simply show what we want to see, when we want to see it. When we get home, the home computer will know who we are from our voice or our face. It will know what we want to watch, our favourite programmes, or what the kids shouldn't be allowed to see." link (http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1509&u=/afp/afplifestyle_germany_us&printer=1)
So what will we be using then?

[MrVesham]

Apparently he thinks we're all going to be dipping from massive libraries of networked content. If that's really what he's driving at, I think he's lost his bent on the tactile ownership part of consumerism.

[Antrobus]

...and in 10 years we're all going to have enough money to purchase this new (and likely expensive) technology?? I'd better start saving now.

[Mike0812]

Apparently he thinks we're all going to be dipping from massive libraries of networked content.

Courtesy of the Microsoft Corp, of course...

[AgentSun]

heck, broadband is still one of those things many families want but can't exactly afford. years ago we were told that everyone would have it. how many people do i know still on dial up? TONS!

[grinner]

There was a report back in 1992 that stated that by the year 2000, 70%+ of the US population would be connected to the internet via broadband. I think I read somewhere that the US is only at 30% or less broadband connected.

[AgentSun]

i just got broadband this year. i've wanted it for years, but only until a few months ago was i a member of the dial up nation.

[Scarran Raptor]

look Billy just because you can afford all this stuff doesn't mean the rest of us can... and if it's our money paying for it what say you hook some of us up, I know a lot of jocks who would love to get their neanderthal hands on the world's most (in)famous nerd....see where I'm going with this Poindexter?

[Kurt_eh]

If it's windows based, all we'll probably ever see is this:

http://www.ntbrad.com/images/bsod.gif
:D

[grinner]

:spew:

[Mike0812]

:lol nice one Kurt :D

[soyarma]

80% of Americans have broadband available to them, and about 46% actually have it. To be honest I would be willing to bet that DVD's have an even shorter shelf life. I have over 70 DVDs, but I have more movies than that on my computer. Historically every time Gates has said things like this he has overestimated the timeframe it would take to take place.

[Kurt_eh]

Agreed, the BSOD always comes when you're least expecting it! :D

[grinner]

80% of Americans have broadband available to them, and about 46% actually have it.
Ah... thanks. I thought I had it written down wrong. I never saw that in print... I heard it on a news report.

[Darth Buddha]

I don't like the idea of dipping into networked content. I like to OWN my OWN copy... guess that's why I have 600+ CDs or so... or closer a thousand when I add in the one I just inherited from dear old dad.

With the networked materials... a work of art, a movie, a book, or whatever, could just be deleted and nobody could see it anymore.

Am I the only one bothered by this?

[grinner]

nope. That is one reason why I posted it.

[Kurt_eh]

What bothers me more is Gates thinking he can monopolize that industry too.

And then be able to cram/add/delete/edit/whatever he wants to the library.

I mean, just who does he think he is? Lucas? :D ;) :rolleyes:

[Darth Buddha]

Great .... Fahrenheit 451 without the flames.

[VBKatLou]

With the networked materials... a work of art, a movie, a book, or whatever, could just be deleted and nobody could see it anymore.

Am I the only one bothered by this?

I'm bothered. But I'm not too worried that it will happen. Particularly in a ten year time span.

I predict that 10 years from now, Microsoft will be recognized at a planetary level as the "Romco" of software. :D

I really do feel that Microsoft's days of being Lord Emperor of the Software World are coming to an end. Bill Gates did some very creative things with DOS and Windows in the late 80s - early 90s. But IMO, the real success of Microsoft was dependent upon the fact that at the time, society was basically "computer illiterate" and didn't know what or how to question. Plus, at that time, the only developers who could build Window's products were associated with Microsoft.

Times have changed and even though today, MS is still the largest, there is more and more competition.

LONG LIVE LINUX!

[Fyodor]

Bill Gates is fweaking insane! I never liked him, he makes virus-hazardous software and now he's saying that someday my lovely DVDs will be obselete.

But hey, look at the vinyls, you could say that they are obselete but that doesnt stop me from listening to them. well... our player is busted right now, but we'll get a new one.

