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MS Plans Low-Cost Windows for Brazil 440

Posted by timothy from the cut-rate-low-budget dept.
Atryn writes "According to this C|NET article, Microsoft is planning to release its XP Starter Edition in Brazil. Could the pressure of Brazil's overtures toward Linux be forcing Microsoft Brasil to compete?"
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MS Plans Low-Cost Windows for Brazil More

MS Plans Low-Cost Windows for Brazil

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  • Big Fight (Score:5, Insightful)

    by fembots ( 753724 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @09:37PM (#12219795) Homepage
    The Brazilian government has launched an initiative called "PC Conectado" (Connected PC), via which it hopes to sell up to one million computers (each costs $300 - $400 U.S.) to lower-middle income Brazilians this year. The cost of the PCs will be partially subsidized by the government.

    I wonder if MS can justify $400 million to secure 1 million Brazilian users. They might as well pay for the PCs with pre-installed Windows OS free of charge.

    Is this excessive even by MS standard?

    • Bzzzt.... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by raehl ( 609729 ) <raehl311.yahoo@com> on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @09:45PM (#12219864) Homepage
      $200 million to secure the *FIRST* 1 million users.

      • Re:Bzzzt.... (Score:3, Informative)

        by DickBreath ( 207180 )
        $200 million to secure the *FIRST* 1 million users.

        You mean first 1 million addicts.

        Remember boys, the first hit is always free. You know that the free hit is just a cost of doing business.

    • Re:Big Fight (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Dan Farina ( 711066 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @09:55PM (#12219949)
      This is, by Microsoft's standards, a relatively cheap way to keep application writers from targeting *NIX platforms. No move is too excessive, because an operating system without applications will never become a serious competitor. If a country's population moves into the computer age accustomed to and expecting applications for the *NIX platform, then Windows will lose the big card of application availability and have to compete on technical merits instead.

      It's much easier to simply prevent those applications from becoming major in the first place.
    • God, PLEASE, if you exist, give Brazil the senses not to buy into this microsoft (lower-casing/deprecation of their name intentional/perpetual with me...) "reduced-price-digital-crack" addiction. Open your arms and take them to our bosom and nurture them (oh, sorry, you probably have people thinking god is a man...)

      Brazil, if you're listening, REGAIN your freedom and independence. Your national security, privacy, sovereignty and more are at stake when you use a so-called operating system the encryption ke

    • Re:Big Fight (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Punto ( 100573 )
      I don't think so.. Argentina is doing a similar thing, except they sell the $300 computer for $700 (around $17/month for 40 months), with "Windows XP® Home Edition" (whatever, I'm just pasting from the website [programamipc.gov.ar]). Microsoft is one of the main sponsors of this thing.. My point is, if they're spending all that money, they're more likely to buy some politicians so they can institute something like this (and get a nice return on their investment). They're not a charity.

      Some trivia: the name of the program i

    • Re:Big Fight (Score:3, Insightful)

      by 1u3hr ( 530656 )
      I wonder if MS can justify $400 million to secure 1 million Brazilian users. They might as well pay for the PCs with pre-installed Windows OS free of charge.

      If even one country, even not a first world one, was to "switch" to Linux (or anything else), there'd be an incubator for creating the whole ecosystem: business apps, games, servers; to force hardware companies to make drivers; to provide polished interfaces for Juan Sixpack. This would be an immediate threat to MS worldwide. So nothing is too much to

  • Starter Edition? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by agm ( 467017 ) * on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @09:38PM (#12219802)
    Features cut from the various Starter Editions have included support for multiple user accounts; networked printers; the ability to personalize desktops with multiple looks and feels for different users; and support for screen resolutions above 800 X 600 DPI (dots per inch). Starter Edition also prevents users from launching more than three applications simultaneously.>

    I didn't realise the Starter Edition was so crippled. I would consider that barely useful!
    • The Starter Edition would be good for shop displays though. It'd stop those pesky kids from using multiple net send commands and filling the screens with porn popups.

    • Re:Starter Edition? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Ruke ( 857276 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @09:53PM (#12219934)
      Look at the system requirements:

      * Desktop PC with a Celeron, Duron, Geode, Sempron or similar processor; 233 MHz processor clock speed required and 300 MHz or higher recommended
      * 64 MB of RAM; 128 MB of RAM maximum
      * 1.5 GB of available hard disk space, 40 GB maximum hard disk space
      * CD-ROM or DVD drive
      * Super VGA 800x600 resolution video adaptor and monitor
      * Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device

      Microsoft also doesn't want you running this if you don't have a ****-box PC. 128 RAM max?

