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More Details on Cut-Rate Windows OS For Asia
glawrie writes "The BBC is carrying a story that Microsoft is to launch a (very) cut down version of Windows XP to combat Linux in Asian countries. According to the story, 'Windows XP Starter Edition' will be limited to low-res graphics, limited networking, and will be hobbled to prevent more than three applications running concurrently. It remains to be seen why anyone in target countries would choose this over Linux, or the widely available pirate copies of 'full' Windows XP." We mentioned this in June.
is it free?
What defines an application?? If you start something as a service, does this mean it's not an application? Surely there must be more than three services running at time.
When I tell an object to delete this, am I killing it or telling it to kill me?
before some enterprising Asian hacker merely removes the constraints from the crippled software?
But given the low cost of a pirated copy of Windows I still think this is a strategy doomed to failure!
I don't read your sig, why do you read mine?
Actually, it's "XP Lite".
... well, there's always the Microsoft Bob Memorial Archive.
I really don't understand why Microsoft is trying to release this crap. No more than 3 apps at a time? Why that hard limit? It's not like they re-built XP for simpler multitasking.
Microsoft is an enormous corporation with many people trying to get things done. If my experience at DEC and HP in the 1990s is any metric, XP Lite could be some pet project for a VP to gain some brownie or "atta boy" points. If it works out, then good for him. If it doesn't
[You have a stable society when some nut guns down a schoolyard and the law doesn't change.]
Commersial program to remove components from Windows XP http://www.litepc.com/xplite.html
Free programs to reduce the size of Windows XP before installation: http://nuhi.msfn.org/ and http://jdeboeck.msfnhosting.com/
And of course, my project that reduces the size of Windows 98 to less than 5MB http://www.etek.chalmers.se/~e8gus/nano98/ ;-)
You obviously never upgraded a NTWS to NT Server because it was a hell of a lot more involved then just a registry hack. There were programs that automated it but you needed a few distinct service packs and things had to be done in a very specific order or you would fubar your system. The hacks also didn't turn it into NT Server 100% as many things would not work correctly because NT had its reporting or itself as workstation embedded in more places then anyone could discover.
Seriously, they aren't making much of a case for themselves. In fact they are making more of a case for FOSS. By crippling windows, they are giving people an incentive to use FOSS since no Linux or *BSD that I know of is crippled like this. No one has ever attempted Apache-lite or some other equally ridiculous idea for a reason.
I think consumers will be downright insulted by this. Especially if they're not made well aware ahead of time that this is crippleware.
Case in point: Windows 2000/2003 Server "Web Edition." It's a cut-rate server they've made available to hosting companies to compete with Linux. Now and then I've had to help customers with this particular crippleware and hit a brick wall because a feature was disabled. For example, you can't make it a domain controller.
Hopefully this will insult the Asian people and they will redouble their adoption of Linux.
Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
Perhaps the warning bells for proprietary solutions/OS began to ring for MS at least, when the Indian government made public its affection for OSS.
#1The Department of Information Technology has already devised a strategy to introduce Linux and open source software as a de-facto standard in academic institutions, especially in engineering colleges through course work that encourages use of such systems.
#2: Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation, met on Thursday with Indian President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam to discuss "the ethical issues related to the use of proprietary software," according to the Free Software Foundation of India. Stallman also met officials in the state of Kerala to discuss the use of nonproprietary software in government initiatives. Last year, Kalam spoke out in favor of open-source software following a meeting with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates.
So, there is ample reason to worry. Now wonder why they'd have a strangulated version of OS as a low-cost option?
http://efil.blogspot.com/
Why do I always see articles explain Linux as a 'so called' open source software. They make it sound as though Linux isn't really open source and that is the presses gripe about it. My gripe is about the 'so called' industry journalists not know what they are 'so called' writing about.
They are truely operating out of their element here. Offering a crippled version is an example of their current business model in a North American market. In Asia they do not have the existing dependence on the product they have here. Offering a crippled version to low income customers may work ONLY if the customer is familiar with the product.
Over there there is no existing dependence on the product. New computer users will be chosing between a fully functional, feature packed operating system that is free or a minimally functional product that is somewhat expensive? I mean, which one would you choose?
The only way they are going to achive significant saturation in emerging O.S. markets is to offer a time-limited version of the fully functional product. The user becomes dependent and then must purchase the product. Microsoft's existing business model just will not work there.
A graphical designer we hired a couple of years ago was appalled to find that "people are still using 1024x768". He had to redesign the web pages to work at 640x480, which is what most of the PCs on the intranet that accessed the webapp used.
Designers regularly work at massive resolutions, however they don't realise that the majority of people are happy with 800x600, and many users (especially corporate ones) still use 640x480 on their Windows 98 boxes.
You remember: MSIE is part of the OS, and as such does not count as an application!
But what if you have Quick-Time resident, Norton-Anti-Virus and the Zone-Labs firewall running? Will you be able to start any additional program?
you're totally right, but progress is being made.
1) new USB devices usually are autodetected by the "hotplug" subsystem. Worked out of the box for my digital camera.
2) the guys working on "Project Utopia" at freedesktop.org, specifically the Hardware Abstraction Layer, HAL, are developing the next bit of the chain, which is that when you plug something in, you automatically get a nice user-friendly desktop notification, and the ability to browse your CDrom/download your photos/etc
The over-complexity issue, I think Gnome has gone a long way to solving this. Maybe you should check it out - Suse and Mandrake are both excellent, but KDE oriented distributions. But the days when people could diss Linux desktop usability are coming slowly to an end.
dave
that is exactly the point.
