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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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It's possible to wring even less functionality out of Windows XP?
Revolutionary!
Philip Sandifer's academic website
Sounds like an improvement. Thats about three steps less crippled than my version, and cheaper to boot!
Boy, how can I buy this. I would much rather have a slightly crippled version rather than the massively crippled version that Microsoft supplied my OEM for use with my notebook.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Didn't they already released Windows XP Home?
-Mr. Fusion
1.Release product in piracy capital of the world
2.?????
3.Profit!
Microsoft is notorious for bundling things to cause lock-in.
How are they going to balance that with creating a light version of XP?
The article says "
because of the complexity of an operating system, reducing functionality was not a simple process and every modification would have to be thoroughly tested.
So why would it make sense to spend more money in making these reductions? Why not just give the standard package? I'm missing something here.
The law of excluded middle : Either I'm foo or I'm foobar
This is quite the desperate attempt by MS to obtain a larger share of the world OS market. Hopefully those in Bangkok will learn that there's an un-crippled, stable, fast operating system out there already, and it's FREE.
I got a +5, Troll
...where the ILoveYou worm was named MeLoveYouLongTime
Slightly Crippled?
Yeah, it comes pre-installed with 14 viruses.
Slightly Crippled?
It's product activation is 30 days expired.
Slightly Crippled?
It's the latest version.
Slightly Crippled? .NET
They wrote it using
Slightly Crippled?
But it comes with a free Frogurt.
Damn... I could keep this up all night.
It implies that the reason Microsoft is coming up with this "light" product is because US$99 is too expensive, so they need to come up with a way of slashing the price there without the rest of the world crying foul...
And now we present to you a hundred jokes about Windows already being crippled and a hundred more forshadowing jokes about Windows being crippled.
(Not too unlike this one)
No sig for you!!
Yes, I did RTFA, and it said nothing about what would be different between the "light" version and the normal version.
Is it going to have fewer M$ 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
so exactly what will be the "reduced functionality"?
i'd bet it will have something to do with hardware compatibility.
The End User License Agreement won't have a "disagree" option.
If this OS comes in Thai language only, then only people familiar with the language can use it. Thai is notoriously complex.
Software publishers in Thailand have begun to realize the huge popularity of pirated software in Thailand: the extreme price differential. You might be able to sell $100 software elsewhere, but when you are selling the $100 software a few feet away from someone selling a pirated copy for $5, what is the rational consumer going to do? Video game manufactures now produce Thai versions of games, complete with a Thai installation manual and even Thai ingame instructions, for only a a few dollars more than the street price of a pirated version. If someone isn't willing to pay 20 times more for the real version, perhaps they're willing to pay only 3 times more. Disclaimer: I was an American who I lived in Thailand for five years. Has anyone else gone shopping at Panthip Plaza?
Reminds me of US pharmaceutical companies charging some countries more than others for some drugs. Like HIV drugs, for example.
You are not the customer.
What this article is leaving out because it wasn't writen for a USA audience is that 1500 baht is roughly equal to US$35-40 depending on where exchange rates are.
Thailand's People PC project is a government effort to try to get the price of a PC to be affordable for the average person there. Microsoft's contribution to the project is its willingness to sell both Windows XP Home and Microsoft Office for 1500 baht... US$35-40. Uh oh, that's a drastically lower price then MS is charging the rest of the world, and MS doesn't like to have that kind of inconsistency.
So, that's why they're working on this "light" edition that will have a few things less than XP Home, and therefore be a different product that MS can price seperately.
Of course, the OSS folks can hop in here and point out that going with Linux would cost them 0 baht which converts to US$0... and that's what Microsoft's worried about. Better to get a little money than to risk getting none at all and letting Linux become the standard operating system in Thailand.
I can't speak for Thailand specifically, but I know it's the same as Bangladesh, when I was over there you could get the Longhorn betas pre-burned and with covers and the whole deal. And they cost next to nothing to boost. You could get them at malls, street vendors, Internet cafes. About the only draw back was that the CDs were so cheap they stop working in a few month or so, but that's plenty of time to use it.
Why would the average Thai pay for crippleware when they can already get XP for next to nothing?
"There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter," Jeeves, (Jeeves and the Impending Doom)
But that wouldn't be very crippled, would it...
Seriously, as a ardent Linux user and open source zealot, even I admit that Windows XP is a bit more user friendly for beginners. But removing more functionality than already has been removed in XP Home? Gnome and KDE will be more than a match for this setup, I'm sure.
As if Thailand cares anyway, who's going to pay $30 for Windows XP Neutered when you can go down to your local "store" and buy Windows 2003 Advanced Datacenter Server for a dollar?
if crippled means, getting rid of internet explorer, the windows kernel, and everything else, and replacing it with, linux 2.6.2, gnome 2.4....
Bingo... Microsoft is lowering the price for Windows XP to this country because if they didn't, their government would start subsidizing Linux-based PCs. This is Microsoft's last chance to make sure that the standard PC there still runs Windows.
thainy thim
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...
Microsoft are going to spend money and time devaluing their product to sell it to people who can't afford it at their current price. This from a company that makes a profit of over $1 billion a quarter.
Never trust a man in a blue trench coat, Never drive a car when you're dead
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.
One hallmark of a true monoply is price descrimination and market segmentation. This is where a monopoly charges different prices to different classes of users for reasons that do not reflect actual cost differences and often where the same product is sold in different forms to create artifical price points and artificial or arbitrary market seperations. The key to price discrimination is to exploit the fact that different users have a different willingness and ability to pay for essentially the same goods and services. As such I simply view this as further evidence of monopolistic behavior, as if further evidence is even nessisary.
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.
None of the articles that I've read about this have said what functionality they're taking out of the system. For all we know, all the apps that we complain about (i.e. Explorer, Outlook, and Media Player) will be in the OS and other non-downloadable, core/system functionality will be removed (e.g. VPN, IPv6, and other networking protocols) or something else vexing but replaceable with third-party software.
In other words, it's perfectly possible that it will be both "anti-competitive" AND crippled.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
Full Fat: Windows XP Professional
Regular: Windows XP Home Edition
Lite: Windows XP Family Edition
Atkins Diet: Mac OS X
Fat Free: Linux
Anorexia: *BSD
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
1. Start the Registry Editor
e ntVersion \Explorer\CabinetState\
2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr
3. Right-click an empty space in the right pane and select New > String Value
4. Name the new value Use Search Asst
5. Double-click this new value, and enter no as it's Value data
6. Close the registry editor
If my answers frighten you, stop asking scary questions.
Hmmm, for one, OEM Vendors and established dealers who cannot afford to sell pirated copies?
When they have to preload and bundle OSes with their hardware, a higher overhead would hurt them real bad. Which is why, they'd rather prefer something cheaper, even though it may not be the best alternative.
If you ask, how does it make a difference to MS? Can't they sell the same thing cheaper? Then the answer would be no, simply because they'd be pressurized by other vendors in the same way.
So the solution is to come up with an excuse for a price cut, and thats precisely what they're doing.
It does not matter whether or not its got features added/removed. What is crucial is the price cut, and how they've come up with it. And its a means of attracting more OEM vendors.
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.
Try to pay at least some attention next time you're in the convienience store and you'll see pretty much every commodity works this way - those fishsticks, the glass of jam, the block of cheese.
They all reduce size. 1000g -> 900 -> 800 -> 750 -> 700 -> 600 -> 500 & new "big-pack" of 1000. Why? Because people pay a lot more attention to changes in price - changes in weight or volume go fairly unnoticed.
Of course in this case it's pretty obvious, since they're few and easily counted. But it's the same thing. People in general have a price they find "acceptable" for a pack of cigarettes, regardless of the price of the individual price per cigarette.
It's one of the small irrationalities of the mind, and the manufacturers are catering to it. To go from there to this being some directed attack on kids and teens is quite simply hogwash. There's more than enough legitimate complaints to make against them, without grasping for straws.
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
This would set a nasty precident for MSFT, once one country has seen that MSFT may remove their global pricing, every country with a currency weaker than the USD will be clamouring for the same benefits. Guess its part of a larger trend away from US companies that need to earn in USD to survive. If you think about that, there are some nasty implications for the US ahead in international trade because of the relatively strong USD...
Examples:
1. Senior rates and student rates. They are poorer and can't afford things like park admission. This is a way to get them to pay up.
2. Coupons. Lower income people will now shop at your store. Rich people generally have better things to do with their time than clip coupons.
Microsoft is not special, and you don't need to be a monopoly to 'exploit' this strategy.
Corporations: your universal scapegoat for all society's ills.
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!
Microsoft's problem in many parts of the world is that their US & Western European prices are dead-on-arrival. People who make $200/month are not about to cough up $199 for a copy of XP Pro. If they sell at a price that makes sense in Thailand, they get accused of "dumping". Piracy has little to do with the situation. Linux is available with no piracy required. With or without piracy, customers are not going to spend money they don't have.
If I were in charge of global marketing for Microsoft, I would create a country-specific version for certain target markets (like Thailand). It would be cosmetically "dumbed down" and priced to sell. Of course, any of the features that are not included in the base install can probably be downloaded from microsoft.com in about 30 seconds. You can't be accused of dumping if the product in question isn't sold anywhere else.
What do normal users need with a compiler? If you want one you can get one here.
2) It had no INTENDED remote access services such as FTPD or SSHD.
of course it didn't, that's what Windows Server 2003 is for.
3) I was unable to manipulate graphics.
*gasp* welcome to the world of closed source! Companies actually make MONEY here. You can do basic graphics manipulation using Paint, or you can download The Gimp of course, otherwise you should spring for a copy of Paint Shop Pro or Adobe Photoshop
4) I was unable to use my Network Card.
