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Et tu, Brute?

Microsoft Zune Review

Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows. It's normally to Microsoft what Ann Coulter is to the Republicans. But look at the change Zune has wrought in the stalwart MS defender:

"...a me-too device that provides only a small fraction of the iPod's functionality... dozens of Zune-related examples of Microsoft's Apple envy leading to outright and wholesale idea copying.... each Zune is an isolated island of useless functionality... the Zune software just feels empty and incomplete... there seems to be nothing about the iPod that Microsoft is unwilling to copy. It's pathological...the list of missing features, sadly, is quite long...Welcome to what social?... you should almost certainly avoid the first generation Zune..."
http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/zune.asp

In all fairness (what? here?), let me point out that Paul – and heck, many of the articles linked on this site – do find good points in the Zune. Paul himself takes a softer "let's wait and see what the Zune can do" stance in later articles, such as this one:
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/zunestory.asp

And I'm in a really zune-zany mood today, so let me add this word of blatant moderation: Paul, I can actually see more sense than you do in the Microsoft Points pricing scheme for music purchase. Despite its sneaky potential to fool dumber users into thinking a 79-point song costs 79 cents, MS has a legitimate use for the Points as a "neutral" currency that it can use worldwide – US dollars aren't the end-all for everyone. As a neutral currency, there's no reason why one Point has to equal one cent.

But yeah, I agree that it does feel like a dodgy attempt to fleece the less attentive. And in a product like this, feel matters.

In any case, it's interesting to see the Zune's polarizing effect, one powerful enough to pull even MS's most devoted pals toward the "Zune sucks" pole. Now that's suction.