Cut-Rate Windows 'XP Starter Edition' in Thailand 478
zlel writes "Microsoft has decided on an official name - 'Windows XP Starter Edition' - for the stripped-down, cut-rate version of Windows that it first began offering in Thailand last summer."
I want a copy! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:I want a copy! (Score:5, Funny)
Ah yes, the ugly redheaded stepchild... (Score:4, Funny)
I followed the link and was amused by the "don't miss" section at the bottom. ALL the links are things like "get Windows XP now" and "the benefits of XP" and "see the great reviews of XP here!".
There is also a link on that page to the amusing Windows ME support page [microsoft.com] there. The TOP article in the support archive? "How to UNinstall Windows ME"! Apparently the removal of WinME is a commonly suggested remedy by Microsoft to fix a PC that won't boot properly.
I'd have to say that that is one point where I actually agree strongly with Microsoft!
Re:I want a copy! (Score:5, Informative)
The menus are all in Thai, and cannot be modified, meaning that many installed programs wouldn't appear on the menus or possibly even run. It was only available on the"Eua Athorn" computers, a low cost Celeron socket 370 government program. In fact, though the legal copies could be installed when the computers were picked up, few people did it, and instead had their friend put a pirated copy from Panthip Plaza or similar place on for them.
It was a failure of an idea, and will continue to be. It was designed to start THais on legal software, and move them up to the full versions later. Few bought the idea, beccause it involved changing their old habit for a greater expense, and the brief shadow of government enforcement quickly faded away.
I had great hopes for the million Linux machine program, but alas.
Analogy? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Analogy? (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm not saying they are good or aren't good, I'm just saying... y'all don't make any sense
Re:Analogy? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Analogy? (Score:5, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Analogy? (Score:3, Insightful)
You've missed the point. Just as people on drugs are addicted and don't see any alternative, so people on MS products get stuck with proprietory data formats and incompatibility and don't see any easy way out of their prison, even if they want to leave. The quality of the product has nothing to do with continued use.
Re:Analogy? (Score:3, Insightful)
Also, MS Word can save as RTF and a variety of other formats, you know... it's up to you.
I guess IHBT, IHL, etc. I will HAND
Re:Analogy? (Score:3, Insightful)
wow. did you even try it out before you posted your stupid diatribe?
Re:Analogy? (Score:5, Informative)
Which retard modded this insightful?
Re:Analogy? (Score:3, Informative)
Yeah, thats what the anti-smoking ads say. But in the real world, ask any smoker the reason they started and they'll tell you they were either curious what it was like, or because of side benefits - like in the US Navy (perhaps armed forces in general), and some workplaces, if you smoke, you get quick breaks that you wouldn't otherwise get. Anyone who tells you otherwise either has forgotten how they started, or doesn't
Nearly exact analogy ... (Score:3, Insightful)
laced marijuana cigarettes to the kiddies
for free. Where else is the next generation
of Micro$oft clients going to come from?
Re:Analogy? (Score:5, Interesting)
How does this make me feel? Infuriated. I have yet to find a suitable replacement (there used to be a few online services which created IPX networks but you had to play by their rules and pay monthly fees). Thank you Microsoft, for dangling the carrot in front of my face, letting me smell it, and then ripping it away. The final snub is (I am told) when installing Advanced Server it asks you how many connections you want to be able to accept.
Ah well it really just comes down to me complaining, but it sure doesn't make me like Microsoft anymore. Remember when Notepad used to have an arbitrary file size limit? (The limit value wasn't arbitrary, the fact that they had it was) Good times.
Re:Analogy? (Score:3, Insightful)
I believe they are doing what they should have done before, adjusting their prices to the reality of the local population.
Today, MSFT charges the same for Microsoft Windows in any part of the world, either in Europe on in a developing country.
In my country (Brazil) 200U$ is the average salary and MS Windows costs about 130U$.
You may say with that salary people can't buy computers but a lot of them can, financing in one
That's just the thing.... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:That's just the thing.... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:That's just the thing.... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:That's just the thing.... (Score:5, Informative)
Do you have a source for this information?
I found this article [asia1.com.sg] that says: "Windows XP Starter Edition will be available in Thailand by September and Malaysia late this year, a Microsoft spokesman told Bloomberg news agency yesterday." In Malaysia, the national language Bahasa uses the Roman alphabet. Many of the Chinese and Indian minorities speak better English than Bahasa. So English is essential in Malaysia; even if they've tried to cripple it the Malaysian XP should be useable by an English speaker.
LOL (Score:3, Insightful)
What about Windows XP Binner Edition ?
Re:LOL (Score:5, Funny)
Re:LOL (Score:2, Funny)
If it comes with a bottle of Johnny Walker, a pack of smokes and Bubbles [trailerparkboys.com] does the install I want in.
Re:LOL (Score:4, Funny)
Plus, you'll end up going to jail once a year.
Starter Edition. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Starter Edition & crack (Score:2)
Re:Starter Edition. (Score:5, Interesting)
There was (is?) a whole floor of the Mah Boon Krong department store in Bangkok for warez CD's. (Fortunately, the attitude towards payment cuts both ways there -- the first time in the MBK cafeteria, I took food from a bunch of vendors and walked off to the cashier to pay. They all waved and yelled and I waved back. Turns out you need to pay the vendors individually. Took a bit of backtracking and apologizing, but they all were content to just laugh their heads at an even dumber-than-usual farang.)
Faux Pas! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Faux Pas! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Faux Pas! (Score:5, Insightful)
Some things require reboots (Like Direct X), but that's because they modify files currently in use.
Oh wait, this is
Re:Faux Pas! (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, your argument about DirectX is laughable. You don't even have to restart Linux to upgrade LIBC! ***LIBC***! Even the package manager that is actually upgrading libc is using libc! And it works just fine. This has been true since ELF was introduced way back in what '96 or so?
The whole reason behind the rebooting problem is the registry, and if MS gets rid of it I'll gladly stop making fun of it. Until then you and the rest of the MS-defender crowd will just have to keep stretching your credibility trying to defend it.
Re:Faux Pas! (Score:5, Informative)
Almost; the reason is in-use files; Windows can't update them in place the way Linux can, a Windows installer needs exclusive access to files it wants to overwrite. So, an installer makes a series of xxx.dll.1 or xxx.exe.1 or whatever.1 files for each in-use file, then writes a batch file that runs the next time the OS boots. Those
Cheesy, but it works.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Faux Pas! (Score:3, Interesting)
The first problem is in-use file.
On Unix you can delete a file that's in-use and replace it. The actual storage isn't freed until the last handle is closed. On Windows, it doesn't work that way. Open handles don't keep storage around, so you can only rename the file to replace it (except on Win9x). But you can replace it, so that's only part of the problem. (for executable files, at least on
Re:Faux Pas! (Score:5, Funny)
"Windows has detected you have moved your mouse, would you like to restart for the changes to take place?"
$38? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:$38? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:$38? (Score:2)
Re:$38? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:$38? (Score:3, Interesting)
And the difference is? (Score:5, Insightful)
I know it says "As part of the deal, Microsoft also stripped out some unspecified features from both products" but surely there must be more details available than that?
Re:And the difference is? (Score:2, Funny)
I believe they removed just about everything from the \WINDOWS directory.
Re:And the difference is? (Score:3, Insightful)
Difference? Free software kicks their ass. (Score:3, Informative)
Full on Windows is not competitive in it's native language, so the notion of "stripped down sounded odd to me too, but what I found was even more surprising. Just a little reading is very enlightening. No one but Microsoft and end users will know what's going into the package but Windoze is even less competitive in Thai.
What could they remove for this obvious region based dumping project? Calc? Notepad? The clock on the button bar? Oh wai
Cut-rate? (Score:2, Insightful)
starter edition? (Score:2, Funny)
a tour at the start, allot of helpfiles and all the dangerous files hidden, so that you can't mess mutch up...
I wonder if they couldent have thought of a more fitting name for a stripped down version, like windows lite or so, since now it seems that windows normal is for the pro's
New hit song by MS.. (Score:5, Funny)
Not much between despair and ecstasy
One night in Bangkok and Microsoft tumble
Can't be too careful with your company
I can feel the devil walking next to me
Re:New hit song by MS.. (Score:4, Informative)
The Microsoft mentality (Score:5, Insightful)
However Thailand can have this nice stripped down version of XP.
Re:The Microsoft mentality (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The Microsoft mentality (Score:3, Insightful)
No matter what the article says, I'd bet that there will be some fine print in the "starter edition" EULA that is intended to stop this sort of thing.
Re:The Microsoft mentality (Score:3, Funny)
Re:The Microsoft mentality (Score:4, Interesting)
No Product Activation (Score:5, Insightful)
People in Thailand can share their copies with their friends and family. But those of us in the rest of the world cannot. It just makes NO sense. We pay MORE for restrictions!!!
Re:No Product Activation (Score:5, Insightful)
It makes perfect sense. The market determines the price; people are willing to pay $300 for a box of windows, so MS charges $300. Other countries can't afford that much, so they reduce the price to help move the product.
The fact that you pay more for more restrictions is just funny; you have alternatives [distrowatch.com].
