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Cut-Rate Windows 'XP Starter Edition' in Thailand
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."
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Where Can I get my English version of this "cut rate" enhancement?
Is this the software equivalent of those first cigarettes behind the toilet block? You know, the ones that get you hooked for life?
They removed English from the OS for piracy concerns. Something about that stat 75% of all Asian installs were stolen.
http://jayceecorder.blogspot.com
I think that's rather amusing. Its almost as if they have given it a crap name so that people will go the extra mile and pay for the addition of the extra parts.
What about Windows XP Binner Edition ?
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
Starter Edition: We'll get you started on Microsoft so that you'll become just another piglet sucking on the tit of one of the largest corporations in history. Get Starter, click the Start button, and Start giving us your money.
- I am a viral sig. Please copy me and help me spread. [strain #2] Thank you
Is anybody else making the connection between "starter" and "free first rock of crack", but the next is $x"?
By summer it was all gone...now shesmovedon. --
Surely that implies all other editions are non-starters?
How long till we start seeing spam for "Windows/Office, just $40!!", after all, Microsoft can't prevent the reimportation of their product. Of course, if it's all written in Thai, there won't be much benefit.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
Good to see good journalism is going out the door - it would be nice for it to mention what makes it "cut-down".
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?
Still not as cheap as *nix :) I'd like to see what the "unspecified" features they chopped out were.
isn't windows xp a starter edition on it's own?
;)
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
All indicators show that the human race is selectively breeding itself for stupidity.
One night in Bangkok makes Bill Gates humble
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
However Thailand can have this nice stripped down version of XP.
I've read several stories about this stripped version of Windows, and what they all fail to mention is that it also lacks Product Activation. Sure, Product Activation in Asia is like duct taping your BMW's door shut in Detroit, but it's still significant.
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!!!
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
Two features left out of this version:
-stability
-security
----
Go canucks, habs, and sens!
Does this include the undocumented features that allow a remote user to gain control of my system?
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, $38 is about as much as I would be willing to pay for the full-"featured" editions, anyhow. Does this cut rate version have some serious compatibility issues, or what? I imagine they wouldn't disable too much functionality, otherwise this little scheme could backfire on them quite badly.A stripped down version of Windows XP and Office XP could be infinitely better than the full versions in the USA if the right features were removed- remove active scripting and VBA from these products, take out a good percentage of the obscure features of Office that no one uses, and presto- a less bloated, more secure computing environment that just happens to have the MS logo on it.
Hell, for 38 bucks I would give it a try if they rolled it out here. Of course they won't do that, because this whole tactic is about training the next generation of PC owners (developing nations) to become dependant upon MS crack.
Urge to post... fading... fading... RISING!... fading... fading... gone.
It comes with like two useful applications. Pretty soon it'll be down to the shell and a handful of .dll files.
It appears in order to get such cut-down version, one must involve the government, the article mentioned both Thail and Malaysian governments.
So why would a government wants MS to cut price, instead of putting more effort to fight for piracy? Is it cheaper that way?
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
The reward for ripping off software, is price reductions and less bloated software? What message is Microsoft giving here?
Although there has been a lot of talk about how open source is safer and better in many ways than m$, pehaps m$ does have one thing *nix doesn't... As closed source there is no need for developers to learn english to create packages that work in their languages or for their needs.
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.
flinging poop since 1969
provided Clippy is left out ;)
If my answers frighten you, stop asking scary questions.
Hey buddy, a Brazilian Official already tried that line of reasoning . That one's a real lead balloon, I'll warn ya.
...If the features they left out were integrated IE, Outlook Express, and media player, I'd pay $38 for it in a split second!
No the message given out there is "Competition (from Linux for example) brings price reductions."
Wait, it has even less functionality than normal Windows, and they call it "Windows Starter Edition?"
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...
Can anyone tell me how to set my sig on Slashdot?
Isn't that kinda redundant???
Actually, I'm not surprised something like this has happened.
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.
Robert B. Marks
Author, Demonsbane in Diablo Archive
Have honed this first "fix" strategy to a science, often giving it away in the hopes of a quick, strong addiction.
Of course, even most drug dealers know a few virtues, I hate to see how Microsoft perverts this tactic.
I always thought of XP Home as the XP "Starter Edition"!
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
starter edition eh? ooh - i really want to try out those viruses and spyware in starter edition mode.
starter edition malware only spams out 50 spams an hour - upgrade to the pro edition and YOU TOO would join the other XP happy campers spewing out spam at 500 per hour without knowing about it.
Microsoft has released an OS that anyone can use out of the box, is compatible with the majority of hardware and has widespread business and domestic adoption.
What's Linux got again?
all i have to say is it takes serious balls to even put a story with a link to an MS site on slashdot.
acme lingerie and whoopee products announces their new 'anna nicole smith' "training" bra......
Do they still get all of the bugs and security flaws, or will those become available with the first service pack ?
What the heck did they strip out?
Oh I know, maybe the the "Starter Edition" includes Microsoft Bob to make the OS easier to use.
