I've stood out of this debate as I do not believe in my
ability to predict the future. However, you are now making
a dangerous argument that cannot go unchallenged. Mr.Roddey
has made a convincing argument elsewhere that stripped
down XP can be a capable backbone to a control system
but it must be left alone in the back ground to operate
by itself. It has to be closed down. It needs to be
closed down to applications and viruses. But you are preaching
about putting a MS OS not in the back ground, stripped
down and free from any applications to one that is a quasi-server--but
not quite--and susceptible to every possible virus and
ad-ware attack some Eastern European 15 year old suffering
from anomie can dream up. Of course it's cheap. You've
developed nothing but an application and a skin. But
this is not a car where you have full control of the manufacturing
process. This is a control system running people's homes
and you are suggesting a control system paradigm where
the back-end control system is the same as the front end
DVD/music server?!!! Other than gas and oil what can you
put in a car. If you don't close Windows down you leave
it open to every possible attack known to man. FYI, my
brand new laptop just stopped running crucial software
after 1 week. And you'd leave that system's architecture
unprotected and open to attack?

Even your example of XBox is suspect. That too, is a
relatively closed system, save for the game developers
using the SDU. But you are leaving opened ended Windows,
completely vulnerable to attack, without any systems engineering
for any UI. If this is how you hope to reach the high
end then you will go the way of Phast and C4. Crestron
has already lowered the bar with the Adagio and it's entry
price is half of yours. That includes a pre-engineered
system that takes 15 minutes to program. AMX has made
purchases that suggests that it too will be entering the
entry level system's integration market. These are companies
with both the engineering talent, the marketing power
and the experience. What would have happened to CQC if
Dean Roddey had only the financing to hire a high powered
marketing firm? At least his system makes sense and I
have problems with his system's integration as it is purely
a software based solution that depends on third party
hardware upon which he has no control ( touch panels,
not the PC ).

Everyone wants to go after Red State value consumers.
But I'll promise you this. If your paradigm is to suggest
that the same HTPC or media PC that will act as the front
end source also serve as the back end control then you
are a snake oil salesman. Enterprise servers have a different
topology and Microsoft is even marketing a stripped down
version of these enterprise solutions. So why would you
wish to suggest, what Mr.Roddey has here suggested is
a bad idea, that Mr. and Mrs. RedState, who value reliability
as much as their bank account, follow a typology that
has been proved unreliable? Because you have a horse
in this race? I understand why Best Buy has partnered
with you. They don't wish to commit to the one solution
that works. they'd rather sell a pseudo solution that
doesn't work. The Tweeter model is what will eventually
happen. Centralized integration by programmers for the
national chain, running on a reliable hardware and software.
It may be Lifeware or life support but it will not be
the hardware typology you've suggested.

However good your software application, I will promise
you this. As long as you permit your application to run
on an open source open ended architecture it will fail
as a control system. It will be bogged down by applications
( as in anti-virus ) by DVD burners, by virus and spyware
attacks.

Alan