Windows 7 Starter Edition — 3 Apps Only

CrustyFace writes "Cybernit reports that the Starter Edition version of Windows 7 will only allow the user to run 3 applications at once. Targeted at notebooks, this doesn't seem like such a bad limitation, however it is a bold move from Microsoft, and it will be interesting to see how the operating system sells."

Old News

[Anonymous Coward]

This is not new, this version was announced pre-beta when MS first unveiled the different versions that were coming down the pipe.

Starter Edition could do this since XP. Old News

[gcnaddict]

This isn't newsworthy. Starter Edition, ever since its inception, has had a 3 app limit.

Why are we wasting time on this again?

Dupe

[Thelasko]

http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/09/1348255&from=rss [slashdot.org]

Biased Article

[Shrike82]

Now I'm not an M$ fanboy so save your trolling, but TFA is clearly biased and written badly. Thankfully there's a link to a better article hidden in there somewhere, and I suggest people read it [zdnet.com] before they post or judge.

Re:What constitues an app?

[mikesd81]

Antivirus is excluded [pcpro.co.uk] from the app count.

Re:Bad user experience, piracy or Linux will win o

[Shrike82]

Most of these question are answered in an article that this (poorly written and biased) one links to. I suggest you check it out. It's the zdnet.com one about half way down the page.

Original story link

[InsertWittyNameHere]

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=844 [zdnet.com]

Here are some selected quotes:

"you can open as many windows as you want from a single program. So if you want to open 15 tabs in your browser, six images in your photo-editing program, and a couple of instant messenger windows, you can do it."

"Windows Explorer windows don't count."

"Basic Windows tools don't trigger the limit. You can run a Command Prompt window or open Task Manager"

"Antivirus programs that run as a system service don't count."

"In short, when I used this system as a netbook, it worked just fine. On a netbook, most of the tasks you're likely to tackle are going to take place in a browser window anyway."

"If I tried to use this system as a conventional notebook, running multiple Microsoft Office or OpenOffice aps, playing music in iTunes or Windows Media Player, and using third-party IM programs, I would probably be incredibly frustrated with the limitations of Starter Edition."

Here's a better article

[mikesd81]

posted on /. a while ago [pcpro.co.uk]. It's also up to OEM's if they offer this or or Windows 7 Home Premium. How many times will this story be posted to Slashdot? The last one was in February [slashdot.org]. Editors, surely you would have known something like this was posted before, with a better article.

Re:What constitues an app?

[mikesd81]

This may help [zdnet.com].

Re:Bad user experience, piracy or Linux will win o

[Anonymous Coward]

whooosh...

Re:Starter Edition could do this since XP. Old New

[kliu0x52]

Um, where are you getting that? TFA explicitly states that it's targeted at developing nations--places where XP Starter with the same 3-app limit have been sold for years. Microsoft never said that Starter was intended for netbooks, either--that was mostly just speculation by the media.

Re:Starter Edition could do this since XP. Old New

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

"We'll also continue to offer Windows Starter edition, which will only be offered pre-installed by an OEM. Windows Starter edition will now be available worldwide. This edition is available only in the OEM channel on new PCs limited to specific types of hardware."

From Microsoft's press release [microsoft.com].

Re:These are OEM sales, millions more than Linux

[bemymonkey]

"This also, and perhaps primarily, gets the OEMs to not even consider Linux on the OEM's bottom-tier line."

That's pretty much what they're going for, IMO... as long as it counts as a Windows sale, Microsoft will continue to push crappy disabled OSs on customers...

Re:Better value by comparison!

[DragonTHC]

Linux is free :)

and many people actually want to use it.

Re:Starter Edition could do this since XP. Old New

[bhtooefr]

I used site:microsoft.com just to get it right from the horse's mouth...

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2009/feb09/02-03netbooksqa.mspx [microsoft.com]

For OEMs that build lower-cost small notebook PCs, Windows 7 Starter will now be available in developed markets.

Re:Boy that's the dumbest idea ever...

[Thundersnatch]

If you go by processes, a very fundamental design difference between Windows and Linux begins to show. In Windows, processes do not have parents. If one process spawns another, they are always peers.

This is absolutely 100% incorrect. Try loading up Windows task manager sometime. Right-click on a process. See that item called "end process tree"? Use Process Explorer if you want to see a graph.

Why is it that so many Linux fanboys make up limitations of Windows that don't exist? It's not necessary - there are enough real flaws in the Windows user-land to gripe about. The Windows NT kernel, on the other hand, is actually well designed and executed.

Re:You must mean the iPhone

[east coast]

Maybe it's the phone? I can't speak for the other poster but I have a Samsung SCH-i760 with Windows Mobile 6 and I've had no problems keeping multiple apps (most are native but a few third party) open for a couple weeks at a time. I've noticed that certain apps (adobe reader) seem to hang more than others but nothing that had to be tended to on a daily basis. I get over 2 days with the extended battery with normal use. I will say that I've never tried the standard battery.