Unfortunately the guy who crammed WOAF (Windows on a Floppy) took his information offline due to some sort of conflict with his employer. There was an article on shrinking windows on /. a year or two ago that mentioned this project. There are programs you can download to remove a lot of components from windows like litepc. I always knew someone would make a living out of decrufting windows! I have an old notebook I installed windows 2000 on so I can use Microsoft Mappoint on the road. Mappoint is a pretty big program. North American maps are like a 1.2GB full install so I needed to trim space, and litepc saved me a lot of time. Unfortunately most of my problem is usually introducing my own cruft on systems, which is why I like debian's cruft utility, debfoster and deborphan. If anyone knows any similar tools for FreeBSD I'd appreciate suggestions. I'm still trying to figure it all out, but all other apps I used on Linux were already supported in FreeBSD.
I always thought windows and were free? Why would i pay 40 bucks to get it?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Its not gonna work unless they charge only $5 for it though.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
Clippy, search doggy and kerneld32.dll are
all you get!
This is a waste of microsoft's time and money. When piracy is common and not enforced people still are not going to pay for a cheaper version of windows. My guess is they did this to slow the adoption of linux in these countries. I think microsoft should instead started some bullshit charity program and just give copies of windows out. They don't care so much about making money off each copy of windows out there. They care about people depending on it so they keep using it thus making adoption to linux more difficult and expensive.
Microsoft creates a version of Windows that everybody here's been wanting, and what we get is a string of conspiracy theories and stale jokes about Windows reliablity.
"Derp de derp."
For some reason Clippy has managed to become the all-purpose whipping boy to use against Microsoft. After my first encounter with the creature I don't understand why this running gag is continually modded "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.
Corporations: your universal scapegoat for all society's ills.
(This post was subversively written using Mozilla 1.7 on Gentoo Linux.)
I love C++
I love it. Just as they "CANNOT" remove IE from windows... But for some reason I can... I call Bullshit (WARNING:EXPERIMENTAL, Shameless self promotion..) Please comment if you see gaping failures in the procedure.
The whole thing stinks... Microsoft gets away with lying in court outright. Releasing a stripped down version of XP for the Xbox without IE, and implimenting a newly stripped down (non-english) version of XP that apparently works well enough to sell...
On top of which I'm nearly positive someone could write a registry import that would be able to remove any Windows feature entirely including the self healing. But Microsoft refuses to do any such thing in the markets it currently holds the monopoly in, claiming it would cause windows to no longer function.
WTF, like IE is going to mess with the win32 api... As if the fact that they can do it in taiwanese, or for the xbox should confuse the fact that they can't do it in english, or for a PC.
I was just thinking that I'd pay MORE for an MS Office "Starter" version. An Office type program without all the crap that comes with it would be great!
:)
But then there already is one OO
Waking Up - There must be a better way to start the day.
What says this is gonna fix piracy if you can get the full version for $5 on the street?
Plus, what says this can't be hacked & ta-da we have an engilsh version...
This may help somewhat with the growing use of Linux in Tailand and Malaysia, but I really doubt it. This has the strong smell of a bait-and-switch scam. As much as you say you'd like to see this offered elsewhere, they never will, as we pay so much for it already (OEM systems, buisnesses, etc). Most big companies are so deeply-rooted in MS software, they can't change - which gives MS no real reason to try it...
--- "To ignore race and sex is racist and sexist!" -- Jesse Jackson
Windows the most hardware compatible OS?
I don't think so.
Linux IS the most hardware compatible OS around.
Just how many kinds of CPUs and hardware platforms can Windows run on compared to Linux?
Windows is convenient for me it came with the box, but Linux is everywhere, running entertainment systems, desktops, servers and even the wifi router on my desk.
There is an interesting effect about pirated copies. Whenever the "starter" edition is cheap, the trend is to pirate the most expensive, because they are free at all.
For example, there is the Microsoft Works that is called the starter version of Office by some retailers, but I saw very few copies around.
Do all the popular free virii and ilk get installed just like the full version of Microsoft Windows or perchance do they just come pre-installed?
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
that Microsoft would spend 'valuable' time and money working on a stripped down version of WinXP. Why did they not just sell normal WinXP Home at a cheaper rate, and put all the time and money into developing better security for their OS?
The logic is so simple- they either make the thai ppl buy their Windows product or gain zero money while letting them all use linux.To avoid outrage from others who have bought the same product for hundreds of dollars,call it 'stripped-down'.
Anyway only OS is free.They'll always have to cough up money for anti-virus,to keep the comp working.
Why does yahoo do this
"To combat Linux"? Wow, that's a great way to do so. So instead of perhaps, lowing prices, they take away features to go against something that could be obtained for free...
And people wonder why MS is so hated. They sell a product bundle for $38 which sells for into the $500 range here. Sure, it's "missing some unspecified features" but what the hell. I'll go waaaaaaaaaaay out on a limb and suggest that there would be a probable reduction in US piracy of MS products on the order of 95% or so if this bundle was available at this price here. People know when they're being bilked. And here is just yet another example detailing example how much we're being bilked for.
MORTAR COMBAT!
I was in Thailand (Pattaya Beach, nice town, plenty of Adult Entertainment) before XP was resleased and got the Beta version of Windows XP for about 600 Baht, about $5 US at the time.
.Net and Office 2003, all priced at 1,200 Baht (but, you can get them down to 600).
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.
I think I think, therefore I think I am.
Don't be silly. The buying power of $38 in Thailand is much different from $38 in the US.
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.
Or, you could save seven lines and do:
beer = subwaystation==bar;
does this version not have as many security holes?
