Microsoft announced Wednesday it would offer a low-cost starter edition of its Windows XP operating system in Asia starting in October, as it strives to hold onto market share facing erosion from the open-source Linux system and software piracy.
Microsoft Announces Windows XP Starter Edition Pilot Program
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Who in their right mind would buy such a thing when you can have a fully working Linux system running as many tasks as you want at any resolution clustered with other computers?
At this point I hope 99% of the countries of the world Primarily use Linux.
Why just Linux? There are plenty of better things, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, DragonFly, Darwin.
Who provides desktop support for “FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, DragonFly, Darwin.” ???
keep in mind this starter xp is for people who have never turned on a computer before, i seriously doubt they’ll wonder… why is my resolution so low, and how come i can’t open up four programs at the same time. eventually linux would seem to be the better choice, but being limited while learning and getting a feel for something new isn’t necessarily a bad thing. i see microsoft being successful with this.
“Why just Linux? There are plenty of better things, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, DragonFly, Darwin.”
That’s your opinion. BSD trolls….always doing more damage to community (in general, ya’ll seem to be just rude) than terrorism. Now remember, I said bsd trolls, not users. I use BSD, but I don’t troll.
I for one, definately wouldn’t spend money on an even more cripled OS. I don’t see how this has any benefit over pirating WinXP or using Windows to people in poor countries.
About the only thing that I can think of that this will do, is it will give Microsoft a stronger leg to stand on when trying to combat free distribution of windows in the third world.
Also, why the limit of three programs running? Why not 4, or 5? 4 would at least let you have email, webbrowser, im, and music player running.
C’mon men, are they joking?
I’m waited for Started Edition for a long time because I’ve thought that it will be very light XP without some inutility such as old MSN or Windows Movie Maker, but now….
Who use 800×600? I think nobody…
These countries have a choice. Grow thier own software industries are take whatever crumbs MS decides is “good enough” for Asia.
Who provides desktop support for “FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, DragonFly, Darwin.” ???
Who provides desktop support for Linux?
… that may be able to be worked around. Not sure though.
http://tweakxp.com/tweak823.aspx
For the lazy…
Ok, I found out how to change your video resolution to anything you want using regedit. I reccomend you back up your registry before tweaking it. Also, don’t Go over your video cards min/max resolution.
1. Navigate to:
HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIGSystemCurrentControlSetControlVIDEO{Address of primary video card} 000
2. Find ‘DefaultSettings.XResolution’. That is your y axis. Edit as a Decimal to what you want it to be. IE 1152.
2. Find ‘DefaultSettings.YResolution’. That is your x axis. Edit as a deciaml to waht you want it to be. IE 863.
3. Restart, and your done.
Note from forum admin: This tweak may or may not work for everyone for the resolution you want.
Then again, there may be driver limits … or somethng else that might prevent you from using XP-Lite to it’s fullest potential.
“C’mon men, are they joking?
I’m waited for Started Edition for a long time because I’ve thought that it will be very light XP without some inutility such as old MSN or Windows Movie Maker, but now….
Who use 800×600? I think nobody…
The people who will but this starter edition ain’t geeks. & they don’t have 17″ montitors either, (remember it is low prize version) & movie maker, windows messenger don’t make Microsoft money are they are freely available to download from microsoft & also their free alternates are available.
this seems to be nice move by MS
That’s your opinion. BSD trolls….always doing more damage to community (in general, ya’ll seem to be just rude) than terrorism.
Just based on experience boy. No need to get so upset over it. Comparing a BSD advocate to the people who killed ~5000 Americans with their own planes. How childish and absurd.
Who provides desktop support for Linux?
Mandrake, Xandros, Linspire, Red Flag, etc….
…then what’s to stop some people from coming out with a tweaker for XP Lite that brings it up to par with regular XP? All of a sudden, everyone “in the know” can now buy a copy of XP for much less. However, I suspect MS thought of that already and put these limits in at compile time.
Eh, the backslashes were removed when posting. Weird.
Whatever, the information you might want is in the link I posted.
three programs is enough, browswer, IM, and music player. if they would like to use email they could close the browser, or just used a web-based email client… no big deal. also you can have 3 windows per program open, seems like enough. remember, the people getting this have never used a computer before, and chances are they will be using 15″ CRT’s, the resolution limit is nothing to worry about. support and hardware compatibility is more important than res.
Let’s see…this is supposed to combat piracy and Linux. The cost of XPSE is $36. In the test countries (Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, IIRC), the cost of a pirated XP Pro is $4. And Linux, of course, can be had for the download/duplication cost. So unless a massive enforcement effort is coming down with this, changing the behavior of people there, I don’t see this having much effect.
