The editor of Linux Today wrote a fabulous article about The Next Hurdle for Desktop Linux being HD. I highly encourage you to first read my post about The Real Deal on Vista’s HD Restrictions to better understand the requirements, then the above article. In short, the key points of this article are:

• The Feb 19, 2009 US deadline for moving from analog to digital broadcasts is quickly approaching, creating a vehicle for the nascent HD content market
• PC users also want access to HD content (or be a hub for whole-home distribution)
• Video card manufacturers are signing-on to support industry *required* DRM schemes to enable premium HD content on the PC platform
• Lack of revenue from Linux users doesn’t provide incentive for video card manufacturers to author native Linux drivers
• Without DRM, content providers require down-res of content (from HD to SD)
• Software in-between the video card driver and display must also support protecting the HD content, and hacks to bypass content-owner restrictions are illegal
• GPLv3 places restrictions on DRM use, which may inhibit end-to-end solutions

The Linux Today editor who authored the article says it best:

Looking at the future of digital content, will the GPLv3 forever keep Linux relegated to servers and older machines that don’t have HD video requirements?

I am confident the open source community will step up to this challenge, hopefully in a legal manner, but it will be interesting to see what the impact to GPL will be.

What do you think?

Previous in series

I post fairly often on the core Windows networking blog, but often want to share other topics both professionally and personally. I’ll use this blog as my primary means to not only talk about the things I do in my life, but also to professionally answer all the questions I hear from customers and partners I interact with. I will also frequently comment on other online writings which I feel need clarification, or I agree/disagree with. I’ll share my thoughts on products, strategies, and even gaps in various markets.

If you have questions or want to comment on anything I write here, please feel free.