CB
free ipod and free gmail!
If programmers made stripjoints:
o n.Add(openSourceZealot);a sOutSourced);
Stalker linuxGuy = new Stalker();
LoserBoyfriend openSourceZealot = new LoserBoyfriend();
DeadBeat iWasOutsourced = new DeadBeat();
patronCollection.Add(linuxGuy);
patronCollecti
patronCollection.Add(iW
foreach(ClubPatron in patronCollection) {
IBouncer meatHead = new ExCon(BouncerBehavior.ExtremePrejudice);
if(patron is IBroke)
meatHead.TossOutOnAss(patron);
}
More like the concept of pricing to what the market can afford and is *willing* to pay (note, I didn't say 'wants to pay': no-one really wants to pay anything).
Pity the music/film industries hadn't been drinking from the same water, yes?
Windows is already the most worthless OS out of the box, is it missing themes, sound effects, solitare? Bet its still just as responsive to viruses.
I don't care how "funny" or "insightful" a bait comment is... if the mods keep rewarding the fools that post advertisement links, they're not much better than Mr. Spammer with a googlebomb.
Windows XP Home is pretty stripped down as it is. If they intend for this to compete with Linux, why strip it down at all? Linux is still free, and is usually distributed with 90% of the software you'll ever need.
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.
to a drug dealer passing out crack cocaine
laced marijuana cigarettes to the kiddies
for free. Where else is the next generation
of Micro$oft clients going to come from?
Why don't they just call it "Windows XP - Free edition" As free as Linux but completely stripped of anything useful. Just enough in the OS to get the system to boot and show the bliss screen, but nothing more. If you want accessories, notepad, solitaire, IE and all of the other goodies, you pay money. So then a customer gets two choices... Get a free copy of Windows with nothing, or get a free copy of Linux with everything and the kitchen sink. ....and then Microsoft will be competitive. :D
READY.
PRINT ""+-0
Whatever happened to "Piracy is why you pay so much for software. If there were less pirates, the price would drop" mantra that Microsoft and the other heavy hitters used to preach?
Thailand has tons of piracy going on there, and they're rewarded with a cheap version of Windows. GO FUCK YOURSELF MICROSOFT. You lying pieces of shit. We reward you by buying your software and you renege on your side of the deal, doing the exact opposite of what you said. Tonight I'm dropping Windows altogether. You won't see a penny of my money anymore.
2 choices:
1) WIn-starter: A 'starter version' of a crap OS made by people who aren't even interested in making quality software. Remember, Microsoft is in the business of making money, not software.
2) The finest OS on earth designed by the finest minds on earth, for free: LInux.
My pity is vast.
i thought the DOJ once told M$ to strip down their version of windows not to include IE and the other junk, and M$'s reaction was that it wasnt possible because everything's part of the OS and completely tied to each other.... and now we have this version of windows?
my blog
> stripped-down, cut-rate version of Windows
Doesn't that apply to ALL versions of Windows?
With about 95% of the country being Buddhist at least they're already familiar with the concept of suffering ;-)
I was under the impression that MS wasn't able to make a version of Windows without all the bells and whistels... I guess it's okay now that all of their lawsuits have been settled. So they are guilty of anti-trust and they are liars, this isn't news.
;-p
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.
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
Of those who obtain pirated copies of Microsoft software, I'm willing to bet that at least half would not buy it at full price. Therefore, it is not in Microsoft's best interest to treat the Asian software pirate as a criminal to be prosecuted. It is in their best interest to compete with the street vendors.
Therefore, the best thing we can do to thwart Microsoft is to get the pirate vendors shut down.
Does this anectode remind anybody else of Dover from Suburban Jungle?
www.eFax.com are spammers
"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)"
Seeing Microsoft make a better product in response to competition? Priceless.
I have gas, but my car uses petrol.
Does it include support for all the worms as the professional version?
They're intregal parts of the OS and are impossible to remove!
lol, hahahahaaa, omg, hehee stop it ur killing me! Linux is the most hardware compatable, bahlolahahehee. Ok ok, deep breaths *snicker*. Soooo u can run linux on ur toaster... great, all I want to do is have the latest off the shelf hardware for my PC work with all its features avaliable, and have the OS set it all up for me without having to recompile the kernel to "add support". But then again if i feel like paying Max Pane2 on my wrist watch, i'll goto linux.
Sticking up for poor little clippy is soo freakin crazy it funny.
It's certainly better than
.. hah
Windows XP Warez Edition
Security Cameras
Gamblers Forum
...than any off the shelf Linux distro gives you, plus you still get to pay for it! Where do I get in line?
HA HA HA RTFLMAO ever hear of loadable kernel modules and the hotplug subsystem Einstein??? You don't have to recompile your kernel to "add support" and the hotplug system will "set it all up for (you)" you fucking n00b! Awwwww Windows zealots are so darned cute when they try to act like they know something.
The total manufacturing cost differential between a Chevy and an Escalade is maybe $2000. The cost of a good has almost no bearing on its retail price. MS could sell their stuff for a thosand dollars and it would make as much sense from a coupling to the cost as selling it for 5 bucks. That's not the point. The point is how you preserve market share - how you make your product attractive in a market space where people want to pay less. They aren't stealing software because they want to put it to the man. They are stealing because the current dollar price of MS software has actually gone up over time just like the price of most intellectual property based products like movies and music.
