Why limit console functionality?

[Fox5]

so the topic creator wants to turn consoles into PCs. i dont see a problem with hooking up consoles to a monitor. poor man's hdtv right there. but if i wanted PC functions on a console i would be a PC. Consoles= Gaming machine first, all the other stuff 2nd.

Eh, I don't think so.

Eventually I think you'll see consoles start replacing PCs, people who really need to do important things with their PCs will have workstations, people who just want to simply and easily check their email will use consoles. And if anything, I think PCs could use quite a bit of dumbing down and simplifying for the average user. Many things could be automated or eliminated, as one default choice would be chosen most of the time anyhow, or the user wouldn't know what it's for. I think a vastly streamlined OS and software could go over quite well, maybe use TIVO as an example. I've never used a TIVO, but I've heard it automatically makes makes selections for people based on what they watch, that could be quite a good thing to add to a web browser.

im not saying consoles shouldnt have basics pc functions. but gaming should always be the main priority. why would it be any easier to check email on a console then a pc? why divide fucntions? why do important fucntions on the pc then switch over to a console to check email if it can be done on the pc in one go.

my whole point adding all the pc functions basically turns consoles into pc. make it streamlined and simple and i can see it working like you said. i wouldnt mind checking my email thru a online service like Live tho

Who says you can only have one device in your house to do a task? Why shouldn't I be able to check my email at work or play? Certainly a simple task that the consoles can easily do, why shouldn't it be there?

I'd have no problem seeing consoles take over most of the functions of PCs, and only people who need the freedom and openness of PCs will still own them.

n the pc I can run IE (yes I said it), winamp, trillian, and psp all that the same time and accomplish several things. If a console were able to do that would it really be a console at that point? My other main reason for not wanting a console to do a pc job is because you can't upgrade a console persay. Say adobe is running sluggish on a console or I want to beef up overall performance I'm stick with exactly that whereas on a pc a new cpu, ram or vidcard can fix that issues. Like I said before once a console does that with upgrading it's not a console. Not sure my point was made clear, but the reason why consoles have limited functionality in comparison to a pc is due to their fundemental princples in usage and design. A console is not designed for change where as a lot of things in the pc world demand it.

Dreamcast could run its web browser and chat program at the same time, and I'm sure a music program wouldn't have been much of a problem. Not sure what PSP is besides a handheld gaming system though.

And not everyone needs to upgrade. Most people will keep 1 PC for years until it simply dies from hardware failure or spyware/viruses, make a device that can serve common needs without failure and I think it could do quite well, even if it can't even do half of what a PC can. And I think the Mac market tends to be upgraded far less than the PC market and doe just fine with everything. (I don't think the dreamcast's internet and such had much success in America, but I do remember hearing that it was fairly successful in Japan, and a first time Internet experience for many Japanese people)

IF you open up the flood gates the console will be bogged down , opened to virus's , spyware , worms and hacking attempts .

You're assuming they are as open as PCs. If all software needs to be licensed and come from discs, and applications are treated as seperate applications, rather than having an OS govern and install everything, then I don't think those would be worries. Why should consoles even be able to download and run executable files or malicious code?
Heck, xbox live has frequent updates and has yet to have any problems, why should any PCish console be any more susceptible than it?(dreamcast could also download files and execute code and had no problems)

 

[jvd]

You're assuming they are as open as PCs.

Keep up with consoles . The xbox was hacked and now emulators run on it and burnt xbox games , ps2 was hacked and now emulators and burnt games run on it .
Dreamcast was hacked and you could play burnt games on it . psp was hacked and you can surf the web through exploits and you can run emulators on it and sony pushed out firm ware to stop it .


It happens on consoles and if you give them an os where they can acess more of the system it will happen more frequently , quicker in the life of the system and on a more massive scale.

 

[Fox5]

You're assuming they are as open as PCs.

Keep up with consoles . The xbox was hacked and now emulators run on it and burnt xbox games , ps2 was hacked and now emulators and burnt games run on it .
Dreamcast was hacked and you could play burnt games on it . psp was hacked and you can surf the web through exploits and you can run emulators on it and sony pushed out firm ware to stop it .


It happens on consoles and if you give them an os where they can acess more of the system it will happen more frequently , quicker in the life of the system and on a more massive scale.

There's a difference between hacking a console to do something(which often requires a lot of work and some kind of hardware mod) and someone else modifying a console via the Internet only to do something it's not meant to do. If you limit the functionality, I don't see why there should be problems.

 

[Geeforcer]

BTW, since I have been basically repeated myself lately, I will make one last attempt at answering the original question and call it day.

Q:

"Why limit console functionality?"

A:

Cost of adding and maintaining additional functionality = X
Revenue GAINED by adding said functionality = Y
Revenue LOST by adding said functionality = Z

Y < (X + Z)

Thank you and good day.

Ok, but what if , Y >= (x+z)?? which is very possible, especially when the console hardware becomes profitable.

Considering since the Dreamcast no one bothered to implement this capability out of the box and Sony's Linux Kit experiment never amounted to anything , it looks like Y is indeed <.