This issue has been coming up for a while now, and there are still people asking “why would Microsoft lock up the Zune? Wouldn’t custom firmware, HD access, and the like be a tempting feature set to garner sales?” It’s an interesting point, but before we can delve into this, we have to understand the difference between open source and closed source development. Both have different purposes, goals, and ultimately, executions.
Open source is built around the spirit of community. It is when developers open their code to a wide base of both users and other developers. More often than not, these open source projects have been released free of charge. The purpose of open source development is to draw together community development and growth. The ultimate goal of any open source project can vary, but it is most likely some variant of the “let’s see what we can make together” philosophy. No open source project ever has to die, so long as there is a community of coders who spend their time in keeping it updated and in development. Many open source projects are collaborative, with users contributing individual pieces of code to a larger project. There’s a place for everyone in an open source project, since any and all contributions to the knowledge and code base of that community can be helpful. Community and the ever-present pursuit of knowledge are what drives the open source movement.
Closed source development takes a sharply different angle on the issue. Closed source development isn’t made with any community in mind, but rather, the customers. Closed source development is a business, where a final product must be released, like any other product on any other market, and those who purchase such software have certain expectations of the product in question. They pay money for a certain standard of quality. The idea is to create a single product that will satisfy most of the intended audience most of the time. Ultimately, the goal is to make profit, just like any other business; to do less would be folly. Simple business and economic sense would dictate that in order to have a successful business, you must make a product that can appeal to a wide market and have a return high enough to garner an economic profit. If you come out in the red, well, you’ve just wasted perfectly time and money on a fruitless pursuit and come out with less than you went in. No sane business wants that to happen. As a result, any software made for profit will be under the control of the business responsible for it, and is almost by default closed source. The only freedom you have with that software is within the intended boundaries set by the business marketing that good, or if you can get lucky, you can break their limitations through “hacking” and do more. No closed source developer likes to lose control of their products, their work, their code. Once the project becomes “open,” it’s hard to go back. It is quite likely that the developer will actively work to thwart the attempts of these hackers, as has been shown with the battle over the PSP: with each new firmware released getting hacked, then a new one is released to combat that hack in a never ending cycle reminiscent of that between armor makers and weapon makers.
So, quick recap: open source projects are centered on the idea of a community, and closed source projects are often centered on the idea of a business. Now that we have that settled, let’s move on to the Zune itself.
The Zune is a closed source development, no if’s, and’s, or but’s about it. Microsoft is a closed source developer and a business, which is equally apparent. They have a vested interest in guarding their products from being used in any way they don’t approve: it’s how they make money, and thusly how they “succeed,” how they accomplish their goals. They created the Zune in order to gain profit. They are looking to satisfy customers, but only enough customers. Yes, it would be nice to have features like hard drive access to the Zune. It’d be nice to sync the Zune with any WPD compliant music software. It’d be nice to run RockBox on it. It’d be nice to add support for missing codecs and character sets. It’d be nice to add all sorts of functionality to it. But the Zune is not our product, not a part of any community. It is Microsoft’s product, which they developed as a tool to meet their end goal, the goal of all sane and successful businesses. Microsoft is building a product in an attempt to satisfy the average customer who is out looking for a quality PMP. Yes, these enumerated features and so many more have all been asked for by consumers at one time or another, but money doesn’t lie. People are willing to pay $250 for that shiny, brand-new Zune 120. People pay that price hopefully with the full knowledge of what the product they’re buying actually is. If Microsoft is making a profit off their product, well, that’s all they ever set out to do. And the Zune, even though it is still struggling against the dominant iPod, is finally making a name for itself. More than two years after its release, it’s ceased to be the laughingstock it was once known as-let us rest the analogy “squirting” tunes to each other right here and right now-and is now gaining some real mainstream acceptance. In fact, a member of the Cnet crew, a widely known tech news, review, and download site, has completely switched over to the Zune, and multiple tech sites now sing its praises left and right, despite shortcomings such as battery life or Z2K9. It’s doing what Microsoft wants it to, and ultimately, that’s all that matters to them, and that’s just fine. We can moan and complain about how they are somehow “cheating us” of features that for some reason need to be on Zune, but that changes nothing. The only reason to get upset at Microsoft is if the device you received does not do what it is supposed to do. If that’s the case, there’s always the 1-year warranty, which is there for exactly that purpose. They cover any issue that is not directly caused by the end user, when it is their fault for the error. If your Zune up and gets an error code 5, it’s probably their fault, and they’ll fix it.