If microsoft CAN put out a cheap version of windows, no matter how crippled, then at least *some* people will buy it, and instead of getting $0.00 * 0 revenue from that country, they get $small_amount * x customers.
However, by limiting the functionality, people in the more developed (read: stupid idiots for paying so much) countries which actually are forced to buy the full sized version will not look on this and say "Hey MS why cant we get OUR windows cheap".
This kind of cut down OS would appear to me to be perfect for OEM distributers, supply this cut down MS "product" and pay less M$ tax without losing buddy status.
True, noone on the street who knows the difference would touch it with a bargepole, but for the computer newbie this maybe just the price point they are expecting ("ahhh look, I can save $50 by getting xp-lite").
liqbase
And don't forget, the people selling those copies are in business. They aren't doing it to be leet or because it's cool.
I was raised on the command line, bitch
"Nemo me impune lacesset"
Think about it. They release crippled XP. There will quickly be a crack or patch to turn crippled XP into full XP. People buy crippled XP and apply patch or crack, smiling because they didn't pay for full XP. MS gets some change and market share. MS doesn't care about about profits today. They are more concerned with catching the emerging markets in Asia, Africa, and South America. This will lead to HUGE profits for years down the line.
I could be wrong.
Not bloody likely!
Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach him to fish and he'll wipe out the species.
They should've done something simple, like limit the Starter Edition to accessing 256MB RAM and 40GB HDD space. That would give people a way to see how Windows really works, but give them grounds for upgrading the OS when they upgrade their system.
Imagine: "We have detected a 160GB hard drive on your system. In order to use the full power of your computer, we recommend that you upgrade your software. Would you like to unlock the full power of Windows XP Home Edition for only RS3000?"
Then they could upgrade right online. Or if they don't have credit, walk down to the store and buy an XPHE serial number (hopefully) without having to reinstall their entire system. And MS needn't worry about KeyGens. The fact that the person has bought XP Starter in the first place means they're probably looking to be honest.
There are two kinds of people: 1) those who start arrays with one and 1) those who start them with zero.
Microsoft could count IE as "part of the operating system" again. Then who would run any alternate browser if it counted against the 3 application limit and IE didn't?
Next step in vendor lock-in plan: Assume that certain MS-products (IE/Office/MP/Outlook) won't increase the program counter, then there is little reason to try out say OSS applications since they have a disadvantage.
Now excuse me while I close firefox to check my mail (winamp is playing such a great song, wouldn't wanna quit that).
Why do everyone always bash DOS ? DOS means "Disk Operating System", and that's excatly what it is. DOS was meant to give a command prompt and filesystem drivers for 360kB floppies, in machine with 8086 processor and 128kB-256kB memory and leave most of the resources for applications. It did it's designated work perfectly fine.
Of course a filesystem designed for 360kB floppies doesn't work well when used for hard disks hundreds of gigabytes in size. And of course a system designed to run with 128kB memory doesn't do a good task in administering hundreds of megabytes of memory - especially since the CPU switched from 16 to 32 bits inbetween. Tracktors tend to be ill suited for highways too, but that doesn't make them useless.
Despite all this DOS still supports primitive multitasking (I used to ran smartdrv and keyb (the keyboard layout remapper) in the background), device drivers (ansi.sys, himem.sys, CD drivers...), input/output redirecting ("debug < source.asm"), hard disks (and CD drives with a proper driver installed), extended memory (with himem.sys installed), expanded memory (with emm386.exe installed), freely changeable shells, primitive printer drivers ("copy text.txt > LPT"), support for different character sets (via code pages), and even primitive mount capabilities (you can make drive letters appear as directories, and directories appear as drive letters - with commands "subst" and "assign", if I remember correctly). Oh, and it boots in seconds from a floppy in the minimum system (which is propably a minimum possible PC system that can boot up to a command prompt of any operating system) and is rock stable (I've never have the actual DOS core crash - of course the applications are a different matter).
DOS is also very hackable - it is even possible to load parts of DOS into the video memory (can't remember how to do it, thought - but the idea was that since text mode uses less video memory than VGA mode, you can as well put code to the otherwise unused part) to free up main memory. There's even a hex editor/assembler/disk editor ("debug") included in the basic distribution. And, of course, with DOS, every last clock cycle goes to the application - DOS has absolutely no background services running unless you specifically start some. Interrupt handlers are the only parts of DOS that run without the application specifically starting them, and they are easily replaced if neccessary.
MS-DOS is propably the best program MS has ever released - perfectly fit for it's purpose, with nothing extraenous. The only bad things about it are edlin (seriously - who came up with this program ?!?) and using backslash instead of forward slash as a directory separator.
Calling DOS limited because it's ill suited for multitasking multimedia applications and managind gigabyte harddisks is about equal to calling a rowboat limited because it's ill suited for crossing the Atlantic Ocean. Sure, it's true, but that's not what rowboats are for, and I'd love to see you fitting an ocean cruiser to a lake less than a meter deep.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
Actually the kid was right.
... the Internet wouldn't skip a beat.
If you up and deleted everything related to your workflow automation software tomorrow morning and insured that not a single piece of it ever saw another computer
Somehow manage to remove every bit of porn from the Internet overnight and by noon there would be a planetary revolution and overthrow of the existing society as we know it.
Hot buttered naked women are the currency with which all computer related debts are eventually paid. Sure, money, hardware, etc... are used as interm currency because you can't exactly mail a Brazilian Woman's Soccer Team home to each of your software engineers - but eventually whatever you pay your developers gets converted in the pursuit of teh chixors.
Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer