Windows XP Starter Edition Snubs P4, Athlon

Apu writes "CNET is reporting that Microsoft's Windows XP Starter Edition operating system specifically checks the result of the CPUID instruction on bootup and fails to continue if a Pentium 4 or Athlon processor is detected."

That's nothing!

[DuranDuran]

That's nothing! My copy of WinXP fails to continue if any kind of CPU is detected!

Low end only

[wiredlogic]

But will it run on a 386?

Ah, so now I finally understand

[Anonymous Coward]

The value that proprietary software can offer than F/OSS can't.

Windows ain't done.

[Tackhead]

> specifically checks the result of the CPUID instruction on bootup and fails to continue if a Pentium 4 or Athlon processor is detected.

Windows XP Starter Edition ain't done, 'til... umm... Wintel and AMD won't run?

OK, boys, time to haul ass over to DEC^H^H^HCompaq^H^H^H^H^H^H^HHP and dig out those Alpha chips! Anyone got an P-II or a K6-III we can borrow until then?

Microsoft CEMENT

[macdaddy]

Don't forget Microsoft CEMENT [tburke.net]. (Alternate link [google.com])

Re:mod parent down!

[sneakers563]

Microsoft is essentially creating a market for Linux by doing this.

Shhhh! Someone mod this down. We don't want this to get out.

Re:Arbitrary marketing decision

[MasterB(G)ates]

Totally agree. At Rome airport a big european trip with my fiance - we saw this.

http://img243.echo.cx/img243/6999/curiousindeed7ev .jpg [img243.echo.cx]

I wasn't going to either place thankfully. The error looks pathetic.

Re:dumarses

[IthnkImParanoid]

This is either a misprint or misunderstanding, or a one of the dumbest things I've ever seen a company do. FFS, I built an athlon 1800+ two or three YEARS ago. Does anyone still have K6II's?

Re:Arbitrary marketing decision

[BWJones]

The current Whitehouse administration has made damn sure that Anonymous Cowards don't travel anywhere in Airports. Only people with identities can board aircraft, so you don't count. :-)

Seriously though, the last three or four times I've flown out of Salt Lake International, Ft. Lauderdale International, Auckland International and Los Angeles International, I've seen errors or BSODs on information critical displays. One person is an admittedly small sample size, but with that one person, the observations are becoming a trend.

Re:Perhaps a strange suggestion, but...

[forkazoo]

There is an option to automatically restart on errors. Though, I agree with you, it would seem like MS would be jumping all over themselves to allow some customisations to high traffic BSODs. I know, if I was an MS Rep, I would offer airlines a customised OS that says "OS/2 has crashed again" whenever it would normall BSOD.

Re:Perhaps a strange suggestion, but...

[Curtman]

the real solution would be to go to a more reliable operating system

You misspelled more reliable operating system [debian.org].

Re:Does anyone else think...

[TheGratefulNet]

..that users will try Starter Edition, find out it has all these restrictions and assume that all versions of Windows must suck and just load a free, non-crippled OS (mentioning no names!).

or 'worse', say 'screw this' and get a warez version of full xp pro, with sp2 already integrated.

its not hard to find. the corp edition has no need to phone-home to register and reregister whenever you change hardware.

or so I hear, from rumor. yeah, rumor.

Re:Perhaps a strange suggestion, but...

[SpaceLifeForm]

On your second point, I think that Microsoft ought to have an option for screens to go black on errors.

That should be simple to implement. Just call the Power-off routine.

Re:Perhaps a strange suggestion, but...

[Anonymous Coward]

So did you friend. http://www.freebsd.org/ [freebsd.org]

Re:Perhaps a strange suggestion, but...

[ShortSpecialBus]

I fail to see any airline buying any product that displays the word "crashed" upon any error.

XP on low-end computers?

[Dolda2000]

Do they mean that it's actually possible to run Windows on anything less than a P4 or Athlon?

Starter version only?

[Anonymous Coward]

And I thought Windows XP home/professional standard versions too were doing the same thing!

Re:Perhaps a strange suggestion, but...

[dpilot]

How about, "The Operating System of this computer has been *hijacked* by an errant opcode." Think the airlines would like that one any better?