Now, after talking about the Zune itself, let’s touch on Zune games. If the games are open source, should the closed source restrictions be allowed to affect them? The answer is a definitive yes. It’s true that there are many open source games available for the Zune, and free of charge at that, but they are being developed for a closed source system, and thus must fall within the restrictions placed by the closed source developer. Microsoft is clearly afraid of games being used to hijack their platform, be it through some direct attack, or perhaps to simply commandeer Zune Pass and other copyrighted content freely. They not only want control over their platform, but they also strongly want it to be considered a reliable platform to record companies when bargaining for contracts to fill the Zune Marketplace. So yeah, it does kinda suck that our games have to restart and can’t access DRM’ed content. But we can’t blame Microsoft for that, it is both expected and necessary. Better to have restricted access than no access at all.
In closing, remember the quote the started all of this: “Why would Microsoft lock up the Zune? Wouldn’t custom firmware, HD access, and the like be a tempting feature set to garner sales?” The answer to this is simply, yes, they are tempting features, but until Microsoft comes up with a way to foolproof them, it’s not likely we’ll see them on the Zune again, if they can help it. Again, the Zune is being designed for the average consumer with enough compelling features to appeal to a wide audience. Microsoft will naturally aim to include as many features as they can on the Zune, but there are just some places they don’t want to go because of the closed source philosophy and business model. Perhaps it’s flawed, perhaps it isn’t, but in the end that will be determined by where we, the consumers and Zune owners, choose to put our money. If the Zune becomes a success, as it is on the road to doing, then Microsoft did a good job, even if we didn’t get quite everything we wanted. Making any product to be sold on the market is a daunting task and a daring risk. Microsoft took that risk, at the added hazard of releasing hardware, despite their focus as a software company. It’s not a perfect product, and it’s not for everyone, but it’s a product that’s doing well, especially in the iPod-dominated market of PMP’s. So for now, let’s just sit back, wait, and see what happens, and maybe, just maybe, we’ll get those fancy features we’ve been begging for all along, when the time is right.
while the zune may be locked down in comparison to the ipod (which has 'accidentally' been made semi-open), you can freely/more easliy make games for it than the iPod. While there are many limitations, I personally like the idea of making whatever portable game i feel like when i feel like it.
A different take on your post: Agreed that Microsoft is a business, and is ultimately looking to make profits. So is Sandisk, Cowon, and Apple.
My problem with the Zune is not that it's locked down, but that its functionality is crippled and Microsoft, for whatever reason, isn't listening to their own customer base to add certain features. Wouldn't it make sense, from a business perspective, to add a few of the more common feature requests? Don't they want their Zune users to keep coming back and buying new Zune's for their relatives, kids, and themselves?
They are not a monopoly in this area. Far from it, in fact. If they want to move this product along more, they should really start to push the envelope a bit. I think its fantastic that the 1st Gen Zune is still getting enhancements 2 years after its release, and they should build on that further.
A different take on your post: Agreed that Microsoft is a business, and is ultimately looking to make profits. So is Sandisk, Cowon, and Apple.
My problem with the Zune is not that it's locked down, but that its functionality is crippled and Microsoft, for whatever reason, isn't listening to their own customer base to add certain features. Wouldn't it make sense, from a business perspective, to add a few of the more common feature requests? Don't they want their Zune users to keep coming back and buying new Zune's for their relatives, kids, and themselves?