OO: less features, more bloat.
Although I dont know why they bother with a starter edition at 10 bucks a disk for full or starter on the streetcorner ya might as well go with full right?
Regarding Windows rebooting, I know a lot of people feel that windows is at fault when their machine freezes a few times each week, but it is in fact because they have faulty hardware. Most people can't tell a difference between the OS and the hardware, so they just blame what they're using on the machine (windows) instead of looking for the hard-to-track-down culprit. I'm not saying that's why people on Slashdot make the joke; the joke is something that comes very quickly and is appropriate for a site such as this, where people aren't necessarily here for the insightful and intellectually challenging discussions....
Then they'd realize there is a sect of users who would love something like this in the US and Europe. People that don't want the damn animated dogs telling them how to search, or Fisher Price UIs. People who aren't afraid to drag out the command prompt to do things and enjoy having options. Hopefully they get the message that there are still power users on Windows, but it certainly feels like an endangered species at times -- many UI innovations are little more than eye candy or making the UI easier for novice users. Meanwhile, most real power users have graduated to OS X or Linux where they don't have to feel like they are being talked down to.
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.)
While still promising to deliver a fulfilling experience that makes you crave to upgrade to the more costly versions, do you get less bugs along with less of everything else?
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
You can take out the things you don't use in windows with a simple tool.
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
This is NOT being done to compete with Linux! It's being done to compete with PIRACY !
> Don't be silly. The buying power of $38 in Thailand is much different from $38 in the US.
So what? Some things are cheap in Thailand. Doesn't mean that imports are also that cheap. Why would a company who can sell a product for US$100 sell that same product at US$30 at a loss? In Thailand the LEGIT stuff sells at similar price to elsewhere. I have a friend in Thailand who brings me back stuff, with receipts. I won't buy any of the so-called legit games for $5 each as they are clearly fake.
In other Asian countries, its the same. Of on my suppliers was buying bulk pc parts and said to a Chinese supplier that he only wanted a certain brand of gear. They said that they can stick whatever label he wanted on it. LOL! Of course he ceased business with these guys. Nowdays, he usually flies to China to examine the goods before purchase.
> 6) Recent LEGITIMATE DVDs: 200+ Baht ($5)
What a load of BS. There is no way that the movie empire would allow recent LEGIT DVDs to sell for US$5. Are you on crack?
I don't know how legitimate these guys are, but the prices sure catch your eye.. So while you aren't getting $38 Windows, 70-80 bucks isn't so bad :)
Their FAQ provides the following explanation:
If anyone is brave enough to test these guys out, please update this threadAs the article points out, this product has been on the market in Thailand for a year now. There is no noticeable change.
MS just don't understand how people think here in Thailand. 1500 Baht is enough for 10-15 (bootleg) CDROMs or DVDs from Pantip, Fortune Town, Zeer or a handful of other places. Often the bootlegs (particularly WinXP, Office etc.) are replicated (not burnt) discs with full colour labels and look just like the real thing.
For the average home user, or small business, there's no justification to spend 1,500 Baht on a CD. It's like spending 1,500 Baht on lunch (which you can do here if you want) when the regular price for lunch is less than 50 Baht. It's seen as extravagance; pure and simple!
Large businesses won't buy it either because they generally prefer a fully-featured OS with ENGLISH! Infact, most Thai people in general don't have any problems using Windows in English, and many prefer it. It's all icons, and most end-users don't read error messages anyway, whatever the language!
A lot of video games companies have tested the Thai market with cheap Thai versions of their software. They're in English, but the user manual is in Thai. It seems that they can get away with about 200-300 Baht ($5-$7.50) extra for the real thing (depending on the size and beauty of the box!) any more than that and it's a case of "copee dee gwah" (the copied one is better!)
A 1000% price increase is still too much here.... sorry!
First off, you have to deal with windows file protection. This is known to help add more restarts than are needed.
Then you have the installer itself, in may be written to give you a false restart prompt.
2000 is not as flexible as XP and in my experience requires reboots for stuff that XP handles just fine. This many be how Microsoft writes it patches. I'm not sure on the specifics, but I see it all the time. (depending on the machine it may require as many reboots as an 2000 machine. see below)
Stuff in memory, stuff that is being used, etc or essentially 'your configuration and usage helps determine if you have to restart.'
That said, Windows needs a reboot every 30 days or so anyway to keep it running smoothly so it tends to work out. Especially on the server side. Trust me, you don't want to work with a Windows box that's been up for 100+ days. "Hey, why is all the RAM used up? Nothing is running."
What do I read out of all this? That in a competitive market, the value (as opposed to the price) of Windows is $US38 (and maybe less). Let the competitive OS market roll on.....
I think the only reason C translates better is that C grammar is cleaner than English grammer, which could very well be the worst behaving grammer in the world. But once you have to start giving functions names and variables names, I would imagine it to be a very different story - or do your colleagues use english variable names, i wonder?
So what's changed?
||| I still can't believe Parkay's not butter.
RTFM and follow directions on how to make a bootable BartPE CDR, and then how you can install BartPE to a hard drive.
Then download and install OOO.
Then give Microsoft and Billy Boy the middle finger. ;)
Or try this alternative and install it to your hard drive for a Non-Windows edition and still give Microsoft and Billy Boy the middle finger.
