Microsoft To Sell Win XP Starter Edition In Russia

Garabito writes "Cnet reports that Microsoft plans to distribute in Russia the low-cost, stripped-down version of Windows XP, called 'Starter Edition.' This release of Windows is aimed at markets in developing nations, and is known for not allowing more than three applications to run at the same time and not being networking capable. This product will not be available on retail, but will be distributed by OEM vendors in new PCs, at an approximate price of US$36. On a side note, the article also states that the MS tax paid by vendors to Microsoft for Windows XP licenses is $70 or more."

Comments

Wow! What a scam!

[Alsee]

Microsoft is going to collect a $36 tax on each machine from OEM's for this crap? There's no question almost all buyers are going to need to simply wipe and overwrite it.

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Re:Wow! What a scam!

[dasmegabyte]

Taxes are levied by governments, not by companies. Just because you don't want to pay for something doesn't mean it's a tax.

It's annoying that my car came with these ugly wheels that I replaced anyway, but they wouldn't sell it to me otherwise. In fact, I think it's illegal to sell a car with no wheels. I don't refer to it as a "rim tax." It's just the way things are.

If you don't like that your vendor passes the cost of their distribution deal with Microsoft, necessitating a license per computer, you should go with another vendor. If you can't go with another vendor, you're just gonna have to deal with it. Said deal probably saves their other customers who want Windows thousands of dollars per year, and it's not likely they're going to risk inconveniencing all of them for your politics.