      • While it might have a smaller footprint once all of those features are cut out (which I doubt since the code doesn't necessarily need to be smaller, just handcuffed), a 1.5GB drive would still barely be useable. Heck, getting three applications installed, let alone run them simultaneously, would be something of a challenge. (I'll bet they limit the number of disk drives as well.)

        As for RAM... Win2K ran/runs acceptably in 128MB for daily office tasks such as reading mail, browsing, writing small documents

    • Now with 95% less everything! Gonna sell like hotcakes in the EU.

    • Re:Starter Edition? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by EvilCabbage ( 589836 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @09:57PM (#12219960) Homepage
      "I would consider that barely useful!"

      I'd say, so does Microsoft. The plan is to no doubt give people a taste and entice users to 'upgrade' to a full version. I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't laced with various pop-up dialogue boxes; "To activate this great feature, purchase XP full..etc.." but I'm not sure that would happen at all.

      These people aren't forking out a few hundred bucks for a 'full' OS, they'll just see what they're missing out on and pirate it.

      If I bought a new car and only three of the gears worked, I wouldn't upgrade to a newer model, I'd go to their competition. The competition in this case just happens to be a pirated model, or (shock, horror) doing without a computer at all.

      I hope this plan fails miserably. It deserves to.
      • ... but of course another alternative to piracy or not having a PC at all that I forgot to mention is *nix/BSD/etc based PC.

        Go easy on me, brain is fried from auditing this week...

      • Re:Starter Edition? (Score:2, Insightful)

        by compm375 ( 847701 )
        What will happen is people will buy Starter Edition, then yes, pirate it. That is still better for MS than if they did't buy any version of Windows. This can't hurt MS at all. $36 USD (is that the cost?) is better than $0.
      • If I bought a new car and only three of the gears worked, I wouldn't upgrade to a newer model, I'd go to their competition.

        well as long as those gears are Drive, Park and Reverse, I'm happy ;)

      • How much would you bet (Score:5, Insightful)

        by rbanffy ( 584143 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @11:23PM (#12220471) Homepage Journal
        How much would you bet that Microsoft would prefer if people got pirate versions of Windows "Less-Crippled Edition" instead of trying, say, Linux?

        I know I would, if I was in their shoes.
        • Good point, but it would be inconsistent with their recent policy of making pirating Windows more difficult (online activation and such).

          They cannot have it both ways, as in stopping Windows pirating AND "competing" against Linux with easily pirated versions.

      • Re:Starter Edition? (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Pyrion ( 525584 )
        The competition in this case just happens to have the market share of a Lamborghini, the sturdyness of a Mercedes, the fuel economy of a Honda and the handling and feeling of security of an M1A1 Abrams tank, and you can get these for free, legally.

    • 800x600 DPI? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Ryan C. ( 159039 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @10:01PM (#12219988)
      What's the problem with that? I run my 21" LCD at 1600x1200 and that's just a bit over 80x60DPI. This thing has ten times the reslolution of my system!

      What? The article author is clueless about technology and just spouted some jargon? Come on, let's give her the benefit of the doubt and assume she uses a 1" screen.

    • Re:Starter Edition? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by i_should_be_working ( 720372 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @10:21PM (#12220133)
      The thing in the technology world that I absolutely hate the worst is when a company expends extra effort to make a product worse. It make me really despise them.

      I would understand if the low budget version was worse because they *didn't* put as much effort into it. But they actually paid someone to make it worse on purpose. I know this practice has been around for years. I just wanted to complain now.

      Anyway, go Brasil!

      • Crippling products (Score:3, Interesting)

        by dallaylaen ( 756739 )
        I am not an economist.

        In a hi-tech market, the R&D cost is much greater than the manufacturing costs, and marginal costs are much less then average:

        dC/dq << C/q

        where C(q) = cost to produce q pieces.

        This way, if you want to release a cheaper product without undermining the market for the expencive one, you can

        (1) make r&d twice, pay twice the cost, collect twice the price for both

        (2) cripple the expencive one, ???, profit.

        (3) totally lower the price, go out of business, let your competit

    • Re:Starter Edition? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by cgenman ( 325138 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @10:24PM (#12220159) Homepage
      On the one hand, I always thought that multi-user stuff was trouble for most first-hand computer users, and wouldn't mind seeing it gone.