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
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 wait, I see that they have a "stripped down" version of Office Standard, itself already stripped down.
I have to wonder what they could remove from such a basic set of software. Office Standard comes with a word processor, spreadsheet, email client and a presentation program and DRM that you have no control over. I suppose they could remove the presentation software and leave the user with ascii or Microsoft's crappy html code generation for information sharing. Spell checker, do they have a Thai spell checker? Do they have Thai anything at all? The user will still be looking for a paint program, pdf writer, a browser and email client worth using and third party software to do anything real that's business related. Who knows when M$'s not talking?
Microsoft Thai page does not say as far as I can tell without their special software. They have the same bogus "facts" presentation, but you have to have "active scripting" to have the right characters appear. Mostly, the site is in English, the rest is broken, some advert that is. M$ gets its ass kicked by Gnome's beautiful Thai page which rendered perfectly with Mepis / Debian unstable. This page is fun too!
Given the above differences in software quality and the ease of "piracy", I doubt that M$'s little dumpting scheme is going to work. Their "People's Software" initiative might suck in a few clueless government types but people who know software are going to continue to chose Linux. They could give their stuff away and it would not be taken up.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Probably the reseller can give opencd/GNU Win Cd with new 'stripped down' windows?
I am still waiting for the version that doesn't risk having my computer hijacked, credit card data stolen, my address book copied and blue screens of death as the inevitable conclusion of each computing session.
any word on delivery date of this version of windows??
I haven't had to restart my Win2k box for about 2 months now, and that's after installing and uninstalling 4-5 games and about a dozen applications. Memory usage is pretty much the same as when I first booted it too.
So, am I stretching my credibility there?
Zealots, ugh. Go away.
Please answer the questions. Thanks.
I'm posting this so that you (the moderator) have some context to consider twitter and not mod him up whenever he posts his filler preformatted rants about installing Knoppix or Mepis or whatever that unfortunately get him karma every single time and allow him to continue posting his trademark toxic crap (read on) day in and day out. You may consider this a troll - I consider it community service. And I ain't kidding.
If you're a /. subscriber, I invite you to look through some of his posting history. I guarantee that you'll be hard pressed to find someone that is more "out there" than twitter. You'll also probably notice he's got quite an AC following. Don't just read his posts, make sure you go through the replies.
To get an idea of what I'm talking about, check this post out. This is an article about email disclaimers. The parent of the post is complaining about the ads in the linked page and so on, and twitter actually goes off on a rant to blame it on Microsoft and recommend Lynx, because "is teh free".
Here's another. In this post twitter not only calls the OP a troll but attempts to "tell it like it is" while making some vague argument about "GNU". Yes, if you're confused, you're not alone. The reply (modded +4) proceeds to simply destroy his bogus argument. You will notice he did not reply. This is what some people call "drive-by advocacy". A sort of I'll just leave you with my thoughts here and move on to the next flamebait kind of deal. In fact, he almost never replies because he knows that his fanatical arguments simply do not hold up to any sort of discussion. It's not that he's chosen the wrong cause - he's just going at it in a completely wrong way.
Here's that drive-by advocacy and FUD in motion: twitter goes on about some topic and then drops the usual "oh and M$ is teh evil" because "WMP phones home" or some such. Called on his FUD, he then claims that WMP stores every song and movie you've ever played in a file, somewhere. Pressed further, he just sort of slithers out of sight, his FUD-spreading complete. This is not about some Microsoft technology that nobody likes anyway; it's about lying for the sake of lying. Way too many of his posts are exactly like this one.
More? Just read though this post and the subsequent replies. I guess this stands on its own. Or these two. Or this one. Or this one.
Still not convinced? This is what twitter considers "humour" while going about his daily "M$" routine.
M
At both of the jobs I have had a good 90% of the variable names have been in English. Often with typoes. Which has, in the past, led to me being the one to bring more bugs into the system by using the right (wrong) spelling.
Oh really? Then why, despite the rampant piracy that's been going on for YEARS , do they only do this NOW that the Thai government has started pushing Linux?!
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
a brief disclaimer, I am an american who has now been living in thailand 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 Pantip Plaza and other places around Thailand 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 thailand now for about 400 baht ($10 US). The only difference is it comes with a Thai manual and a huge sticker saying NOT FOR SALE OUTSIDE OF THAILAND.
Buying a pirate copy of that same game costs: 150 baht per cd. (so if it's a 2 CD game, then the price is 300 baht for the pirate version. if it's a 4cd game it's MORE expensive to buy the pirate version!)
Apparently the manufacturers think they can still make a profit selling games for $10 USD. They are actually trying to compete with pirates, rather than arrest them, and it seems to be working. People are buying more games, and less pirated ones.
That's not to say if thailand wasn't blessed with an incredibly corrupt and ineffectual law enforcement, things wouldn't be different.
hmmm, Do I smell money.
1. Ask google for blessing
Someone plz find the info on starter "cracks" license
2. Find and Contact ms crack dealer in thailand. I am sure they speak english if they are educated. I somehow dought if ms offers same crack here for that price.
3.Ship tons of cracks to us at crack rock bottom prices.
3a. Is it slealing(or violating the law) if you just burn lots of copying your cut rate ms crack and sell it in the us, but send ms a check for the cost a (thai)license to ms?
4.Profit!!!
Most junkies will not care or will know the difference between regular ms crack and new improved ultra speacial(marketing) starter crack.
4a.After costs and profits margin your geniune ms product should be cheaper than regular ms crack.
5. Send me money
Why not send some this way if it works for you.
"Windows XP: Reloaded"? I guess people started associating that with constantly reinstalling Windows
Bubbles - a XP theme with kittycats & shopping carts and of course Bubbles
Julian - theme with Bacardi, Cola, and 'Vette's or 'Stangs
Ricky - pot leaves & pepperoni
"Cory & Trevor" and the "Mr. Leighey & Randy" themes will be comming soon.
OMFG - I just posted about Trailerpark Boys, I might as well go over to my old mans and get drunk.
This is where I keep my clever quotes "" Yup I only got a pair, so I better not waste em!
This MS price/product change is aimed to Joe Consumer (or should I say Dong Consumer) not the Thai govt.
The ability to save?
Get a fuckin' life
Just a note (I live in the big mango myself)
1) dinner, with a beer: 80 Baht ($2)
Worth noting is that 50-60 Baht is the beer! Luxary goods are very expensive c.f. everyday items.
3) Taxi to the airport: 400 Baht ($10)
Only if your a noob. ALWAYS take the meter - even if you have to take the expressway this should be 200 Baht.
The average salary here is around 6-8000 Baht a month. So yes, 38 bucks is a fair portion of that.
Have fun in BKK!
Windows is a ROAL (Reboot Oriented Application Launcher)
So what's your point? The linux distro made by the Thai government is aimed at Dong Consumer too.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
[blockquote][i]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. [/i][/blockquote]
Wait! Sounds familiar...Ah thats it...Mac OS X...
Thanks for the tip :) I'm leaving for the airport this afternoon, I'll keep it in mind!
ahhhh that's funny! Like Oxford got overruled or something.
Aha, here we have a prejudiced superfacial elitist prick. A typical socialist :P
but I keep reading these posts where people state they would gladly pay $38 for a copy of windows + office with less functionality. As some other poster mentioned, your $38 does not scale to their $38 (yearly mean income of Thailand is ~$2000 source) /. knows exactly what these acronyms stand for), much less let them configure it properly.
Anyway, what I don't get is why would you want to pay $38 for Windows when really buying a linux distro is more expensive?
Now I know that it's bundled with tons of software and you can download Linux for free, don't get me wrong, but I think the end user doesn't have that much trust in that, and would rather buy a copy, especially if it says "support included" on the box. I know that these are the same people that just click on everything they see in IE but downloading and installing a complete operating system they don't know is frightening to them, and you can't blame them for that. Yes I know the installers have been getting better, but to a linux newbie a lot of things that are asked during the install are still power options. Take for instance your ISP connection. Well, the installer kindly offers you a few options: PPPoE, DHCP (including MAC spoofing) and whatnot. I wouldn't blame any newbie for not knowing this (hell, I don't even think half of
Back to topic: I don't mind shelling out some $$$ for an operating system (I bought SuSe, now use Debian though), but I think the main point is that Microsoft's products are just blatantly overpriced (along with a slew of other big software packages eg. Adobe Photoshop). I think if they lowered the price to a more reasonable level, a lot more people would be willing to stop pirating and start paying. What they'll lack in revenue for the high price will be easily compensated by the sheer volume of sold licences. Just my thoughts though.
The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy, but the best weapon of a democracy should be the weapon of openness.
Har har, you missed fp this time, loser.
:D
BTW, what other troll groups? Are you saying your particular group isn't a one man show? Who are you kidding?
The going rate for a CD of any kind was 150 baht (~$4) when I lived there two years ago. DVDs were 200 baht both then and when I visited back in January, so I'm guessing the CD price hasn't increased. There are so many vendors selling the same items and so many Thais buying that you don't have to worry about the price discrimination or poor bargaining skills. If it's in Thailand, it'll be at Panthip and you'll get the best price.
MBK is a more convenient location, being right on the skytrain line, and prices are similar there, but selection is limited. Plus, you have to venture into the non-airconditioned portion of the mall and wade through a few thousand people selling cell phones.
You'll see mostly music CDs and DVDs at tourist markets throughout the country, but you'll get tourist prices in most cases unless you can speak the local lingo. Even then getting a deal will be a problem because the vendors know they can sell to the next tourist without bargaining.
Anyway, if you're looking for something out of the ordinary or buying in bulk, it's worth going to Panthip...unless the girl who broke your heart has opened a shop there.
chok dee
Cheap shit is still shit.
One night in Bangkok, room and board: $14
One night in Bangkok, RIAA physical CD: $15
One night in Bangkok, RIAA CD download: $16
-
- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
I was under the impression that MS wasn't able to make a version of Windows without all the bells and whistels
Right. The stripped down version has all the bells and whistles, IE, Media Player, all the critical elements of the operating system.
It's the other stuff that's stripped down.
-
- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
I would like to see the demonstration performed not by the obvious troll AC but idiot mod who gave a +1 Informative to that.
A typical linux system has a few things statically linked to glibc (stuff under /sbin and few others) but everything else is dynamically linked. I've heard some brain-dead distros dynamic link even sbin! Whether a given package manager is staticaly or dynamicly linked is irrelevant as there is bound to be some program dynamicly using glibc at that instant and this upgradability is not glibc specific.