Re:No Product Activation (Score:5, Insightful)
I suspect that Product Activation and other recent anti-copy measures have little to do with protecting sales. It is actually an attempt to derail a dangerous perception.
First, consider that "piracy" does not harm Microsoft. In the past decade or so, Microsoft's products have been widely pirated. Yet Microsoft's sales have still been impressive. And even an illegal copy of a product will work within Microsoft's lock-in business strategy.
So why all the recent activity with licensing? Microsoft must show that their products cost something. They must avoid looking like their software is free. If they fail to do this, they simply reenforce a major threat to their business; commodity software [slashdot.org]. Or, more specifically, the commodity operating system.
This new product reflects this strategy. Microsoft hasn't been especially concerned with the wide-spread illegal distribution of their products in Asia in the past. However, when the Thai government starts looking at Linux, Microsoft suddenly takes special steps.
Re:No Product Activation (Score:2)
Re:No Product Activation (Score:5, Funny)
Re:No Product Activation (Score:2)
Features left: (Score:5, Funny)
-stability
-security
Re:Features left: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Features left: (Score:3, Funny)
Starter Edition (Score:5, Funny)
Would you buy it? (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't know about everyone else here, but I'd be willing to shell out $38 for a bare bones XP and Office combo for those highly annoying occasions when I have to use Windows or Office for some task or another.
Of course, $38 is about as much as I would be willing to pay for the full-"featured" editions, anyhow. Does this cut rate version have some serious compatibility issues, or what? I imagine they wouldn't disable too much functionality, otherwise this little scheme could backfire on them quite badly.The Good and the Bad.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Hell, for 38 bucks I would give it a try if they rolled it out here. Of course they won't do that, because this whole tactic is about training the next generation of PC owners (developing nations) to become dependant upon MS crack.
How do you strip down XP anyway? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:How do you strip down XP anyway? (Score:3, Insightful)
apple for graphics
*nix for servers
windows for solitare
Government involvement (Score:2, Interesting)
So why would a government wants MS to cut price, instead of putting more effort to fight for piracy? Is it cheaper that way?
Re:Government involvement (Score:2, Interesting)
But you see, they are fighting piracy. If everyone starts pirating this starter edition rather than the full edition, then the amount of money lost to piracy will be significantly lower, or so the Thai government can claim.
bash: sig: command not found
So crime does pay then? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:So crime does pay then? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:So crime does pay then? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:So crime does pay then? (Score:5, Informative)
I'm in Bangkok at the moment actually, for the week. Perhaps some example prices:
1) dinner, with a beer: 80 Baht ($2)
2) 3 star hotel: 1000 Baht ($25)
3) Taxi to the airport: 400 Baht ($10)
4) Commuter train: 10 Baht (25 cents)
5) Recent LEGITIMATE video games: 400+ Baht ($10)
6) Recent LEGITIMATE DVDs: 200+ Baht ($5)
7) etc.
And that's all in Bangkok, not the countryside.
Anyways - if the actually expect people to buy a legitimate copy, they need to at least make an attempt pricing it properly. It's much more convincing to buy the $5 pirate copy of Windows (which you can get in the mall, in the street, you pick) when the legit version is hundreds of dollars! If the price comes down to a sane level, people will consider buying it.
Re:So crime does pay then? (Score:3, Informative)
Therefore, the best thing we can do to thwart Microsoft is to get the pirate vendors shut down.
Another way to look at it (Score:4, Insightful)
Now don't get me wrong, I think M$ is evil... but, even though a non-native english speaker can run *nix in their own language, any programming they want to do is predominantly restricted to English.
I work in Japan and we do a fair amount of programming in C as well as other languages, and funny enough, although the english abilities of my co-workers are nominal at best, a few verbs and the odd noun, if I speak to them in code they understand me compleatly... It is truely weird... The other day I was trying to tell one of the programmers that the coffee machine was out of sugar, the standard english phrase "The coffee machine is out of sugar' had no effect, as soon as I said 'if led = 1 then sato(sugar) = 0' I was understood...
So back to my origional statement, although I think open source is much better for the computer industry, the lack of having to learn english in order to get something to work for your business is a definate plus to the managers who decide to implement something purely on the basis of cost.
Re:Another way to look at it (Score:4, Informative)
Not everyone is so lucky. Microsoft Middle East (based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, overseeing operations in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Yemen, Lebanon, Jordan, Cyprus, Malta, Egypt and Pakistan) has hardly any content on its web sites (including the Middle East edition of MSDN) in anything but English. Nevermind that Arabic is the official language of the majority of those nations.
