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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."
..ahh, why bother.
"BSD: Free as in speech. Linux: Free as in beer. Windows 10: Free as in herpes." --Man On Pink Corner in #52607549.
Microsoft is going to sell Win XP starter edition.
What did you expect here?
...that's about what the full version is worth.
"Like fire and fusion, government is a dangerous servant and a terrible master."~RAH
Customer rips off Microsoft!
I'd like to see anyone willing to pirate thing thing :)
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.
Only runs three applications. Sells at a bargain basement price. Can't network worth crap. So basically: Russia is getting the unsold copies of Windows 95. Kudos to MS for figuring out a way to recycle their backstock rather than dump it in a landfill.
-The Libra
"Please be patient--The future will begin momentarily."
Being from the former Soviet Union myself, I can attest to the fact that piracy is very rampant, and that this "starter" edition will do little to combat it. People who just want the real thing will have to take five minutes of their time to visit their nearest street vendor and buy the full version for less than $2.
What is the point of selling this? If you spend money on this thing, and then want the whole package, won't you have to pay for another WinXP disc at full price? thus paying MORE than if you only bought the standard version?
Blog -
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?
With the current surge of spyware, viruses (don't get into the virii / viruses battle) and other malware, this may be the best feature yet :)
If someone doesn't have the money for a nice computer with a legit copy of WinXP Pro and all the other goodies, they probably don't have the money to run their own home LAN or the RAM/CPU power to run lots of demanding apps at once. I don't see how this is a bad idea. Sure, it's MS being manipulative, but look at it this way - less features means less security holes!
Well, hopefully it does...
using namespace slashdot;
troll::post();
that somebody at Microsoft is getting an award for this idea. It is just the culture of Microsoft that something this stupid is going on.
Marketing Exec One: Let's try selling our stripped-down, crippled version of Windows to stop piracy and stop this "Linux-thingy" in Russia. Nobody there will know the difference
Marketing Exec Two: Brilliant!
One week later in Redmond at a special award ceremony:
Bill Gates: We hereby award this plaque for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Marketing Excellence (apologies to the Simpsons). Marketing Exec One has devised a brilliant plan to stop piracy and the Linux cancer in Russia. Brilliant!
And so life goes on in Redmond.
No trees were harmed in the composition of this; however, numerous electrons were inconvenienced.
If so then, aside from location my hard drives there, I really don't think that M$ has a chance. I mean, Win XP is dire enough, SE even more, and, as the above poster rightly said, who's going to want to use XP SE when they can get the full version from suprnova in a matter of....hours?
That is, of course, presuming that they even WANT to use windows.....*insert picture of a penguin here*
My UID is prime. Is yours?
Do MS really think Russians are going to stop pirating the fully featured version because they get a copy of this crippleware witht their PC?
When you can get a pirate copy of XP pro for next to nothing, your smply going to bring your new PC home, format it and install your full version.
I don't see this cutting piracy at all. In fact, it will probably encourage piracy.
"I realise this is not a very popular opinion but it's the truth, and there for needs to be said" -Bill Hicks
If you don't want to pay for a copy of Windows with your new PC, either buy one without an OS or with Linux pre-installed (there are plenty of people willing to sell you such things), or buy a bare-bones system and/or components and build your own.
Just do me a favour and stop referring to it as a tax, it just makes you look stupid. Income tax is a tax - you earn money, you pay it; you earn money but don't pay it, you're breaking the law. Windows licence fees a tax? Who's going to arrest yo for not paying for something you've not ordered or received?
It's official. Most of you are morons.
I know this might sound rather crazy but the beauty of linux is that it would be trivial to create a linux "Starter Edition" equally crippled ? Well, maybe slightly less crippled (so its better). Someone good enough to roll their own distro should do this just to piss Microsoft off...
....
Nick
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
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.
and all this time I thought the cold war was over.
This is never going to work in Russia. In Moscow, a full version of Windows XP is going to cost you about five dollars. You even get a copy of the license sticker. Also note that "vendor" in Russia often means a guy in a shop on the corner who slaps some components together and sells them, never bothering about OEM licenses for the XP he installs on the boxes.