Are NOT moderations available yet?
Gentlemen, you can't fight in here, this is the War Room!
But CDs don't burn too well in my fireplace.
What's next, the Kindling Edition?
Where are the marshmallows?
I don't understand why most people are bashing MS about this. This is only good. Now imagine that MS is going to offer a Windows version for free. MS could maybe still make enough profit from their other products. Or what would happen if MS would publish Windows 98 under the GPL. For many users, Windows 98 is good enough, it would need some upgrades to support newer hardware. Now THAT would mean real competition for Linux. I don't see Linux winning that, at least not for the consumers market. Linux is still an OS for nerds, not for the average user who only wants a PC to work and finds no joy at all in making it work. Only few Linux adapts do see that consumers choose Windows because it's easier, more user friendly, supports more programs, gives fewer installation trouble etc etc. The downside of the security holes and the price is just a small argument compared to these advantages. Now if the price argument will disappeare then there's no way Linux is going to win any share on the consumer market as long as it stays a nerd OS. MS profits are going to drop because they won't have any income from selling OSes to consumers, but maybe the company can handle that profit drop. The Linux developers should see this as a challenge to focus on consumer friendliness, now that the development of Linux has caused MS to lower its prices for OSes. This is only good for consumers.
...anfixen! (dunno how to say it in english... sorry, try dict.leo.org or google... ;)
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Windows can update files in place. To do so, you would simply unlink the file without deleting it, and put a new one in its place. You could clean it up later after it went out of use. This is the Linux approach.
The problem is that you can then get multiple versions of system libraries in use simultaneously. That seems acceptable, since they provide the same interface, but there are several cases where it might not be. You might be replacing a library for a security or stability bug fix. Keeping a library in use perpetually (say for a server application) until it crashes or is compromised would be undesireable. Windows won't do that, but Linux may. Second is the possibility for incompatibilities. Although the interface is the same, there may be data structures passed to the user application that have to be passed back. If a library is unloaded then loaded again, or if the data structure is passed around, it may be used by the alternate library version. Since the data structure layout is internal, the implementation may change without changing the interface, and the results of using different versions of a library with the same data structure may be bad.
The approaches taken are typical of the differences between Windows and Linux. Windows is more concerned with safety, but may force the user to take unpalatable action (a reboot in this case) in order to ensure safety. Linux is more concerned with flexibility, but users are given enough rope to hang themselves. If you upgrade your libc or other system libraries, you should restart all long lived system processes in order to avoid problems from old or conflicting library versions.
I'm interested in knowing what distro they use the most?
You only use 2% of your DNA
then I will install all the freeware windows software to enhance it, actually it would be a lot better than windows xp home any way
We can't laugh at MS for this anymore thanks to gconf in the gnome project.
/etc or ~/.gnomethan in some strange XML variant that is hidden under ~/.gnome anyway.
Really? Since, as others have stated, registry hasn't got anything to do at all with this problem. Quite contrary, it notifies app if a setting changes so you can actually pick up new settings easier without resorting to polling...
It's like the windows registry, only obfiscated
I guess you mean it's like the windows registry, only UN-obfuscated. After all, no matter how "strange xml variant" it uses, it's well organized and human readable, unlike the monolithic binary kludge several megs of size that is registry...
can only modify it reliably with poorly documented command line tools. There's a pretty little GUI that looks like a registry editor, shows you the keys but won't let you modify them.
False. Gconf-editor (the gui tool) DOES let you modify things. It also has a nice long string description (localized, too) of most keys, and is much better organized so it's not even cryptic, like registry, things are easier to find and much easier to know what they do.
I know some gnome people like the MS way of doing things, but it seems to be going a bit far.
I know some people knee-jerk at every thing MS has ever done, no matter if the idea itself is actually bad or no, but that seems to be going a bit far. Just because MS has screwed, corruption prone GIGANTIC implementation of registry that stores EVERYTHING and it's mother doesn't mean that the concept of registry like system is invalid!
It really is a lot simpler to put things under
Well, no, it's not. You can't get change notifications from dotfiles, you can't get multiple apps reading and changing them without all kinds of nasty locking problems, you can't create a tweak-ui like gui with a collection for most wanted "hidden" settings without knowing how to parse kazillion trillion different kinds of configuration files, you can't get regedit/gconf-editor like relatively simple tool for much easier option changing than having to hunt a simple, not always well named conf file and learning it's syntax, sysadmin can't change mandatory or default values as easily.
And it doesn't have to be XML, gconf is written so backends can be added modularly, you could use LDAP or even RDBMS remote server for storing preferences, roaming profiles... heck, for masochists like you someone could write an ini-file backend.
I grant you that gconf - despite being vastly better than windows registry - has it's own share of problems, but they are implementation problems, the idea of simple shared config system is good.
I use Linux and OpenOffice
I can't read Thai yet These are not stupid people awaiting Microsoft to swoop down from Nirvana with discounted Operating Systems. Piracy is not a problem in Asia ... it's an entire freakin' INDUSTRY.
Microsoft has no idea what they're getting into.
One night in Bangkok: Hard man becomes humble.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Does anyone else find it odd that when the Justice Department said they wanted Explorer unbundled it was 'impossible,' but now that MS has spotted a new revenue stream suddenly they can hack out huge chunks of the operating system?