This would be a bargain... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:This would be a bargain... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:This would be a bargain... (Score:3, Interesting)
Actually, OO.o has the lightbulb, which I find just as annoying as Clippy (why does the lightbulb show up every single time I save a file?). And I disabled it too:)
And I think you need to lighten up-I was making a rimshot, I didn't say Office was bad because early versions of Clippy were annoying. I have a legal copy of Office XP installed, and while I use OO.o for text documents and as an office suite for my Linux box, I use Office for spreadsheets and databases bec
Clippy sure gets a lot of flack (Score:5, Funny)
Is it because he's annoying? Well even if he is, there are still three easy opportunities to remove Clippy. The first is on install, where you can customize the installation to remove the "Office Assistant". The second is in Word instself, where you can permenently "Turn off the office assistant". Finally you can temporarily "Hide the office assistant".
Save your mod points for things that are truly worth it. Clippy has had enough.
This might be a good idea elsewhere in the world (Score:2, Insightful)
Starter For What? (Score:3, Funny)
Shouldn't Microsoft call it "Linux Starter Edition," or "Mac Starter Edition?"
Surely they'll soon be switching to something else if this is even worse than Windows...
And so it begins... (Score:5, Insightful)
Microsoft is starting to see Linux as honest competition for the desktop market, and acting accordingly to become competitive again. I think you'll see something similar happen here - it wouldn't surprise me if the asking price for Microsoft software is cut dramatically in the next twenty-four months, and it also wouldn't surprise me if the quality starts to improve again.
All in all, this is a good thing, not a bad thing. The end users can only benefit from this.
Re:And so it begins... (Score:3, Interesting)
If they cut prices in the US, it'll be because everyone who will pay $300 for XP has paid $300 for XP, not because they're afraid of Linux. I think MS
Drud pushers... (Score:2, Redundant)
Of course, even most drug dealers know a few virtues, I hate to see how Microsoft perverts this tactic.
XP Starter? (Score:2)
What's the difference? (Score:2)
What the heck did they strip out?
Oh I know, maybe the the "Starter Edition" includes Microsoft Bob [toastytech.com] to make the OS easier to use.
Shrinking Windows (Score:4, Interesting)
Free... (Score:2)
Windows XP Beta? (Score:3, Interesting)
It's obvious that Microsoft is attempting to curb piracy in third-world countries. Sorry, it's not going to work. Once they've cracked the copy protection, XP Starter Edition will be should next XP Pro, Visual Studio
They even sell copies of Linux. Strangely, most PC I've seen in Thailand run pirated version of Windows. Even the people who sell copies of Linux next to Windows were surprised to learn that it was completely free.
More Linux advocacy in needed in such countries were the majority of the computer using population relay on pirated copies of Windows.
Re:Windows XP Beta? (Score:4, Informative)
I've got no idea how much advocacy they are doing, but there is a Thai linux group. Their web site [thai.net] includes a library for Thai language support. There is a page [thai.net] (in Thai) about the activities of the Thai Linux Working Group.
Just how stripped down? (Score:4, Insightful)
This is one of Microsoft's big problems. You ask how much for a FULL, unrestricted version of Windows to put on a single DESKTOP system, and the answer is in the thousands of dollars, because they only expect enterprise users to need such functionality, and only on dedicated servers. If you buy XP home or professional, and install 3rd party server software to handle a peak of over 10 users (5 for home), you are violating the EULA.
Linux and similar operating systems give you the freedom to do whatever you damn well please with your system, something that Microsoft is incapable of offering without cutting deeply into their profits, because of their high market share.
At least they're prepared (Score:5, Funny)
So they really could make a stripped down version (Score:5, Insightful)
When will the US see a version of Windows that is JUST an Operating System? I wouldn't even mind it if they included a separate disk with 'bundled' but optional software, like a music player, a photo album tool, and maybe some video editing software... heck for the good PCs they could even include some sort of DVD authoring tool.
So now you get even less... (Score:3, Insightful)
If MS wises up... (Score:5, Interesting)
All the bundled crap should be optional. That means I should be able to choose whether to install:
* IE, including disabling shell integration. Additionally I should be able to replace IE with an alternative browser that is used through the system, including applications that embed IE through COM.
* Media player
* Windows messenger
I should be able to fine tune which services are installed and have them explained to me at install time so I know exactly what ports are open. A compiler and build tool for C, C++ and C# should come preinstalled and in the path. You should be able to do anything from the console that you can do from the GUI.
If this seems outlandish, they could have it simply be two alternate modes of setup whereby you select your expertise level. Like, an "Express" install option versus an "Advanced" mode that lets you tailor everything you want.
(I tend to be an MS apologist, but this is one point where they really aggravate me.)
Re:A summary (Score:3, Interesting)
Freedom. Standards compliance. Sourcecode. The scrutiny of independant experts. No one else controls what you can do with your computer.
-jim