Would it not be better to work together?

[Digiman]

You'd never even get them to agree on the standards as each would have different standards that they simply wouldn't budge on...

Anyway once you agree to a standard and most stick to it, someone else just comes along and decides those standards are too restricting and so they begin something new that doesn't fit the agreed standards, and the whole thing starts all over once again...

Standardisation=bad for consumer. Look how crap buying an off the shelf computer has become now...Intel Mac or Wintel/AMDwin box. You can keep it. Thank goodness we have Sony + Nintendo still in the console market.

Greed from software houses led to no more choice like in the wonderful 80-90s. Each generation was a revolution as it should be.

[Digiman]

Hi,

Wow, you still buy off the shelf computers!!!

I build my own, that way I get to choose what I have in my computer, the only off the shelf computer I have in my house is for my youngest son and yes you are right it is a piece of crap.

As far as game consoles please take it to a sony or nintendo site. I wouldn't own one of those piece of sheet if you paid me. I have a WII only because it came with the car I purchased, I laugh at it every time I go in the living room.

PC Power User
smerf

The console rivalry and benefit to users since the 80s hasn't changed, unlike the days of ST/AMIGA/ARCHIMEDES/PC/MAC/X68000. Hardware is all the same now which sucks.

Sure you can tell the man in the street to go and mail order a PPC/Coldfire setup but that has nothing to do with real world choice for non-geek purchasers ie 99.999999999% of the world. In the 80s/90s ordinary people buying a computer had real choices. Even AROS/LINUX users are using thesame X86/PCI-E motherboards as Windows users.

If you wanted to play 60FPS 1920x1080 games and watch HD movies in 2006/7 would have cost 5x as much asa PS3......only a lunatic solution then. Sure 4 years on it's only 300-500 more but don't compare powerful machines technically with that NintenTOY for babies and single mums