...that is Millenium Edition!
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 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!
Read my journal and it should answer your question.
If you still dont understand the true meaning of the amendment afterwards, then i suggest you refrain from calling others 'morons'.
Have a nice day.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Isn't this just like the phamaceutical industry where we pay the highest prices in the world, but we (all US taxpaypayers) paid for a lot of the R&D. If we are to compete against third world countries, our home-grown products need to be CHEAP (not the same price) as overseas.
what gives?
Guys, we got us a top-poster!
You said: All you have to do is click the next button once or twice to install your hardware drivers, provided you have to install them at all? YOU LAZY FUCK, YOU SHOULD HAVE TO SPEND HOURS CONFIGURING YOUR SHIT, I DID, AND IT MADE ME FEEL SMART.
Seriously. Christ.
Copying the animated paperclip, the windows registry, Microsoft OLE and the DOS directory structure are not necessarily good ideas.
Which version implemented this? Is this version only available in CVS or has it had a wider release?
Well, there's a CVS commit with comment " Added support for editing keys, adding new keys, and unsetting keys." dated 2.5 years ago, no idea which version that corresponds to, but it's been quite a while since that anyway. So I'm guessing you must be referring to something else entirely... lists, default and mandatory settings couldn't be changed until recently (in CVS, about 2 to 5 weeks ago).
Good, so something sane like berkeley db
You mean something like this? It's long since been removed though, simply because nobody used it.
can be used apart from the format which until recently (if you are correct) was only changeable with undocumented hacks. There are/were a lot of keys you just couldn't get to any other way.
I wouldn't exactly call 2½ years "recently" but whatever, and those command line tools are not anywhere neal the level of "undocumented hacks" even if they do (did? seemed fine for the very simple thing they do last time I checked) not have the best documentation. And if you're going to use bdb-API (I sure hope you weren't planning to db_dump, text edit and db_load) you are doing "hacks" anyway, why not go trought the gconf itself?
Obviously I should take another look at gconf in CVS and see if settings are actually portable now (ie. able to change paths for gpanel objects now - and heaven forbid, perhaps actually use it on a multi-user system and copy things from one registry to another). That is assuming that gpanel will support the new format and that not too much will break.
Well, it is very much an old school unix style of things, and if the gnome developers were like that they would have started with flat files before progressing to a database, instead of starting with the then trendy XML thing, which defeated the whole purpose of XML by only being changeable by gconftool/gconftool-1/gconftool-2. The whole idea of a windows registry for unix, and one for every user implies that they were not thinking that way at all. A secure multiuser database is not a difficult thing to do, but the nature of gconf implies that such a thing was not considered - the aim appears to be for people sitting in front of a PC that only they use. The whole process saving idea of a configation daemon informing processes when a change has occured to configuration is not a bad idea - but even the average *nix workstation or home computer is multiuser with things like spam filters and print spoolers going on as different users. To be considered more than a toy for keeping track of icon positions such a configuration system should at least be multiuser.I remain unconvinced that it is not just a poor copy of the windows registry editor GUI with a trendy but flawed XML back end which has been adopted too early by some high profile projects like gpanel.
Well, it certainly never made it into redhat9 - which was a very gnome-centric distribution, and is not that old.
I'm pretty sure it DID make it into RH9, but certainly not going to install that one to check...
lists, default and mandatory settings couldn't be changed until recently (in CVS, about 2 to 5 weeks ago).
This response illustrates my point far better than anything I've said. How many years has gconf been around? I would have thought that configuration of a configuration system would be a higher proirity than crafting a windows GUI registry editor lookalike - but that's looking from a perspective where everything can be a file and a web browser is an application and not part of the OS.
Really? Isn't it just the opposite: the GUI registry editor lookalike is indeed a lower priority than the underlying configuration system and that's exactly it took a long time to implement those in that gui thingy? Anyway, looks like I was wrong about lists, gconf-editor in FC2 does support them and is older than 2 to 5 weeks.
Defaults and mandatory settings are for sysadmins, usually one-time thing after installation and are probably scripted anyway so nobody missed gui for them, easily doable with command line tools.
Well, it is very much an old school unix style of things, and if the gnome developers were like that they would have started with flat files before progressing to a database, instead of starting with the then trendy XML thing
You can't get much farther from old school style of things than having one big database file that stores preferences of every application! XML tree is somewhere in middle ground between of that and flat files.
which defeated the whole purpose of XML by only being changeable by gconftool/gconftool-1/gconftool-2.
I really can't see what's supposed to be so unchangeable, but just in case, gconf developers agree, simplification of the XML format is on TODO.
gconf is, indeed, by it's very nature for storing only user preferences, instead of every last setting on system, if that's the same thing as "toy for keeping track of icon positions", I do not know, system-wide daemon (instead of each having own gconfd process, I assume) however seems to also be on that list...
Neither the registry editor lookalike GUI nor xml backend are the main focus, they can be changed, or removed, but the fact that apps have a consistent and easy to use API that implements necessary things for reading and storing configuration.
But it's obviously at least partly a matter of taste, and you can't convince someone who doesn't want to be convinced, I didn't intend this to be a semi-religious flamewar, just needed to point out that "gconf != need to reboot"