      On the other hand, only three applications simultaneously? Opening up the process manager, I see 54 running processes, from basics like TaskSwitch.exe to my e-mail filter K9.exe to this browser. How can one say what is an app and what isn't? A folder window is open. Is it an app? Is Mozilla an app when it is preloaded into the tray? Is I.E. an app? Is I.E. an app when coming from a folder?

      Maximum 40GB HDD? Can you even get drives that small anymore? Maximum 128 MB of RAM? That maxes out on one of the chips in a modern piece of RAM.

      Geez, the only thing this looks like it will be good for is shuttle missions.

    • I didn't realise the Starter Edition was so crippled. I would consider that barely useful!

      Actually there was a discussion among Microsoft enginner of what name they would give it.

      Suggestion #1:
      Stupid Edition

      Suggestion #2:
      gullible n00b Edition

      Averaging the two above:
      Starter Edition
    • Starter Edition also prevents users from launching more than three applications simultaneously.

      Maybe this is a sneak preview of Longhorn antivirus technology?

    • Re:Starter Edition? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Zemran ( 3101 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @10:58PM (#12220353) Homepage Journal
      Such a crippled version will make Linux look more attractive in comparison.

    • Re:Starter Edition? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by InvalidError ( 771317 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @11:49PM (#12220588)
      Time to dig out all those forgotten Win98SEs... they might not have the more stable NT core but at least they suffer none of the nonsense restrictions and it also has more functionnal file sharing than XP Home.

      Of course, with Win9x, a firewall (at the very least) is pretty much mandatory.

      I almost go berserk when I have to deal with XP Home because stuff I use all the time is either "misplaced" or disabled... if I had to deal with XP Starter, the temptation to simply throw the whole PC out the window could be dangerously strong.

      I hope competition will eventually force MS to drop XP Pro pricing to a reasonable level... like $100 retail-boxed - but I will not be holding my breath. In the meantime, I love free, campus-wide-licensed MSDNAA stuff.

      Anyway, the way Microsoft is selling such outrageously crippled Windows XPs is... outrageous. If it were not for programs requiring Win2k or higher being increasingly more common, I would still prefer Win98SE over XP Home/Starter.

      Yes, Starter is not worth using. An XP Starter CD belongs pretty much to the same value category as AOL CDs. An OS that cannot be used to do anything useful is not worth the CD it is distributed on or the bandwidth used to download it.

      At least we can get some form of consolation from the fact that XP Starter asian launches so far have been practically absolute failures. Let's hope this bulk rejection trend will continue and that MS will eventually make the right choice: kill Starter, slash Home and Pro prices... to something like $60 for Home and $120 for Pro.

  • reminds me a dealer (Score:5, Funny)

    by NoGuffCheck ( 746638 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @09:38PM (#12219805)
    first they give you a free hit, sooner or later your hooked on the stuff.

    • Re:reminds me a dealer (Score:5, Interesting)

      by A beautiful mind ( 821714 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @09:42PM (#12219842)
      Except that this is a stupid deal.

      Who would want to buy a crippled operating system? The capabilities of an operating system should be dependant on two things only: software producing capabilities (you need to write the software after all and it's not an easy job to do) and hardware. Marketing reasons aren't on the list, so that MS could sell it's "normal" operating system on an artificially inflated high price.

      • Re:reminds me a dealer (Score:3, Insightful)

        by nathanh ( 1214 )
        Who would want to buy a crippled operating system?

        Because you can't afford the uncrippled version?

        Seriously, if you need Windows for whatever reasons, and you can't afford to buy the uncrippled version, and you're adverse to the illegal and arguably immoral copying of software that belongs to Microsoft, then the crippled version is the next best thing.

        • Re:reminds me a dealer (Score:5, Insightful)

          by WNight ( 23683 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @11:35PM (#12220520) Homepage
          You're under the impression that copying from Microsoft is immoral. (As opposed to misguided and pointless.)

          Microsoft has spent more money than I'll ever have on what should be illegal, outright bribes (oh, sorry, campaign contributions) to politicians who coincidently refuse to charge them for their crimes.

          The reason I wouldn't pirate their software is that I wouldn't want to polute the world with more incompatible windocs and open my computer up to every virus under the sun. I'll do everything in my power to hurt Microsoft - they're waging a war against me - wanting to lock me out of my PC, wanting to lock me out of my media, wanting to make me a criminal for trying to make something work (EULAs that they say prohibit reverse-engineering.)

          The worst thing right now for the computer market are the software vendors. They're rich because they came in at the right time and have released horrible, horrible software. Maybe open source software is crappy, but if you've ever tried to install and tweak XP you'll know it's just as bad. They've got the interfaces, but god fucking forbid you want to change settings on one monitor without fucking up the other. Impossible. Change the refresh on one, watch the color depth on the other change. Change the layout, watch the refresh change. Change you network name and reboot before it takes.