They are not a monopoly in this area. Far from it, in fact. If they want to move this product along more, they should really start to push the envelope a bit. I think its fantastic that the 1st Gen Zune is still getting enhancements 2 years after its release, and they should build on that further.
Considering that the Zune has more features than the iPod (non-Touch), it could be considered greedy to want more features. Of course it would be great to have as many features as possible, but when people complain about the Zune not having enough features (while keeping in mind that it is a closed device), it seems like the only thing that would make people happy is if Microsoft were to make it an open device, which is just not going to happen.
Also, if someone were able to hack the Zune, it is certain that Microsoft would make sure that such a hack is broken (as was all of the pre-3.1 hacks).
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"Against logic there is no armor like ignorance." - Laurence J. Peter
Considering that the Zune has more features than the iPod (non-Touch), it could be considered greedy to want more features. Of course it would be great to have as many features as possible, but when people complain about the Zune not having enough features (while keeping in mind that it is a closed device), it seems like the only thing that would make people happy is if Microsoft were to make it an open device, which is just not going to happen.
Also, if someone were able to hack the Zune, it is certain that Microsoft would make sure that such a hack is broken (as was all of the pre-3.1 hacks).
The fact that people feel the need to hack it at all is telling. MS should take a few of the biggest complaints and implement them - in particular, better codec support like Archos / Sandisk / Cowon offer, UMS support, and an SDK to easily add apps and games. That in itself would open up a bigger client base. I don't think this is greedy at all - MS listens to their client base for their OS and offer new features, why not the Zune?
for them to do AVI support, they would also have to Divx and xvid as well as AVI is primarily just a container format for these codecs. I did a test conversion to wmv with a video i had lying around, and it works quite well...
The fact that people feel the need to hack it at all is telling. MS should take a few of the biggest complaints and implement them - in particular, better codec support like Archos / Sandisk / Cowon offer, UMS support, and an SDK to easily add apps and games. That in itself would open up a bigger client base. I don't think this is greedy at all - MS listens to their client base for their OS and offer new features, why not the Zune?
Why did people feel the need to hack PSP, PS/PS2, DS, xBox, etc.? No matter how extraordinary a system/device is, people will want to hack it regardless.
Charge, the Zune supports WMA lossless. I fail to see much point in supporting AVI. Most movies/videos that are in AVI format have to be reencoded anyways in order to fit the resolution of the Zune's screen and the bit rate limitation. The formats that the Zune supports is definitely sufficient for audio and video playback.
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"Against logic there is no armor like ignorance." - Laurence J. Peter
Why did people feel the need to hack PSP, PS/PS2, DS, xBox, etc.? No matter how extraordinary a system/device is, people will want to hack it regardless.
Charge, the Zune supports WMA lossless. I fail to see much point in supporting AVI. Most movies/videos that are in AVI format have to be reencoded anyways in order to fit the resolution of the Zune's screen and the bit rate limitation. The formats that the Zune supports is definitely sufficient for audio and video playback.
any idea what those numbers are? resolution, max bitrate etc?
any idea what those numbers are? resolution, max bitrate etc?
Windows Media Video (WMV) (.wmv): Main and Simple Profile, CBR or VBR, up to 3.0 Mbps peak video bit rate; 720 pixels x 480 pixels up to 30 frames per second (or 720 pixels x 576 pixels up to 25 frames per second). Zune software will transcode HD WMV files at device sync.
MPEG-4 (MP4/M4V) (.mp4) Part 2 video[4]: Simple Profile up to 2.5 Mbps peak video bit rate; 720 pixels x 480 pixels up to 30 frames per second (or 720 pixels x 576 pixels up to 25 frames per second). Zune software will transcode HD MPEG-4 files at device sync.
H.264 video[4]: Baseline profile up to 2.5 Mbps peak video bit rate; 720 pixels x 480 pixels up to 30 frames per second (or 720 pixels x 576 pixels up to 25 frames per second). Zune software will transcode HD H.264 files at device sync.
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"Against logic there is no armor like ignorance." - Laurence J. Peter
Why did people feel the need to hack PSP, PS/PS2, DS, xBox, etc.? No matter how extraordinary a system/device is, people will want to hack it regardless.