As a state gets corrupt, its laws multiply; the most corrupt states have the most numerous laws. (Tacitus, Annales 3:27)
Introducing a crippled Microsoft eems like an insane advertisement for linux to me.
Hopefully, it has as much market research behind it as Microsoft Bob.
Avg income is about $200-300/month for a slightly skilled worker (NOT IT), for IT and sales its about $600 and up.
This release of Windows is aimed at markets in developing nations, and is known for not allowing more than three aplications to run at the same time and not being networking capable.
So, with XP's kernel, Microsoft's spyware and a user's app, the user might not have enough resources to launch a virus !
(BTW, with no network, one wonders where he'd get one from)
Trolling using another account since 2005.
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.
If someone doesn't have the money for a nice computer with a legit copy of WinXP Pro and all the other goodies
Hell, I can't afford a copy of WinXP Pro. I have the XP Home that came OEM with my new machine. But I could afford to set up a network if I wanted. Cost of one: $400 CDN, cost of the other: $60 for a router and $40 for cables.
Freedom: "I won't!"
You can't run more than three applications at once?
So that's
1 - Anti virus
2 - Firewall
3 - Anti spyware
Nice....
Sunday you're Thinking Different, Monday you're a huge tool, paying too much and waiting to think like everyone else.
interesting, as far as I know internet explorer is very integrated into the OS, so I think opening internet explorer would't count as a task or it does? if so, isn't this also another dirty technique from Ms to attack Mozilla, Opera... (and think also about the messenger... etc etc). Well... just thought it while reading the article, that's my opinion! Cya!
Rimember: Jappi Pipol In Da Jaus
After years of development, MS finally introduces the first truely secure edition of the Windows XP operating systems. Implementing a feature many security experts believe essential to make XP secure, MS enters the next level of secure computing and brings groundbreaking new security technology to its customers.
An MS spokesperson was quoted as "Our users were not using the network anyways." and "Speculation that this is a step backwards by 15 years are completely groundless.".
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
> This release of Windows ... is not ...networking
> capable.
Hey...how come Russia gets the secure version of XP?
---eludom
> 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
No, Microsoft new what they were doing - Starter Edition should be named Demo Edition.
It's not a tax because it's not illegal to avoid it.
It's a tax in that it's a fee that microsoft wants every computer buyer to pay regardless of whether or not they use their software.
Government taxes can be avoided too, but the government uses strong armed tactics to stop you from doing so.
In the same way, microsoft "tax" can be avoided but they use strong arm tactics to try and make you pay.
A tax does not have to be tied to a government body. Look it up in a dictionary sometime. I think you'll find some definitions similar to (from www.dictionary.com);
3. A disagreeable or burdensome duty or charge; as, a heavy tax on time or health.
So maybe you should look up words before you tell people's use of them makes them look stupid.
This is not a problem with offshoring, no matter how much you want to make yourself believe that. This is a problem of getting governments to fight piracy. The Average Russian cannot afford WinXP. So he buys a pirated version. MS Finds out that this is all too common, and asks the Russian Government to step in. They refuse saying that the product is overpriced, and they'll only cooperate if the price is dropped.
In Typical MS style arm-twisting, they unload some junk at a cheaper price. Now, they've met their part of the deal and dropped the price. It's up to the Russian Govt to keep up their end of it, and try to curb piracy.
It's a very simple and obvious move. They don't care if it takes off or not, they'll have official govt backing. It's more important to them to ensure their future business and get a legal toehold. But then again, MS has always been really good at marketing, hasn't it.
StrayByte.Net
This is targeted for OEM market only. Most computers a selling with a pirated XP preinstalled. Microsoft found a simple way to stop it. This will not hammer prices on hardware and most vendors will use it.
Was it Microsoft itself, who named us 'developing nation'? We had better sending a few nukes in response.
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?
Won't work for a very simple reason. In Russia, many people don't even realise that CDs they buy at the local market are not legit, simply because they haven't seen a legal software box. This especially applies to non-computer-savvy people. Then again, even if they understand the difference, the price alone would be enough for everyone to tell Microsoft to fsck off. I mean, in the town I lived, all computers at schools and the university had pirated software installed. Windows, Office, Visual Studio, AutoCAD... you name it. Not a single legal copy. Even funnier, the local tax department office had pirated Windows 98 installed on all their desktops. Considering a copy of XP Pro would cost you $2.50, why would anyone bother buying a crippled version for twelve times that price? Especially if your salary is $200/month...