And don’t expect to see this anytime soon in North America, Europe or Japan…
This is just another way microshaft is trying make people buy their software.
Then they probably think when people get used to this OS, they are going to try and get them to spend more money on XP.
This is the best Microsoft can come up with? Limited to running 3 programs at a time and home networking ripped out? Why would a people used to running pirated fully capable versions of Windows for a tenth of the amount of money that they want for this broken version all of a sudden get an honest bone in their body and want to be licensed legally. I think they need to admit to themselves that Asia is a dead market for Microsoft products and give it up. In this case i feel Linux is a better choice for third world countries.
software is supremely overpriced. there isn’t a piece of software in existence that’s worth even $100.
some companies, like midi software for example, often charge in excess of $500. there’s people in the USA that have to make a decision like: buy cubase or pay the rent? in the 3rd world where $36 can be a month’s wages people still have to make the rent decision at this price.
the greed and exploitation corporations inflict on people is unbelieveable.
don’t pirate microsoft, boycott microsoft.
I’m willing to bet that this move would actually encourage piracy of their full versions of the software. Think about it… if people already have purchased this XP Lite version and someone they know already has the full version, you don’t think they’ll get a copy of them instead – heck, like someone already pointed out, the full version is already available for $2.50!
Finally, as I understand it the Lite version has no networking built-in. Therefore, apart from writing a document and viewing a spreadsheet, what other use is there, really ? – You can’t even browse the web, which is considered basic functionality for a computer these days! – If I wanted limits like these I’d pull out my old 8086.
Linux is ready for the desktop?
The keyboard of Windows XP lite also will be limited to 3 keys: CTRL, ALT and DEL…
Third world doesn’t need M$’s mercy. We need knowledge power and only with software libre (free is not a precise word) we can learn something, not using trojaned, crippled, proprietary and ultra closed operating system.
I can buy XP Pro just about anywhere in SE Asia for about $2US. I doubt this is going to fly…….
don’t pirate microsoft, boycott microsoft.
You wrapped that up quite well. I wrote a long post basically saying the same (+reasons why not to pirate Microsoft products).
People aren’t going to be buying a cardboard box with a CD in it, they will be buying a new computer with it pre-installed.
MS is doing anything it can with prices to keep computer builders from pre-installing Linux. If it’s cheaper than a full install of XP, builders will be more likely to use it, and Windows keeps another box for awhile. It will then be up to the end-user to either install Linux or a pirated XP, and MS hopes XP-SE will be “good enough” for most users to not do either.
Besides, MS has to do something to get any money they can from developing countries… How else can they continue to beat quarterly expectations? They already have more than 90% of the desktop market in the developed world. That market share isn’t going to be growing like they need. If they don’t beat expectations and keep the stock holders happy, THEN the company is in trouble.
“At this point I hope 99% of the countries of the world Primarily use Linux.
Why just Linux? There are plenty of better things, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, DragonFly, Darwin. ”
Forgot to add Windows to the list.
Who use 800×600? I think nobody…
I would say about 70% of the 200+ workstation where I work are set to 800×600 by the user…….so don’t think nobody…you maybe but not most.
nemo, “trouble” isn’t even in Microsoft’s vocabulary with 90% of the developed world market. Nobody else even thinks about the developing world-that is anyone thinking about making money- so anything Microsoft does only adds to their dominance. It’s like icing on the cake.
This is just another way microshaft is trying make people buy their software.
Then they probably think when people get used to this OS, they are going to try and get them to spend more money on XP.
They are a business and a business is usually there to make money….educate yourself before making stupid comments.
“They are a business and a business is usually there to make money….educate yourself before making stupid comments.”
This is Microsoft we are talking about. Dont forget the double standards against them. Apparently is not ok for them to sell for profit, nor are they allowed to be the dominant OS. Now, selling a Linux distro or for Apple to make money is perfectly acceptable. Should Linux become what 90% of the world uses, thats ok too. Its not Microsoft, so that makes everything OK.
Why the hell would someone pay like 30 bucs for a os you can only run 3 programs on and has no home networking support at all, when you can just go and pirate it or get an alternate for next to nothing. Also to unknowing new users don’t you think only being able to run 3 programs will just frustrate them.
How would you feel if you are a new user chatting with family, browsing the web and listening to say music when all sudden someone tells you to check your e-mail so you try and open up outlook or whatever and wam your slapped in the face with some dumb message telling you already running your 3 apps. Now you gotta decide to which program to close just so you can read some e-mail finish it and start up the same app you were just forced to close. It would get irritating fast trust me.
