Slashdot Mirror
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."
Why impose sh*t on people just because they don't have enough cash to pay for a retail Windows XP?
Please... someone give them a proper OS for free.
Ok #1:
Software piracy of full versions runs rampant.
#2:
only aviable to OEMS
#3:
only 3 programs can run at once.
#4:
resolution restricted to 800x600
Why the hell is MS doing this? Obviously this OS is a complete peice of shit, why would anybody even think about desiring this crippled thing?
You have free linux that can do 10000x as much, and is cheaper. And you have wholesale pirating of software so that you can get a full version of WinXP for probably only a little bit more then the cost of the media itself.
The only conclusion I can get is that Win XP SE is designed to keep OEM's buying MS products so that then the market matures and people can afford to pay MS's prices that the infrastructure, thru legal pressure, will be their for MS to shove the software down the throats of the "host" countries.
It doesn't make sense any other way, places like HP and Gateway only already pay 48 bucks for a full home edition, why else would the extra 12 bucks savings for a crippled version of XP make any difference, or even be intellegent market-wise.
Maybe it's just a PR crapfest?
And this doesn't even take distribution of wealth into account. According to the above mentioned source 25% of Russia's population are below the poverty line. In reality, it's much more (they are notorious for not keeping track of economical data or even just plain making stuff up).
So you have a small upper class, a small middle class, a huge blue collar working class (with many people out of work) and a lot of people unaccounted for.
If you're living on $741 a month, do you really spend $36 on a license you essentially don't need (since there's no enforcement in Russia). Also, consider that those $36 are 20% of your monthly income (not of your monthly disposable income).
I don't really get who the folks at Microsoft think their target audience is. The upper class can afford XP Pro/Home licenses. They've either already purchased those (probably OEM licenses) or simply don't care. Anyone outside that demographic just won't be able to afford a Starter license, even if they wanted to.
Actually doesn't all windows software designers other than microsoft lose money on this deal?
At the same time, piracy is also fairly extensive in Russia. A study released by the Business Software Alliance and IDC in July said 97 percent of the software in Russia is pirated, a figure bested only by China, Vietnam, Ukraine and Indonesia. Critics, however, often assert that BSA figures tend to be on the high side.
If you are supplying a cheap OS to a large market who are known pirates... Will programmers for that OS not expect more pirating of their software?
The sad thing about this is Microsoft's goals. If it were to make money from their support services (the red hat model), I could tolerate it. However, this is just to get people "used" to their software. Flood the market with cheap goods and run the rest of the competition out of town.
Sad.
it's really not worth it.
Then don't use it. If you do use it without properly licensing it, then don't complain if someone else does the same to something you produce, or to some piece of GPLed software.
If you don't respect other people's copyrights, you have no reason to expect others to respect yours, or anyone else's.
It's official. Most of you are morons.
I'm more than willing to buy a laptop with no OS or just Linux but have quite a hard time to find any vendor willing to sell.
It would be even easier to just slap a "Starter Edition" label onto a full version of a distro, and give it away for free, and advertise the fact that our "Starter Version" is NOT crippled at all like theirs is.
> With a 92 KB keygen (From China, no less) I can
> get keys that are so legit they fool Microsoft's
> extra special little "Anti-Piracy" website and
> that new "No Piracy" verification you need to go
> through before downloading that codec pack.
That's what you get when you outsource code-development to 3rd-world countries.
Unless you keep your employees imprisoned (<cough>China...</cough>...), the knowledge about your software/product is just going to walk out of the facility....no matter how secure it is.
But it's long way before execs will learn that, I'm afraid.
Rainer
Windows 2000 - from the guys who brought us edlin
i remember being horrified a few years ago when my father (now a retired secondary teacher) told me that the county had signed a deal to use windows and office exclusively. he has always been a mac user building stuff for pupils using filmaker pro, claris etc. but had to move to m$office as a result of the deal.
apart from the rather worrying idea of database theory being taught by getting students to create access databases it shows how indoctrination is and has always been the key to market dominance.
this is the same argument put forward in the recent film 'supersize me' and has been used by chocolate manufacturers for years.
and those candy cigarettes we used to get as kids?