[GARNET]

Well when we buy our radio that one of those vintage style one it came with album player on top and informations for a company that still mades albums of classic songs. Seems the only media to dead is 8 track, which I think has to do with the fact that it not round like album and cd and dvd.

[Darth Buddha]

That reminds me: anybody have a working 8-Track they can give grinner?

[vhsiv]

Someone deleted the post about Gates' 'accuracy' on things like this, but one also has to remember that Microsoft was also a late entry into the whole internet business.

[VBKatLou]

Someone deleted the post about Gates' 'accuracy' on things like this, but one also has to remember that Microsoft was also a late entry into the whole internet business.

Way too late. And too damn stubborn to admit that they will not be able to get a strangle-hold on the rest of the computer community like they did with their OS.

DIE VB.NET

LONG LIVE JAVA!!!

[MrVesham]

Starting offtopic here, but I will bring it home.

Honestly, I used to absolutely hate Java with good reason. But only very recently, Sun's 1.4.2/1.5 VMs and applications like Azureus (2.0.8.4, anyway - the later ones are kinda crap) are proof that at least with Sun's, you can have a stable, fast program under it without having to worry about Java trampling over memory or causing instabilities in other [non-java] programs at runtime. Java's no longer the creepshow system killer it used to be. Plus, it ports.

The unfortunate fact is that the bulk of computer users dont give a damn about any of that. Most of them are happy to stick with proprietary Microsoft software, ignorant of the kind of stagnation Microsoft represents. Gates says he hates stagnation, but his own company shows otherwise. What he really hates is not being at the core of placed standards, not having control. I'm sure this is just another sign of him trying to be a positive variation of Chicken Little - jumping the gun on a 'big idea' in a weak attempt to center himself on the concept of server-side-content media.

He's always been like a spoiled child in that regard. I'm constantly surprised he isn't dead because of it.

[Antrobus]

Honestly, I used to absolutely hate Java with good reason. But only very recently, Sun's 1.4.2/1.5 VMs and applications like Azureus (2.0.8.4, anyway - the later ones are kinda crap) are proof that at least with Sun's, you can have a stable, fast program under it without having to worry about Java trampling over memory or causing instabilities in other [non-java] programs at runtime. Java's no longer the creepshow system killer it used to be. Plus, it ports.


The problem is that Microsoft is shoved down everone's thoat to the point where no one knows that any other options exist. Most people who have barely semi-mastered microsoft's product(s) will be very hesitant to make a switch.

Unless you're a computer guru or such, you just take what's handed to you by Gateway, Dell, etc. - and its Microsoft.

[stellar]

One day the operating system will be obsolete because we'll all be using crystals like Superman and 2001. How do you like that Billy?

P.S., Even now, when I see that blue screen, my heart skips a beat... thanks Kurt. :P

[Kurt_eh]

:innocent:

[BaseLine]

Way too late. And too damn stubborn to admit that they will not be able to get a strangle-hold on the rest of the computer community like they did with their OS.

DIE VB.NET

LONG LIVE JAVA!!!

Java? Isn't that the precursor of C#?

/end nerd joke

[AgentSun]

microsoft has been both good and bad to me...sigh. i use microsoft for one reason and that is compatibility. i can't run linux on a microsoft based campus and get everything i want to work, to work, and still be compatible with other people. if i had two laptops i'd do it, but the problem there is that i simply have no space. until everyone wakes up to linux, i'm going to be stuck with microsoft.

[Scarran Raptor]

once upon a midnight dreary
as I websurfed weak and weary
seeking pornographic images galore
my darkest soul was struck in terror
my computer had an error the likes of which I'd never seen before
"infernal machine" I shouted as I sat there while I pouted "Bring me back hence my cheap hardcore!"
Quoth the browser "404"

[Lord Loser]

I didn't read all that into his comments. Besides, I think he's correct. 10 years ago, did any of you envision digital cameras? If it doesn't have film it's not a camera, right? Now we are able to take and store several hundred pictures on a card not much bigger than a postage stamp. The information stored on DVD's will probably be no different. Give it time and ingenuity, and we'll be amazed at what occurs.