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SiliconValley.com: CES: PC hides in Nokia media terminal

“…More than all this, what makes the media terminal a PC is
Nokia’s decision not to keep it from being one.”

“This might sound silly or even a little perverse to experienced
computer users, but a new industry fad is to build what could be a
decent PC and then cripple it to make sure it doesn’t act like one.
These hobbled machines often can’t download or install software, or
read e-mail attachments. Instead of Windows, they run operating
systems from Linux, Be or some other company. These crippled
machines are called Internet appliances, and they are billed as
easy for beginners to use.”

There’s nothing wrong with that; there is certainly a place
for simpler computers. A cool thing about Nokia’s media terminal,
though, is that it was built to be easy to use, while leaving the
door open for Nokia to suddenly, with minor modifications to
hardware and software, turn it into a fully functioning Linux-based
personal computer.


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