"It's not really that new of a concept... in Asia. Take a look sometime at what all gets built by companies like Sony..."

Yeah, even the US is or was on the vertical integration bandwagon. Didn't use the term or anology to avoid being even more longwinded. Great concept, probably works better for some firms/industries as anything else. Was pretty much referring to 3D software & content .e.g as stated before not a big thing with A'Desk, Maxon, Eon etc., so unusual in that context - contrary examples welcome.

"...re-branded Logitech accessories like mice..."

Wasn't sure they were still into that. I almost cried when my MS Wheelmouse died.

"...providing users with a soup-to-nuts CG experience..."

Agreed.

"First, you suck. Second, you're right, and I have to agree."

LOL, I knew Tuxie was still there inside the new Pengie. Yep Linux bids fair to do a squeeze play on MS between servers and gadgets. AFAIK, the Ford partnership is MS main success in gadgets. Don't know much about embedded. Seems like I heard something about Windows and those Stuxnet p0wned Siemens controllers but that was probably the workstations. If the desktop is indeed dying then MS be in trouble. Desktop Linux will be a curious footnote in history - the battle that didn't have to be fought.

"Sorta disagree... but only in that if Poser can make the features user-friendly to an average high school kid, they'd make a lot more progress in seeing it implemented."

Um, kind what I meant by "elegance and simplicity"

"and if the UI can be simplified (with perhaps an 'advanced' tab for the geeks)" et al

I think I'll have my shyster sue you for infingement. I've been Jeremiah in the freaking desert for years on this. Easy/Advanced GUI, presets!, wizards yada yada, but the geeks don't want no freaks.  1. the freak's do-re-mi pays for a major chunk of the money for their toy, 2. a good configurable GUI would mean they never have to slum 

"unless the user can see and use it immediately, it's not going to get much traction."

That's exactly the point for 3D. Virgins need gentle. Unless users can easily acomplish something and get immediate feedback with a feature, they're more likely to throw up their hands and abandon it. AniBlocks may not meet the pro's or the geeks needs, but for the newbie, they're easy and fun, the same for dynamic cloth and some other neat features in DS. Yes, you can accomplish the same and more with Poser. Poser does very well at providing more advanced features that appeal to a certain kind of user. They apparently want to be Lexus to the big boys Rolls, maybe even poach some of their bidness. Only competiton, Daz, which is Chevy - Vickie = Bel Aire, Geni = Corvette. 

Gotta disagree with the calls to ax Carrara. Daz needs a modeling tool to round out the package, something with content integration, morph creation and decent general modeling capability. I only use it to render I don't know how well it fits the last two. Obviously it will need to support Geni. Maybe Hexagon is a better modeler, IDK, but Carrara adds landscapes - no not as good as Vue, particle effects etc. and a decent renderer. It's a poor man's integrated 3D package. Bryce, yeah get file import capability in Vue or cut a deal with Eon and bundle a no logo Pioneer with static figure import limited to 800x600 or whatever.

"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance." - H. L. Mencken