Charge, the Zune supports WMA lossless. I fail to see much point in supporting AVI. Most movies/videos that are in AVI format have to be reencoded anyways in order to fit the resolution of the Zune's screen and the bit rate limitation. The formats that the Zune supports is definitely sufficient for audio and video playback.
Sorry, but I disagree with you most of these points. First, lossless: WMA Lossless is only supported on a very limited amount of players, outside of the Zune - FLAC is a much better solution, and there's no licensing fee either. FLAC is basically the MP3 of the lossless world, but MS / Apple just ignore its existence.
As for device alteration, it's no different that altering your OS to allow you to exploit features in your hardware that the software developers either forgot about, or are purposely trying to restrict. You purchased the hardware, so why not get the best use out of it? UMS is a perfect example of a function that we all know the hardware can handle, but Microsoft purposely cripples it.
As for AVI support, I don't see much need for it either (for the same reasons you mentioned).
Sorry, but I disagree with you most of these points. First, lossless: WMA Lossless is only supported on a very limited amount of players, outside of the Zune - FLAC is a much better solution, and there's no licensing fee either. FLAC is basically the MP3 of the lossless world, but MS / Apple just ignore its existence.
As for device alteration, it's no different that altering your OS to allow you to exploit features in your hardware that the software developers either forgot about, or are purposely trying to restrict. You purchased the hardware, so why not get the best use out of it? UMS is a perfect example of a function that we all know the hardware can handle, but Microsoft purposely cripples it.
As for AVI support, I don't see much need for it either (for the same reasons you mentioned).
Why does it matter if WMA lossless is supported on other players? We are talking about the Zune here. I am not aware of any licensing fee for WMA lossless, either. FLAC is overrated and hardly anyone uses it. It is okay for archiving, but it just wastes space on portable media players.
People keep whining about how Microsoft has it locked up but I hardly see anyone trying to unlock it. Most people do not try just because some of the people that have already tried gave up quickly and said it is impossible. Did the PSP, PS/PS2, DS, etc. get hacked as a result of people sitting around and complaining about those devices being locked up?
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"Against logic there is no armor like ignorance." - Laurence J. Peter
Why does it matter if WMA lossless is supported on other players? We are talking about the Zune here. I am not aware of any licensing fee for WMA lossless, either. FLAC is overrated and hardly anyone uses it. It is okay for archiving, but it just wastes space on portable media players.
People keep whining about how Microsoft has it locked up but I hardly see anyone trying to unlock it. Most people do not try just because some of the people that have already tried gave up quickly and said it is impossible. Did the PSP, PS/PS2, DS, etc. get hacked as a result of people sitting around and complaining about those devices being locked up?
- FLAC is the most popular lossless format that supports tags, and has no cons (other than eating up additional battery life). Saying otherwise doesn't change that. If you think you'll be using only a Zune for the next 10 years, then I guess WMA Lossless will work for you... that's assuming MS doesn't drop support for it, as well.
Don't believe me? Look at NiN's latest release, look at archive.org, look at all the major vendors (outside of MS / Apple) and see what lossless format they support on their players.
- In ten years, lossless with be the digital music standard. Possibly even five years (if the vendors can agree on a standard). Given the popularity of MP3's and its lack of DRM, it's possible that FLAC might be that future standard.
- WMA / AAC / MP3 all require license fees. OGG Vorbis and FLAC do not.
- Microsoft's firmware is digitally signed. It's not a simple thing to hack into the Zune and change things. But I'm not whining -- if I don't like it, I'll just buy another Cowon.
What's the Deal with Locking the Zune?
This issue has been coming up for a while now, and there are still people asking “why would Microsoft lock up the Zune? Wouldn’t custom firmware, HD access, and the like be a tempting feature set to garner sales?” It’s an interesting point, but before we can delve into this, we have to understand the difference between open source and closed source development. Both have different purposes, goals, and ultimately, executions.