Re:Arbitrary marketing decision

[djdavetrouble]

something truly embarrassing is going to be displayed on all of those big displays.

something like this [aglar.ath.cx]?

(work safe link)
(really!)

Re:Perhaps a strange suggestion, but...

[n.e.watson]

Well, I ran the past few comments through MS Word's spellchecker and it changed every link to http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp [microsoft.com] I guess that must be right if Microsoft said it is...

Re:Arbitrary marketing decision

[MadChicken]

...Fezzik, tear his arms off.

(sorry, just had to test it out)

Re:Many different solutions

[protohiro1]

Is there anyway to reverse the polarity of that darlington transistor to direct a tachyon pulse through the optocoupler?

Creative writing 101

[interstellar_donkey]

Marketing person #1: You know, we have a real problem with piracy in developing nations.

Marketing person #2: Why is that?

Marketing person #1: I'm not sure. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that our OS costs more then most families make in a month.

Marketing person #2: If they're poor, why do we even want them as customers?

Marketing person #1: Because they're probably not going to be poor forever. Plus, there's like a billion people in India alone.

Marketing person #2: A billion? Please, we're professionals here. Stop making up numbers like "billion" or "gazillion".

Marketing person #1: Sorry about that. But there *are* lots and lots of people there. I think most of them do tech support for Dell computers for like a dollar a day.

Marketing person #2: Wow. That is a lot. Well, we have to figure out a way to make money off them.

Marketing person #1: I just got a great idea! Let's strip out some of the functions of our operating system and sell it really, really cheap over there.

Marketing person #2: Awesome idea, dude. We can call it "Windows Jr."

Marketing person #1: I don't know about that name... it sounds too much like IBM's PC Jr. and nobody liked that product. I mean, wireless keyboards? What kind of crazy person would want that?

Marketing person #2: The PC jr? That was released like a gazillion years ago. What are you, 30 or something?

Marketing person #1: Shhhh!!! I'm 31, but the boss thinks I'm 23.

Marketing person #2: I'll keep my mouth shut if you buy us drinks after work, old man. How about we call it "Windows XP: The Revenge of the Sith". Wait, no, even better, "Windows XP: The Starter Edition"

Marketing person #1: That's way better! I would have never thought of that on my own. I guess it's because I'm so old.

Marketing person #2: I see a problem though. How can we strip down a product when 95% of our users never use the extras we bundle with Windows to begin with?

Marketing person #1: We could pull out Internet Expolorer

Both: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!

Marketing person #2: That's rich old man. But seriously, how can we do it?

Marketing person #1: We can make sure it only runs on obsolete computers.

Marketing person #2: Of course!! Celerons, Durons... poor people use those, right?

Marketing person #1: Heck if I know. I'm not poor.

Marketing person #2: Then it's settled. We'll make a version of Windows XP, remove the "calculator" and "MS paint" applications, and sell it to poor people. We can even market it as an upgrade to Windows ME.

Marketing person #1: Didn't you get the memo? We want people to use ME. That was one of the clauses with Gates' contract with the devil.

Marketing person #2: Whatever. Let's go to the bar.

Re:Perhaps a strange suggestion, but...

[connect4]

The Mac OS X writes data to the machine's NVRAM on kernel panic, which is then retrievable and interpretable once the system reboots.

Well, Linux flashes this information out of the keyboard lights in Morse Code

So There!

Re:Perhaps a strange suggestion, but...

[Jeremy Erwin]

The major advantage of MacOSX, of course, is that when there's a kernel panic, the system displays a multilingual error message. [apple.com] This could be useful in places such as airports, where the users/hapless bystanders might not speak english.

Re:Many different solutions

[zolaar]

Not without re-routing the EPS couplings on decks 9 through 12... oh, and manually re-aligning the capacitor junction grids in the starboard plasma conduits.

I can have it done in twelve hours.
[which, in Scotty-time, as you know, means 'done in six hours and re-affirmation of status as Miracle Worker']

Re:Perhaps a strange suggestion, but...

[ThJ]

Of course there are. In the real world, even the biggest geeks have Windows.