Re:Bad user experience, piracy or Linux will win o

[Quantumstate]

http://www.gigaslax.com/ [gigaslax.com]

Re:Bad user experience, piracy or Linux will win o

[wastedlife]

Well, you completely missed the joke there, but I'll try to make helpful response. Chrome uses one process per tab. IE8 uses a single process and separates tabs into threads of the process. It seems that Starter Edition is basing this on the number of "applications" based on what shows up under "Applications" tab in Task Manager. So Chrome and IE should each only be counted as a single application toward the limit.

Someone else mentioned using tray apps that hide applications in the system tray instead of in the task bar to circumvent the limitation. I suspect that might work if it also removes it from the "Applications" tab of Task Manager.

Re:You must mean the iPhone

[kaizendojo]

I have the same phone, but not the same results. I'm on my second i760 and am rebooting it constantly. Nothing major loaded on it and not overloaded with shells or today gizmos. I'd love to see a list of your apps and know who your provider is; this has been driving me crazy. If I could get it to work like yours, I'd be happy.

Re:Bad user experience, piracy or Linux will win o

[aoteoroa]

Indeed. What advantage would Windows 7 starter offer over Ubuntu Netbook Remix?

Also, about installing an OS from a flash drive, remember the advances we have seen in OS install programs in the last 10 years. I am pretty sure there could be a program to sell cheap 1GB drives with different flavors of Linux preinstalled...

Like the Universal Netbook Installer [sourceforge.net]? Plug in your thumb drive, select a linux distro, and the program downloads the image, and copies it to your usb stick. Reboot your computer, and install.

Re:You must mean the iPhone

[GweeDo]

As a dedicated member of the Windows Mobile community I would like to apologize for the fact that you have had to use a HTC 6700. HTC makes wonderful phones now based on Windows Mobile 6.1 ::Hugs his HTC Touch Diamond::, but that 6700 was a horrible horrible beast. It was slow, felt bulky, buggy (that is more of an early WM5 issue) and really was a PDA they slapped a phone on. Please don't assume all WM phones are the like that thing.

Re:You must mean the iPhone

[crmarvin42]

IIRC, the single window mode was an attempt at parental controls, not a "feature" to differentiate SKU's for the OS.

Wow, this would wind me up fast

[GregWebb]

I've got a netbook, which gets used heavily as an ultraportable machine. As long as you're sensible, it's fine. It's far from unusual for it to be running:
* Visual Studio
* OpenOffice showing some documentation or notes
* Web browser
* DB program of some description, usually SQLite Admin. ...and I'm already over the limit while very plausibly doing a single task (albeit not a typical one for a netbook, but one that is surprisingly usable from experience). I'm working on some graphics software at present - perhaps I'm checking something in Paintshop Pro or similar. I use the Windows calculator a lot (lazy I know :-) - that would suddenly become unviable.

Why, why, why? Anyway, as has been pointed out, plenty of apps seem to have already found ways round this. Annoy your customers in their day-to-day use and they'll find ways to stop the annoyance - if that means you're creating a group motivated to hack your security, that's just a terrible idea.

Stay out of your users' way and let them work the way they want to. If I'm daft enough to want to try to host a commercial website or want to do serious software development on a netbook, that's my problem.

Re:How long until the 3 app limit is cracked?

[CastrTroy]

If you're going to run some cracked version, why not just run the professional version.

Re:Bad user experience, piracy or Linux will win o

[Rary]

Artificial limitations like this seem to me to be an invitation for problems and end user frustration.

Given that this is designed for especially low-cost (and hence low-power) small notebook PCs, it may not really be an artificial limitation, but rather a valid means of managing extremely limited resources.

What is an application?

Ed Bott took it for a test drive [zdnet.com] and answered that question...

Are tool tray apps possible, or allowed?

Yes and yes. They don't count toward the 3 app limit.

What about apps that launch other apps as part of their functionality?

If they open multiple tabs (ex. Firefox, Internet Explorer) or windows (ex. Messenger), that's fine. If they launch completely separate applications, well, those would be completely separate applications.

Would Chrome be limited to two tabs? (One for the host window, two and three for the first two tabs.)

Nope.

Some other interesting details:

• "Windows Explorer windows don't count."
• "Basic Windows tools don't trigger the limit."
• "Most Control Panel applets don't count either."
• "Program installers run without triggering the limit."
• "Desktop gadgets are free, too."
• "Some system utilities get to bypass the three-app limit."
• "Antivirus programs that run as a system service don't count."

All in all, according to the ZDNet writer, "when I used this system as a netbook, it worked just fine".

Re:You must mean the iPhone

[mike260]

It's still there. Create a new user, select 'Managed with parental controls' for the type and enable 'Simple finder' in the options.

Re:You must mean the iPhone

[PopeRatzo]

why does the story submitter think an OS appropriate for an iPhone is appropriate for a notebook?

In 2007, Steve Jobs specifically said that the iPhone would "run OSX".

If you don't believe me, google "iphones run OSX".

Re:You must mean the iPhone

[glebd]

Ever heard of AppStore? Or how about free upgrade of all existing iPhone models first to v2 and soon to v3 of the OS? Yes, it is an consumer device in the sense it works the way Apple designed it (and does it very well), but to say you don't get new features unless you buy new hardware is a bit misleading.