          All that and they're trying to make tinkering illegal to force people to use them. Evidently capitalism, you know, competing by making a better product, is too much work for the poster boys of American industry - the only way Microsoft has "innovated" (and this counts Adobe, whose latest Photoshop is the old one, with a raw importer - wow! The power of industry!) is DRM and ways of keeping paying customers from using what they buy.

          Anyone who has ever admined unix boxes and MS boxes knows of what I speak. In unix your config files are text files which can be SCPed around - with military grade encryption. With windows you can supposedly push changes, but it often doesn't work and when it does you're doing it with their proprietary software and its fragile and insecure. With Windows you can (oh all thank Lord Bill for saving us from even more useless clicking) push updates from your central server, but only if you buy about a few different packages from them and the stars are aligned correctly.

          And they wonder why there are windows viruses. There are windows viruses because in 2005 it doesn't have actual fucking multi-user permissions and properly seperated logins. It still can't prevent local-root exploits. Rather than fix this though, they try to lobby congress and have open source software ruled a threat to advancement (for what, being better?) and try to ban it in any publicly funded arena, despite that being exactly where people deserve to have open source - where they pay for it with their tax dollars.

          No, fuck Microsoft. I'll do my part by buying a CD here and shipping it to the Asian pirates. Anything else I can do to take a bite out of their bottom line? I only ask because they're willing to piss on everyone to get richer - seems like they should welcome the "competition".

    • Re:reminds me a dealer (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Greyfox ( 87712 )
      Why do you think MS never made a big deal about the rampant MS DOS piracy. Piracy MADE Microsoft what it is today. If they'd made an effort to force users to license DOS, application authors might have targetted other platforms. They got an entire generation of programmers and businesses hooked on their software and when they started to get anal about licensing, it was more of an effort to switch platforms than it was to just pony up the cash and continue on the MS path.

  • Uhhh (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Eric(b0mb)Dennis ( 629047 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @09:38PM (#12219808)
    If it didn't work in Asia, why would it work in Brazil?

    • Re:Uhhh (Score:2, Insightful)

      by GulagMoosh ( 806406 )
      Why exactly is this a Linux story? I have nothing else to say.

      • Re:Uhhh (Score:5, Interesting)

        by bogado ( 25959 ) <bogado.bogado@net> on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @09:50PM (#12219906) Homepage Journal
        MS is trying to introduce this "starter edition" in Brasil because the goverment is planing in creating a cheap computer to connect the lower classes to the internet. This sheap computer is planed to be shipped with linux, but MS is trying to convince the goverment that this "crippled edition" is better.

        The best quote I heard from a goverment official is that the Brasilian goverment will not help to stablish the MS monopoly.

        • Re:Uhhh (Score:4, Interesting)

          by strider44 ( 650833 ) on Wednesday April 13, 2005 @06:26AM (#12221952)
          They should know that noone will listen to them, because they make most of their money out of noone listening to the linux and mac zealots telling people about (arguably) better operating systems than Windows.

          The Brazillian people will use what the Brazillian government give them, and couldn't give a fuck what operating system they use. Perhaps if their plan is a success (and I can't see it not being a success) other second/third world countries will follow suit and heavily promote linux.

    • Re:Uhhh (Score:3, Interesting)

      by 0x461FAB0BD7D2 ( 812236 )
      It doesn't have to work. Microsoft is doing this for one reason and one reason only: to continue competing with Linux.

      If they didn't release these crippled products in these countries, people would get the idea that they couldn't compete. That is far more dangerous to Redmond's position than a failure of a crippled OS in developing markets.

      As an added benefit, it gives people the impression that Microsoft thinks a lame version of XP is sufficient to compete against Linux.

      • Re:Uhhh (Score:2, Interesting)

        by nolife ( 233813 )
        If they didn't release these crippled products in these countries, people would get the idea that they couldn't compete

        I would say looking at what they have crippled and/or removed, they are already sending a very loud and clear message that they can not compete. 800x600 max resolution? No more then 3 applications running? What is that, like 1992? They might as well start selling DOS and Windows 3.1 with the Trumpet Winsock TCP/IP stack. That would actually have more capability then what they are off

        • Re:Uhhh (Score:2, Insightful)

          by 0x461FAB0BD7D2 ( 812236 )
          Their excuse for providing this Starter Edition is that it is a low-cost alternative to XP. If the Starter Edition provided modern features, they'd have a hell of a time trying to sell XP.

          As others have mentioned, it's a gateway to XP and future Windows OSes, while simultaneously providing competition to Linux, and broadcasting Microsoft's view of how far Linux has progressed. Microsoft is not serious about this. It's a ploy so that it can say, "Hey, at least we tried. But people still want to be pirates.

  • Veeery Smart(tm) (Score:2, Insightful)

    by TheAvatar666 ( 670893 )
    Brazilian people already don't pay for windows. Do they really think they'll start paying for a crippled version of it? Right on Microsoft. Right on. I for one, wouldn't use it.

  • No. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by LiNKz ( 257629 ) * on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @09:40PM (#12219829) Homepage Journal
    It is far too limited to be useful to anyone. Users who need to use the computer will pirate. Government will not be stuck with a stripped down almost unusable copy of Windows, when they could build their own hack of linux and use that on their boxen. The only people I would expect this could be useful for are Computer Manufactures.. who will just throw a copy of Starter on the computer for a bit less money.

  • What're the odds... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by menace3society ( 768451 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @09:44PM (#12219857)
    Everyone always talks about how, especially in third-world type places, computers with Linux pre-installed just end up getting an illegal copy of Windows put on, and either ignoring or erasing the linux installation. How much does anyone want to bet that the same thing happens with XP Starter Edition?

    Sure, maybe, maybe some people just use Starter Edition for a while, then realize its limitations and decide to upgrade. If they can hardly afford a $300 computer, will they really be able to afford a $260 OS upgrade? Chances are, they'll talk to everyone about how they need an upgrade, until the kid from city hears about it and comes along with a CD-case full of cracked Windows CDs and installs it for $10.

    • why on earth would they put a pirate version of Windows on there? These aren't computer scientists or even geeks, these are poor people who know almost nothing about computers. Given a year they couldn't tell the difference between KDE and Windows XP.

      No if the government gives them linux then they'll use linux simply because they wouldn't even know any alternatives exist!
  • see, they have already recovered development costs,
    probably 10x over.
    if they sold the professional edition for $10 they STILL MAKE MONEY.

    So, now they insult users by stripping it down, which is NO DOUBT going to cause 1/2 the software out there to BREAK, then sell it for something like $50-$75 anyhow!

    This is a SLAP IN THE FACE.

    Why do you think the icon for them here on /. is the borg?

    All the money that bill and his wife supposedly give away, but they cant donate a goddamn copy of windows to some poor family just KILLS ME.

    M$ can ROT IN HELL.
    • Yeah, either that, or... you could, you know... Just not buy their software. Or buy it second-hand.
    • Well, sure, why not. And every telecomm should donate what they do, and banks should make bottomless loans, and healthcare should all be donated from elsewhere, and the food should all be shipped in gratis, and so on. There's no reason that Brazilians should have to pay for anything, but they should definately have all of the standard-of-living stuff that everyone else has. It's only fair. In fact, there's really no reason why any software or services should be paid for by any user in Central or South Ameri

  • If you take a step back and think about it... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by 3770 ( 560838 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @09:47PM (#12219875) Homepage
    There would be no extra cost for Microsoft to sell them the full version for the same price. And they would be far more competitive with Linux if they did.

    The only reason to sell a crippled version is to not undermine the market in the rich countries.

    If they sell the same version for a substantially lower price MS will have a hard time explaining that difference.

    I guess that this is obvious really.

    But even if it is obvious, when you think about it, I believe it is enough of a smoke screen for people in rich countries to not question the prices of the full versions of Windows.
    • This might be irrelevant, but I think MS may be worried about people buying a $36 full version, and shipping it to the U.S. to undercut MS' profits.
    • Actually, it cost Microsoft ADDITIONAL development and testing, above and beyond what they spent to develop the normal version of XP, to cripple what they already had. And it'll continue to cost them money, since every time they release a security patch or service pack, they'll have to make sure it works on the crippled version as well.
  • People sometimes accuse me of running a 'toy OS'. But it seems like this starter edition is really 'toy edition'. It takes a desktop computer that 30 years ago would have been a super computer, and turns it into something barely useful. Way to innovate Microsoft!

  • In South America (Score:5, Interesting)

    by kaos.geo ( 587126 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @09:48PM (#12219883)
    Here in South America (I'm from Argentina) Linux is getting more and more attractive, specially after sucesive devaluations(1 U$s = 3 Pesos) Most of the budget PCs here come with diffrent flavors o'linux preloaded, but unfortunately ppl get a friend or pay a tech to install copies of Windows, due to the fact that it is the system the know how to use, either because they work in it or they are just plain used to it. I think Microsoft will eventually release these "crippled" versions everywhere, bundled or otherwise and finally, after ppls complaints will release a "less-crippled" version or reduced priced versions of the originals. It would be nice to introduce Linux in the corporate scene.It would make a lot of things easier.

  • In other news... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @09:49PM (#12219893)
    Ford follows suit and announces a cheaper mustang for Brazillians that has a big hole in the floor that operates ala Freddy Flintstone..

  • What is Microsoft thinking? (Score:5, Informative)

    by gangofwolves ( 875288 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @09:49PM (#12219901)
    According to the CIA World Factbook, Brazil has a per capita GDP of $8,900. US per capita GDP is $37,800 (all US-$, all figures 2003 est.).

    And this doesn't even take distribution of wealth into account. According to the above mentioned source 25% of Brazil's population are below the poverty line. In reality, it's much more (they are notorious for not keeping track of economical data or even just plain making stuff up).

    So you have a small upper class, a small middle class, a huge blue collar working class (with many people out of work) and a lot of people unaccounted for.

    If you're living on $741 a month, do you really spend $36 on a license you essentially don't need (since there's no enforcement in Brazil). Also, consider that those $36 are 20% of your monthly income (not of your monthly disposable income).

    I don't really get who the folks at Microsoft think their target audience is. The upper class can afford XP Pro/Home licenses. They've either already purchased those (probably OEM licenses) or simply don't care. Anyone outside that demographic just won't be able to afford a Starter license, even if they wanted to.

    • And the lower classes won't be able to afford a computer capable of running XP Starter either.
    • $36 is about 5% of $741, and $741 isn't all that bad, I live on about $1200 from scholarship over here, and prices are several times as high.
      • Some info direct from Brazil.

        Everybody here is missing the point. The $741 is an average, and Brazil has (literally) one of the worst income distributions in the world. Upper and middle class are less than 5% of the population (depends a little on your class definition, but not far from 5%). Minimum wage is about 100 dollars a month. A blue collar worker usually makes from 200 to 400 dollars a month (this at the company I work at, which has over 4000 employees, so it is a representative sample). I think a
    • Under what math is $36 20 percent of $741? Is this with the calculator bundled with XP Starter Edition?

      I suppose you meant its about 20 percent of the weekly pay?

    • It all depends what it's worth to you....

      I spent my life savings ($700) for a 4MHz computer with 16K of RAM.

      You're saying that $36 is about 5% of monthly income in working class Brazil - in the US, I'd call poor working class about $24,000 a year - $2000 per month, 5% of that is $100 - which is just about exactly what I see copies of XP home for sale on the shelves of Office Depot. If you make more money, well, then, sir, you really want to upgrade to XP professional, then, don't you?

      Remember, also,

  • Wow! (Score:2, Funny)

    by changa ( 197280 )

    Great idea! Bet they sell dozens of copies.

  • It's part of an anti-piracy strategy (Score:4, Insightful)

    by tyates ( 869064 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @09:50PM (#12219907) Homepage
    In countries like Brazil, Indonesia, Thailand, & Malaysia (the countries listed in the article, and I've been to three of them), you buy your software for $2 from a guy who burns CDs at the local Internet cafe. Microsoft says this is for the first time user, but it's really for the government and big corps who are actually concerned about whether they follow licensing rules. Microsoft's strategy for developing countries is to go: govt-> multi-national company->local company->middle class individual->everybody. They're still on the govt step.
  • We don't want to provide a version of XP without Media Player to the EU. That would be catastrophic to our business.

    However Thailand can have this nice stripped down version of XP.

  • Well it worked so well in Asia :-P. The problem is that these parts of the world need low cost FULL featured OSs and applications that can be customized and integrated easily. Maddog Hall has explained at our LUG meetings on several occasions the advantages of OSS in such environments. Scientists at underfunded universities in this region can easily get real work done without wasting hard fought funding on hard to purchase and integrate opaque proprietary software.

    --LLM

  • Compete? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Frodo Crockett ( 861942 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @09:56PM (#12219955)
    Could the pressure of Brazil's overtures toward Linux be forcing Microsoft Brasil to compete?

    You call a crippled OS that can only run three foreground apps at once competition? They're going to be laughed out of every government office they set foot in.

  • Not to generalize, but ... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by B3ryllium ( 571199 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @10:02PM (#12219990) Homepage
    ... people buy software in Brazil? Since when?

  • This is fireselling (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Douglas Simmons ( 628988 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @10:03PM (#12220004) Homepage
    Microsoft's greatest asset is their marketshare because in this particular industry large marketshare leads to larger marketshare. If you have a few chunks of the world here and there unwilling enough to pay the Microsoft tax, then there will be a greater demand in that country to make software for society to be accommodated with. Then that free/cheaper software born out of competition chips away at Microsoft's leverage to use their marketshare to gain more.

    I'd bet it is worth more to Microsoft to give away Windows to every Brazillian for free than to lose some business by pricing it too high, if they could only do one or the other.

  • $300 PC? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by YrWrstNtmr ( 564987 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @10:04PM (#12220005)
    Like this one [dell.com] or this one? [walmart.com] It's not that much of a stretch to get a cheap box, even with the disgustingly expensive Windows on it.

  • One BIG thing working against MS (Score:5, Insightful)

    by i_want_you_to_throw_ ( 559379 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @10:06PM (#12220022) Journal
    If you're a foreign government and you're running everything on MS then your entire infrastructure is being controlled by a foreign power. Doesn't matter how well MS wants to play it is already at a disadvantage in that regard.

  • That nobody would want it is the POINT. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by shaitand ( 626655 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @10:08PM (#12220037) Journal
    Microsoft doesn't expect anyone to buy this. It is a statement. They are releasing this to show that competition with linux does not result in a superior product. At the same time releasing this to compete with linux is a way of insulting linux, implying that linux is crap.

    And last but not least, they are releasing this so they can claim that their pricepoint is fair. They will claim that this is all they can offer at these rock bottom prices because software developments costs... etc. etc. etc. We all know how huge their profit margins are on windows so we know it's a load of crap. On the other hand it is not entirely... it looks good on paper to beurocrats who do not use the software themselves, they hope people will turn around and buy full versions, and Microsoft doesn't just have to make huge profits. They have to meet or exceed ANTICIPATED profits that are based on their previous ridiculous earnings or their stock will drop and that hits the top dogs pocketbooks.

  • Analogy? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by boingyzain ( 739759 )
    This is the software equivalent of those first cigarettes behind the toilet block. You know, the ones that get you hooked for life.

    Take me for example. I wanted to play old games with people across the internet which required an IPX network. Microsoft's home grown solution is their VPN client/eserver package which is naturally built into the entire user/security system. Anyway I wanted to use this system for gaming, just one problem: I had/have windows xp professional. This version of windows has an arbitr

  • Useful (Score:2, Funny)

    by Tezprice ( 875643 )
    I for one think this is a very useful product. A) Buy and install XP Starter Edition. B) Download required fully functional OS using Bit Torrent. C) Burn to CD, format and install.
  • Corporation responds to competition. Slashdot predicts end of world. News at 11.

  • More work for less product? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Random BedHead Ed ( 602081 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @10:18PM (#12220109) Homepage Journal

    This is all funny to me because I've been using free and open source softare for a few years and I have a powerful GUI, tons of utilities, and can launch dozens of applications at the same time. Ubuntu with Kubuntu took a great deal less time to install than Windows does, and is a lot more fun. So in this case something free (in my opinion, anyway) is better than something merely cheap.

    But the even more funny irony of this starter edition is that it actually required extra work to cripple it. It's not a product that required less work, it required the opposite (more). Think about that for a moment. No other industry could possibly work this way. To create this "cheaper" version Microsoft had to devote extra time and money to crippling it, packaging it and marketing it. To use the obligatory car-industry-versus-computer-industry analogy, it's a bit like building a complete Humvee, chopping off bits of it and selling it for the price of a used Yugo. It required all of the work of building the Humvee, plus extra time and money for a Yugo-equivalent crippling, and now sells for the Yugo price. I'll stick with my Sherman tank, and recommend Brazil does the same.

  • A brief disclaimer, I am an american who has now been living in Brazil for the last three years.

    Microsoft is just following what the game industry has been doing for the past few years here.

    The huge amount of pirated software and DVD's, and CD's at places around Brazil has actually caused the prices of the legitimate versions to drop dramatically. Piracy it seems does make a difference.

    I can get a legitimate copy of any top shelf PC game in Brazil now for about $10 US. The only difference is it comes wit

  • With a little luck... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by rnturn ( 11092 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @10:21PM (#12220129)

    ... Microsoft will learn just how useless it is to expect to win the game of Whack-A-Mole.

    What I find that might even be funnier is that while Microsoft is busy dumping less expensive (and less functional) copies of Windows XP out on the market in an attempt to stave off the adoption of Linux, they may be making it harder to get people to move to Longhorn. More than one pundit has written a piece about their installed base doesn't move to the latest and greatest (and, of course, the most secure|stable|whatever ever) version of Windows because they've decided that the current version is ``good enough''. Microsoft is only compounding their installed-base problem by releasing XP-lite in Brazil. Some users will buy it to ``get legal'' but those people may be satisfied enough with XP-lite that they become a problem for MS when Longhorn finally comes out. Those who don't buy into XP-lite probably wouldn't have in the first place and will either continue running pirated versions of Windows or switch to Linux. I'd say MS loses no matter which of the three paths a Brazilian user might take.

  • Brazil: Independence & openness against arroga (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Futurepower(R) ( 558542 ) on Wednesday April 13, 2005 @12:27AM (#12220756) Homepage

    Brazil: A country that uses proprietary software with hidden file formats is not an independent country. This is particularly true when considering software from the United States. The U.S. government spends a huge amount on spying on other countries. Some of the spying is done to benefit U.S. companies to allow them to compete with foreign companies.

    Brazil: Do you want to be a partner of a company that has broken the laws of its own country? If that company has in the past shown little respect for the laws of its own country, would it respect the laws of Brazil?

    Brazil: Remember that hidden elements of the U.S. government supported the military coup [gwu.edu] against democracy in Brazil, without the knowledge of most U.S. citizens.

  • Price Discrimination Maximizes Profits (Score:5, Informative)

    by CodeBuster ( 516420 ) on Wednesday April 13, 2005 @12:43AM (#12220851)
    If Microsoft does indeed have monopoly power (e.g., they face a downward sloping demand curve) then they would maximize their profits by price discrimination. Price discrimination means charging each group of customers the maximum amount that they are willing or able to pay for the product or service. This is the winning strategy for any monopoly assuming that they are not legally restricted from price discriminating. Thus, this type of behavior by Microsoft is not surprising, but rather entirely expected as per the textbook examples of unrestricted monopolies.

  • what are they thinking ? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by moro_666 ( 414422 ) <kulminaator@ g m a i l.com> on Wednesday April 13, 2005 @01:23AM (#12221024) Homepage
    i live in a small country in northern europe, we aint exactly poor but we earn usually less money here than the european and american workers that have the same job.

    most here people dont buy windows here, they use some pirate version or have chosen linux instead. cause they just can't afford to spend money on software. besides the local people here really have no respect for software as a product.

    russia is right beside us, people there earn even less. bill gates in his wildest dream can't sell no windows starter edition over here (they have launched it there, but believe me, there is no progress on selling there). i wouldn't wonder if their government would use pirated versions of microsofts tools too.

    brazil is somewhat on the same level of economy as russia. a big country, and no money whatsoever (at least on the hands of microsoft's target group).

    if you give a brazillian a choice to buy a limited windows version, pirate a windows version or use linux, he will choose one of the two last, no doubt about it.

    none is really interested in buying a limited version of windows in a country where a solid worker earns the fee of window's licence in 1-2 months.

  • is the os cost the real problem? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by freddej ( 122902 ) * on Wednesday April 13, 2005 @06:26AM (#12221953) Homepage
    Just a little thought here: After reading all about this linux vs. win there is so much more you get from a linux distribution, and I'm not talking about the down-to-core os-tools, but the applications that you can ship with the os, like free office applications, good web browsers, image editing and so forth and so on. Windows is just crap without a ton of other software downloaded or bought, with an own linux distribution you can distribute a complete pc-home-work-machine, not a dumb terminal that needs external software to be really useful (m$ paint anyone? :)

  • About brazilian users (Score:3, Insightful)

    by vhogemann ( 797994 ) <victor.hogemann@com> on Wednesday April 13, 2005 @07:57AM (#12222355) Homepage
    As a brazilian citzen, I can say a word or two about our average computer user... They're clueless, as any other computer illiterate in the world. So, if it's not crippled for GAMES most users won't notice the difference.

    Also, most of the users use whatever OS that came with their machines. I don't know of any home user that bought a LEGAL copy of Windows to update.

    This "Windows Starter Edition" wont do any good for Microsoft here. The home user is already using Windows, so sales wont grow up. The small business are using Linux SERVERS, not desktops... so thei're attacking the wrong front here. And, finally, the governament is commited with OpenSource.

    It would be a lot better if they created a "Microsof Office Start Edition" to fight OpenOffice. This is what is really driving people to Linux Desktops around here.

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