MS stock is a house of cards… They’ve been generating cash by convincing employees to take stock options rather than actual wages for their work. MS can then take that cash and extend the company into new fields, searching for a real profit. Every dollar they don’t have to pay their employees is one dollar less in the costs column, and they then need to take in one dollar less to look like they turned a profit.
Only through creative accounting has MS been able to show continuing growth… Why do you think they take a loss on every X-Box they sell? They are hoping to make a profit on games and licenses to game developers to cover the actual box. How do you think the employees would feel knowing that the company is hemorrhaging billions a year rather than profitting? If MS doesn’t beat market expectations every quarter, employees might start to think it’s time to sell their stock and recoup their wages. Massive amounts of the company’s stock, to the tune of billions of dollars, is held by employees in these stock options.
Think of stock as a loan… People loan a company money for, hopefully, a return on profits made by the company. If there is a massive sell-out, the company has to, in our analogy, pay back those loans. If a company doesn’t have enough cash to pay off these loans, then the company goes bye-bye.
And then, MS would finally learn the meaning of the word “trouble”.
Search Google for “microsoft stock options pyramid”.
Hmmm, I see this stuff when I google “microsoft employee stock options”…
http://money.cnn.com/2003/07/08/technology/microsoft/
Microsoft ending options grants
The world’s largest software firm announced it will start giving employees stock instead of options.
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) – Microsoft announced Tuesday that it will begin awarding actual shares of Microsoft, rather than stock options, to employees starting in September [2003].
http://news.com.com/2100-1014_3-1023840.html?tag=fd_top
Microsoft to award stock, nix options
update Microsoft said Tuesday it plans to start giving employees grants of stock rather than options to buy shares as part of a shift in the way the software maker compensates its employees.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/130094_msftoptions09.html
Employees will get shares instead, a change many see as positive
Microsoft Corp. will stop giving its employees stock options, halting a practice that transformed thousands of them into millionaires and reshaped the regional economy.
Beginning in September [2003], employees will receive shares of Microsoft stock, rather than options to buy them, the company said yesterday. Microsoft expects the shift to help it attract and retain employees by putting more financial certainty into their overall compensation.
…so are we using the same “google” or what?
I Think this is a dumb move and users will reject it for the following reasons
– Every (99%+) of Graphics Cards made today will do higher resolution
– Most if not all CRT Monitors do at least 1024×768
– Pretty well all Laptops these days are 1024×768
And to have no networking at all then that really shoots themselves in the foot after all, didn’t Microsoft invent the internet…
I wonder how long it will be before there are “Fix” kits available that will replace those module with compiled in limitations are available for download.
IMHO, this is just a sop so that they can say they are being responsive to market pressures and carrying out local pricing. eg Eye Candy to Wall St.
… that they took out unspecified part of the software.
But again,is not Microsoft who said to DOJ and even EU that if they will remove any piece of the software Windows will not work anymore?I amazed that they can go through that.
Well, there are good reasons for that.
I, for instance, still have 15″ monitor. In Windows I set 800×600 resolution, because otherwise the font is too small. The monitor itself and the graphics card are perfectly capable of greater resolutions, but the damn OS can’t change font size PROPERLY. For some reason, after I change font size, some of system dialogs continue to use the old small font. Besides that, with larger fonts the system tray starts to misbehave…
These are problems I’ve never encountered in Gnome or KDE 😉
Pirated software is priced based on the number of cdroms. Linux is frequently sold side by side with Windows XP. However, XP comes on one disk, but Fedora etc come on three. So linux effectively costs three times as much, unless you buy Linspire or Xandros which only come on one disk. Interesting economics huh?
But unlike US market, one can always buy an older version of software like Win2k (which I prefer over WinXP) or even the collection of programs or OSes on one CD, like Win95/98/Me/2000 on one CD for mere $3-4. The same goes with apps, compilers, etc. So, if one wants to use MS product for cheap, it is always a possibility to get thousands dollars worth of software on a single CD. By the way, would you like to get all Space Quest series or Monkey Island series on one CD?
some vendors are already preinstalling lin instead of windows. Don’t think people will buy a crippled version of windows, like it’s been said. Some have even argued that microsoft is effectively “dumping” their products in these countries, something that for example korean steel exporters are sometimes blamed for in the US by unions. In some countries, you can buy your CD wallets chock full of CDs with plenty of microsoft’s catalog, included! that according to them would be worth thousands of dollars
If this version is limited to 3 programs running…after you start the av, the firewall, and spyware remover/pop-up blocker/other utility…what’s left to do but look at the 800×600 desktop?