5) I was unable to optimally use my graphics card.
6) I was unable to optimally use any piece of hardware that didn't have Microsoft written on it.
What kind of bizarre obscure hardware where you using? Windows XP properly detects alot more hardware then linux does currently.
It takes for ever to do anything in Notepad as compared to Vi.
Then by all means, download vi and use it. Some people like working with this little thing called a Graphical User Interface.
8) I had practically no system logging to speak of.
Windows XP is a desktop OS, you can find all the logging you should ever care for at Start->Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Event viewer.
9) I was unable to use multiple desktops.
10) I was unable to entirely change the appearance of the GUI.
most display drivers come with desktop management software, or you can use Windows XP's quicklogin features to have multiple login sessions. Part of the reason Windows is so successful is that you CAN'T entirely change the GUI. Windows, at it's core, always looks like Windows, even with a skin applied.
11) I was unable to simply download much of the software needed to render Windows somewhat useful. Even though Gimp and OpenOffice run on Windows and GVIM, refer to number 4.
See my answer to number 4.
12) I kept getting "Access Denied" or something along the lines of insufficient permissions even though I believe I gave myself full rights over the system. On Windows 2000 this can be seen even if you are logged in as Administrator.
Wow, Microsoft prevents you from killing critical system processes! What a shock! Oh no! what ever shall we do?!? Seriously though, the only time i've ever gotten access denied is when a file is in use, or you try to kill a critical system process (except XP, which lets you)
13) I had to reboot fifteen times, and four hours later while windowsupdate.microsoft.com told me I needed nearly a GB of updates. Many of which could only be installed one at a time. 14) Then another two hours and multiple reboots becuase of installing device drivers (refer to number 6) and then updating those from the old drivers that were on old disgarded discs in the closet.
with the default install of XP, there are 50 mb worth of updates + sp1, which is another 30 or so, a far cry from the 1 gb you speak of.
15) I had next to nothing in regards to software and production....
Compared to what you get with the average Linux ISO image.... Windows, out of the box, is a pathetic quadriplegic whose wheel chair is missing a wheel.
Then, Microsoft goes and strips so much "functionality" from Windows XP to publicly admit it's "crippled"? What more can you take from it?
They never stripped functionality, it was never there to begin with. Windows XP is a desktop OS for every day users, not for supergeeks.
Disclaimer: I am not pro microsoft nor am i in any way being paid by microsoft for this comment. (On the contrary, i'm working on an open source Microsoft Windows NT Compatible Operating System called ReactOS The parent was a blatant troll and i was simply shedding some light on the truths.
Blue Icon of Death
Table-ized A.I.
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.
What do normal users need with a compiler? If you want one you can get one here.
/.
"get one here", oh and "get one there", oh look over there, there's a cuckoo singing in the tree. Look, I had a person a Linux CD, and another a Windows XP CD... Don't give me any of this "get one here" garbage, I'm talking about what you get when you install Windows XP.
of course it didn't, that's what Windows Server 2003 is for.
Why should I have to buy Windows Server 2003? We weren't talking about Windows Server 2003, so why did you even mention it? Unless, you're talking about the singing cuckoo bird again.
You can do basic graphics manipulation using Paint
"basic"!? What is your definition of "basic"? Don't be so naive, PhotoShop is a decent product and I would purchase it alongside Gimp if they had a port to Linux. I buy software that's worth buying, the problem is, Microsoft Paint doesn't do much of anything and is a joke. If viewing a file and screwing it up with a pencil mark is your idea of "basic" graphics editing you've got some perspective issues to deal with.
What kind of bizarre obscure hardware where you using? Windows XP properly detects alot more hardware then linux does currently.
Now, in reference to you implying I'm a troll, what we have here is the pot calling the prospective kettle black. I have an AMD motherboard with the nForce 2 chipset on it. Windows XP, out of the box, does not have a clue how to use the onboard NIC interface. but if you care, I can list alot of other hardware aswell.
Windows is so successful is that you CAN'T entirely change the GUI
This is bull, as there are plenty of examples demonstrating what your claiming is irrelevant to an Operating Systems prosperity.
Microsoft prevents you from killing critical system processes! What a shock! Oh no
Irony, see I saw it. To bad your sense of humor is but one way as you apparently haven't seen my own facetiousness.
Bottom line pal, if I'm root or administrator or whatever the computer better damn well do what I tell it to do and I don't care for a half-wit confirmation box. Do it, do it now. If I make a mistake, that's my ass. A lot of people write better with a pen, becuase they know that mistakes are less fogiven than with a pencil.
Windows XP is a desktop OS for every day users, not for supergeeks.
Here, I concur. So, why did you even argue? Windows XP out of the box has nowhere near the capabilities on many technologies as the typical RedHat CD or Mandrake CD.
It's of little use to argue here anyway... I have to remember this is
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!