OK, so it's not Media Center specific, but the latest goings-on in Round Rock are certainly interesting.  Apparently Michael Dell is looking to reinvent the Dell brand in an effort to save his empire.  As one of the first direct to consumer computer manufacturers, Dell holds a place in most of our hearts as a pioneer in the business.  However, the entire direct selling philosophy just might be a thing of the past as per a line in a leaked internal memo in which Mr. Dell states that direct sales to the customer was a revolution, "but it is not a religion."   Interesting...

However, the method of sale is not Dell's biggest problem.  Their reputation has taken a huge hit in recent years due to horrible support and just bad customer service.  7 years ago, when my mother told me she wanted a new computer, I did not hesitate in my response.  Dell.  They offered solid support for the masses.  Back in October when she was looking to finally upgrade (yeah, she holds onto hardware for a long time!) I told her "Anything BUT Dell."  And I mean anything.  Their support has become a fiasco, their overall customer service has degraded to the point where it has become the primiary reason not to buy from them.  No, I'm not going to get into specifics about my encounters with them on behalf of other people over the past 3 years, except to say that their universal answer was to try and transfer me to their "pay-per-incident" software support line for issues that were obviously hardware related.  And yes, in the end, they turned out to be completely hardware related.

With HP pulling out of the Media Center specific computing market earlier this year, there's a large gap there.  I don't know if the gap is worth filling, but it most certainly is worth exploring.  A company as nimble as Dell just might be able to turn things around and take ownership of this niche.  Personally, I'd like to see it.  I'd like to be able to recommend Dell to others again, as I did all throughout the 90s.  We'll see if they earn it, though.