Media Center PC opened... maybe?

Mike Hall points us to a early review about the upcoming Windows XP Media Center PC 2005 release over on his WebLog.

Microsoft's Windows Media Center Edition operating system has long been something of a mystery to most PC users. While most users are familiar with the concept of Microsoft breaking off the same Windows XP core operating system into "Home" and "Professional" versions, the Media Center brand of the Windows XP tree has never really been explained in great detail, and due to the tight licensing rope Microsoft has kept on this product, not many have had the chance to actually use this operating system in real life.

In this release the above article tells us that you will be able to purchase the software in an OEM bundle. Yet Paul Thurrott insists in his Weekly Short Takes that the ability to get your hands on this package will be hard, also even if you do get an OEM copy it will be even harder getting it to work.

I tend to disagree with the difficulty of obtaining this OEM copy and with Paul's assumption that compatibility will be a major issue. Let’s not forget why Microsoft was so successful in its core business of making Windows open to all hardware vendors.