This is a good opportunity for $desktoplinuxdistribution to make inroads.
perl -e 'print $i=pack(c5, (41*2), sqrt(7056), (unpack(c,H)-2), oct(115), 10)'
"the article also states that the MS tax payed by vendors to Microsoft for Windows XP licenses is $70 or more."
That figure is just plain wrong. On Pricewatch, an XP Home COA sells for $43, and I know for a fact that Dell or HP isn't paying as much for a COA as myself buying a single license on Pricewatch.
These plans have nothing to do with end users. People will still go and buy a $3 CD with the full version on the street, and uninstall the crap that came with the PC.
The real target here is the beige box guys. there may be enough incentive for them to pay the MS tax now, rather than take the risk of preinstalling pirated copies on the PCs they sell.
...or what? Besides someone getting a kickback in vendor HQ (I bet this is the number one reason MS became dominant over the years), of what possible reason is this being done? Who the heck would even want a crippled "training bra" version of any OS? Is it just so they have SOMETHING on the screen running on the demo unit at the store, and they know that the full priced version is so expensive that very few people in these other countries will actually purchase it? Is it because it's becomg increasingly obvious that their US price structure is so far out to lunch nowadays that they have to do something to stem the tide of revolt against them? (I think so)
MS has a few options in the new century, but shipping mega-cripple ware by design is not one of them. They fail it bigtime on this one.
Any vendors installing and shipping this are tards, IMO. This is having inertia determine your market into the ludicrous range. It's laughable.
Here's a thought for MS if they want to maintain, instead of purposelly lowering quality in selected markets, drop your prices everywhere to reflect a top price that is acceptable in the least wealthy country. If they sold XPpro for a *very* reasonable fee, most people would rather just get the official disks, so as to avoid possible trojans whatever that might be on a warez copy. MS is absolutely so freaking greedy they can't even contemplate that. I mean, it's a freeking plastic disk. They can pump them out by the millions for cheap. They have resorted to corporate insanity in the fear they might actually have to compete based on merit. I mean, have they no shame, aren't they even the tiniest bit embarassed over this?
I know they are a multibillion buck comcpany, yada yada, capitalism, yada yada, that's not the point. the point is they got there by questionable tactics and ALSO being there for the explosion of the personal computer, timing is more important than anything else. Well, it's commodity-ware now, home appliance action, toaster, TV, computer. Yard sales have computers, flea markets, discount stores. This ISN'T the 1980s. Personal computers, OS and apps sellers are going to have to recognize that, it's no longer "exotic" or only very rich people or companies who own and use computers, yesterdays pricing modality is going to have to reflect this, and soon. This training bra edition is a big fat JOKE.
...it's meant for PC vendors. Currently, you'd buy just the hardware from the PC vendor, since no one can afford the OS, and buy the OS (Linux or pirated Windows XP) from a street vendor. If an inexpensive version of Windows exists, the PC vendor could buy it, put it on the PC, and you're stuck paying for it when you buy the PC. It's the Windows tax, updated for the rest of the world. That's the only explanation for this venture I can think of that makes sense.
"Can't you see that everyone is buying station wagons?"
The Russians aren't stupid! Some OEMs may put this crippled XP on new boxes, but as soon as they get home, a fully enabled pirated version is going to go on in its place. Crippleware will not sell, and surely MS must know this. So one can only wonder if this is a gesture by MS to get at least a few bucks from OEMs and a few people who just don't know any better. Not only that, you can bet that this budget XP will be cracked within a week of hitting the streets.
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
Since it is basically impossible to purchase a complete system without paying for Windows, I'd say it IS a tax. Even if you find a dealer that will sell you a blank machine, you'll still be paying for a copy of Windows if that dealer sells any systems bundled with Windows. The ONLY way to avoid paying the Microsoft Tax is to buy all your components separately and assemble them yourself.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
1-Word
2-IE
3-Solitair
Now there's no room for the virus or spyware to run.
Who are these drug dealers and how do I meet them? Thanks.
I'd rather be lucky than good.