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Microsoft Develops XP 'Light' for Thailand
GoatJuggler writes with this Bangkok Post report that "Microsoft announced plans to develop a discounted, slightly crippled version of Windows XP for Thailand."
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Microsoft is notorious for bundling things to cause lock-in.
How are they going to balance that with creating a light version of XP?
I would like to get my hands on one of these if it does not include all the applications i dont need - windows messenger , internet explorer, Outlook express. Just the basic UI. I can customize it the way i need. Lesser the functionality, more secure the box will be.
Siggy Say, Siggy Do
Yes, I did RTFA, and it said nothing about what would be different between the "light" version and the normal version.
Is it going to have fewer M$ programs bundled with it or what? And if it is, what the hell isn't too tightly integrated for them to remove? Solitare and pinball?
Customers of this new entry level version of Windows would be presented with a clear and easy upgrade path to both Windows XP Home or Windows XP Professional, he added.
...
In France, tobacco companies have started selling packs of cigarettes containing only 19 cigarettes instead of 20. A "crippled" pack of smokes in a sense. Why? so that those who can't afford full-size packs since the latest price rises (read: kids and teens) can buy the 19 cigarette pack and get hooked.
Sounds like Microsoft is doing exactly that with poor countries: snare customers then pull on the knot. "buy our cheapo limited software, then when you need more functionalities, it'll be a lot more expensive to ditch Microsoft and go for free-software than pay for the Microsoft upgrade".
But I guess it's business as usual, all companies do that sort of thing, not just Microsoft, I'm not shouting evil-M$ here. But I do hope the Thai government sees through the trap
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Am I the only one who thinks this is to keep Linux and other free operating systems out of third world countries? In that sense it would be a strategic move.
Looks like Microsoft is finally listening to their poorer customers.
Toronto-area transit rider? Rate your ride.
The pro-Linux camps, however, have something to worry about here. Basically, Microsoft is willing to create a cut-rate version of XP rather than risk the users there switching over to Linux....
It's funny, people complain about how MS forces you to install everything (IE, Outlook, etc) and call in "anti-competitive" and when they offer it somewhere with these things stripped out it's called "crippled". There's no winning the article poster or OP, it seems.
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I would like to get my hands on one of these if it does not include all the applications i dont need - windows messenger , internet explorer, Outlook express. Just the basic UI. I can customize it the way i need. Lesser the functionality, more secure the box will be.
It sounds like you want windows XP embedded. For the embedded market, MS lets you pick & choose which parts of the OS you want.
Strangely enough, MS also says that this is completely impossible for the regular version, and that IE cannot be separated from the OS.
It's highly likely that one of the tweaks they're making to this "light" version is to lock it to the Thai language. If you want to use English, you must upgrade to the full-price XP Home at whatever the local equal to US$99 is...
Actually, I am guessing the "crippled" comment was more of a troll for the original author. Its a sure way to get comments, but then again, thats not a problem on /.
I agree with the other posts, I wouldn't call this crippled if it runs the apps, I would call it streamlined. I would be interested in a copy, if they "crippled" out the media players and such. Im sure it still has IE tho, since they wont let you use windowsupdate with Firebird.
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
There's an EU anti-trust investigation ongoing into unfair practices by Microsoft. If MS can sell Windows and Office cheaply in Thailand, one of the EU's questions is likely to be "Why can't you do that here?"; this crippled version aims to do an end run around such ideas by giving an obvious answer.
I appear to have a blog. Odd.
You're not serious, right? Just because they're forcing a different option doesn't mean that they aren't still forcing the choice.
I'm serious exactly because they're not "enforcing a different option", they're enforcing nothing -- they're taking stuff out, not replacing it with something else.
Since WMP, for example, isn't replace with WMP-lite.
Photo Aspect -- an open, free, J2EE & JBoss photoalbu
Reminds me of US pharmaceutical companies charging some countries more than others for some drugs. Like HIV drugs, for example.
...or gas stations charging 10 cents more/gallon at the only downtown pump versus one of many in the suburbs.
...or books on the New York Times bestseller list being discounted by 15% at some bookstores but not others...
...or taxis and buses charging an additional "downtown zone" or "rush hour zone" rate for the same ride...
...or the vending machine at the movie theater charging you $2 for a 16 oz. coke when you could buy a 12 pack for less that double that...
...or the hip bar downtown charging $6 for a Heineken but the college bar where my brother lives sells beer for 75 cents on tap...
...or the cell phone company letting you make free calls on weekends but charging you 25 cents/minute for weekdays...
Yeah. Gosh. supply. Demand. Different markets. Variable pricing strategies. Absolutely shocking. We simply must create laws so that the government can set fair prices for everyone.
I would have to say that explosives are the most abused technology in all of history.
Any version of XP a consumer can legally get is already crippled beyond use. It has a huge bug called "product activation" which means you can not reinstall the product you supposedly bought without Microsoft's permission. This renders the product completely useless because you won't be able to re-install it in 5 or 10 years to access old data, or if somehow newer MS code is even worse.
Why is some other version with an insignificant additional crippiling newsworthy?
Jason
ProfQuotes
I seem to recall not so long ago Microsoft claiming it was impossible to remove components or offer any sort of modular form of Windows? Wasn't this one of the prime arguments that MS used in the antitrust trial? "No, your honor, we can't remove Internet Explorer. It just doesn't work that way." I really wish the defense witness had been allowed to demonstrate just how modular XP embedded is...
I am the very model of a modern major general!
Win2k is 10, and I am not sure about NT4. I want to say it is like Win95, being the same interface without plug and play, meaning a default of 10 but changeable in the NetBeui properties (along with NCBS, which I have no idea is for). But I can't swear to NT4 or older. I have a copy of NT 3.1 around here somewhere, I could install and see I guess:) I know WfW 3.11 had no limitations, but was rather slow. At least it would network with Win95
There is no technical reason for the limitation, its purely a licensing thing. You know....
3. Profit!
Oh, on another point. I have a network with about 20 computers right now that needed a simple file server, so its got a P3/1ghz server running Windows 95, lol. The stations are all 98/ME/2k/pro. The 2k and pro boxes connect ok because I have file/printer sharing OFF on all the rest. They are more forgiving about connecting to a 9x "server". On a pure xp network, you just dont see the computers over the threshold. They don't exist.
And no, it was not easy getting 95 to run properly and semi secure on a newer box without proper drivers, but it runs well as long as you boot it every month (it runs out of seconds to count at about 39 days and like all 95, will autocrash then). And since it is firewalled off the net (hardware and software) it does the job. Oh, and yes, its even a licensed copy of 95.
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
Of course Microsoft should price products according to the target market, but given the doctrine of first sale, and the principles of free trade, if you can get a product legitimately for 1500 baht in Thailand, then that same product will become available everywhere for the same price.
Now you can either have free trade, or you can have fair regional pricing.
Personally, I'll take Linux.
oh brave new world, that has such people in it!
Like WinXP home and professional, there is a program out there (cough.. NTswitcher) which changes a couple registry settings and poof... home becomes identical to professional. As was the same with the windows 2000 series, I am pretty sure XP light is the same thing regardless of what M$ marketing saids.
Still, it's true enough. The government doesn't seem to care at all about foreign copyrights. And these aren't underground operations either. This is all out for public display.
PS. $1US ~= 40 baht.
Hardware, software, and blinking lights!