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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
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.
...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?
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
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.
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.
And most people don't care. Most people aren't geeks. As long as they can get their German shit porn, check their emails and maybe play games the internals are irrelevant to them
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 $5 pirate copy of Windows (which you can get in the mall, in the street, you pick) when the legit version is hundreds of dollars! If the price comes down to a sane level, people will consider buying it.
Windows XP Home is pretty stripped down as it is. If they intend for this to compete with Linux, why strip it down at all? Linux is still free, and is usually distributed with 90% of the software you'll ever need.
This is one of Microsoft's big problems. You ask how much for a FULL, unrestricted version of Windows to put on a single DESKTOP system, and the answer is in the thousands of dollars, because they only expect enterprise users to need such functionality, and only on dedicated servers. If you buy XP home or professional, and install 3rd party server software to handle a peak of over 10 users (5 for home), you are violating the EULA.
Linux and similar operating systems give you the freedom to do whatever you damn well please with your system, something that Microsoft is incapable of offering without cutting deeply into their profits, because of their high market share.
to a drug dealer passing out crack cocaine
laced marijuana cigarettes to the kiddies
for free. Where else is the next generation
of Micro$oft clients going to come from?
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.
"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.
They're intregal parts of the OS and are impossible to remove!
...than any off the shelf Linux distro gives you, plus you still get to pay for it! Where do I get in line?
Freedom. Standards compliance. Sourcecode. The scrutiny of independant experts. No one else controls what you can do with your computer.
-jim
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.)
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.
As 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-$7.50) extra for the real thing (depending on the size and beauty of the box!) any more than that and it's a case of "copee dee gwah" (the copied one is better!)
A 1000% price increase is still too much here.... sorry!
Full on Windows is not competitive in it's native language, so the notion of "stripped down sounded odd to me too, but what I found was even more surprising. Just a little reading is very enlightening. No one but Microsoft and end users will know what's going into the package but Windoze is even less competitive in Thai.
What could they remove for this obvious region based dumping project? Calc? Notepad? The clock on the button bar? Oh wait, I see that they have a "stripped down" version of Office Standard, itself already stripped down.
I have to wonder what they could remove from such a basic set of software. Office Standard comes with a word processor, spreadsheet, email client and a presentation program and DRM that you have no control over. I suppose they could remove the presentation software and leave the user with ascii or Microsoft's crappy html code generation for information sharing. Spell checker, do they have a Thai spell checker? Do they have Thai anything at all? The user will still be looking for a paint program, pdf writer, a browser and email client worth using and third party software to do anything real that's business related. Who knows when M$'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.
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.
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
...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!