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Inside Windows XP Reduced Media Edition
An anonymous reader writes "Flexbeta.net has got it's take on Windows XP Reduced Media Edition, which is basically Windows XP Pro stripped of its Windows Media Player. To sum it up, there is hardly any noticable difference between XP RME and XP Pro, except for the welcome screen and Windows not recognizing their own file format. The article hints how this may be the beggining to a Windows OS without any Microsoft applications. Bye-bye Internet Explorer?"
How about call me when there's Reduced DRM Edition.
-1 (Troll) is antihammer
... I thought Europe still had some objections to the words "reduced media"?
Many times, when people compares the GNU Operating System against the Windows Operating System, they make a misleading comparation, since they are comparing a FULL OS as GNU (That is, a kernel, basic system software, librarys, Graphic system, video and audio applications, office suits, browser, IM, compilers, editors, games, etc,etc,etc), With just a kernel, a graphic system and shell, basic system software, and the only 2 major apps that came with windows, which are windows media and ie.
Now, with microsoft trying to show that they are not a monopoly, they are striping down their OS, so, installing windows, only installs a kernel, librarys, a graphic shell, and a browser. That's it. While Free Software is going in the opposite directions. A Full install of Slackware gives you 2 gb of fully functional, quality software that you can start using. May be people will start noticing this limitations, and it will help people to switch.
ALMAFUERTE
WTF am I doing replying to an AC at 5 A.M on a Friday night?
wow, an operating system that doesnt let you play media files. maybe once they make an OS which doesnt have a browser, they can further gut it by forcing MS to ship an OS without networking capabilities, or the ability to run any programs.
;-)
Actually, for business purposes, removing 'frivolous' functionality like Windows Media Player could be really useful. I suppose it's one way of reducing the number of 'hilarious' videos and TV adverts being forwarded by office workers...
Myself, I spent a few hours last week beating WinXP Professional into a less intrusive, non-ugly mode. There are only a few Windows apps I actually need to run on my home PC (namely, games and the Source mapping SDK stuff!) and most of the included Windows applications are junk to me. If this Reduced Media thing had been available when I ordered my stuff, I would have got it...
Tedious Bloggy Stuff - hooray?
The big question: Is there a performance improvement without all that fluff? (Especially on older PC's)
This is what I really like about Linux, stuff is turned off by default. This ensures security and saves valuable resources. Microsoft seems to have everything enabled out of the box.
The big question is, will this be popularly renamed 'Windows XP WTF Edition' (WTF=what the fuck) by the regular users who it is foisted onto? Most average users aren't frantic about preventing Microsoft from preinstalling a Media Player.
Zealots: the ball is in your court now to convince 'regular folks' that this is a good thing.
"What's the frequency Kenneth?"
>So how does the end user benefit from this decision? In my opinion, they don't.
Exactly.
The whole thing was a stupid PR show by the stupid Euro bureaucrats.
When the whole thing was about to unfold, it seemed like some sort of politically-correct push against US-based Microsoft and a welcome boost for the home-grown SuSE and Mandrake.
Well it's 2005 now; Mandrake has been marginalized, SuSE was lucky to be acquired by IBM (their proxy Novell, that is) and enterprises are back to buying U.S. software (Red Hat, SuSE, Microsoft, Solaris, OS X) and services.
On the multi-media side, Windows Media Player has been replaced by another proprietary hardware-software combo (iPod).
And Windows customers are extra bothered by the crippled Windows version for which they have to download a multi-MB media player software (as most of them are 10MB or more).
Congratulations to the stupid Euro government!
Removing these portions will severely affect third-party developers. Now, a zoom player download is increased from a couple of megs to well over 20. Genius.
Is this the only way OSS can win? To cripple the opposition?
As far as I'm concerned, the US government is turning a blind eye to Microsoft's activities, effectively being a blank check to do anything they want.
BTW: 1/2 of all workers on the Airbus A380 project are USA workers.
I agree with your point, but how does the EU's proposal solve the problem? Now when they click on a media file windows will prompt the user to download WMP, and we're back to the original problem... I would have rather have them keep WMP but bundle other media player apps with their installation.
Will computer manufacturers be selling PCs with NO media player? Not likely, they'd be flooded with people what to know why there computer don't work like others.
I just doubt there is going to be much competition added by this move.Free Mac Mini Yeah, it's
Did anyone besides the Judge believe him when he said this? It was a lie so bold only a lawyer would believe it.
Religion is the main cause of atheism.
Does the term "bad faith" mean anything to these guys?
If I were going to require microsoft to do anything it would be to offer a standalone windows update application that would work without internet explorer.
I think I'd rather compare it to selling hamburgers without french fires..
I use a warezed copy of xp pro corporate (VLK).
:-)
I use it exclusively because of zero activation and home can kiss my ass. I use a keygen called MSKey4in1 (google it, quite nice) so i can CRAFT my product id to have my product ID look like this:
55274-640-XXXXXXc-23YYY
XXXXXX is customizeable, same with 640 (except why would any one wanna use something other?), c is a check digit, and Y is a random integer generated by setup each time it is installed (helps keep product id and activation random each installation). The rest of the numbers not spoken about are CONSTANT based off the edition of windows and the keygen.
don't use XPKey, it's dumb, zero key control and most of the time you get a product ID that isn't 640. Don't use keys off the internet, they're usually banned and have the product id of:
55274-640-0000007-23XXX
or something else that i don't remember.
Remember kiddies, microsoft can only see the product ID made by the key, not the key itself, so 5 different looking keys could be the same key in the fact they all produce the same ID.
Leeching is a skill and/or an art, or illegal, however one looks at it
So, basically, with the information i've provided above, any attempt to verify the authenticity of a windows license is almost bust without doing product id cross referencing to persons, computers, and/or organizations/corporations.
For those who know how to leech, it is no longer an issue, for those who don't, get educated.
I promote GNU/Linux over windows anyway and the main reason i won't pay for windows is because of it's leaks. I am stuck using linux because I am locked in with steam and lack of 3d acceleration on my card's chipset with ATI's drivers.
p.s., this message was sent behind tor, a random proxy circuit creator, so don't bother tracing me back!
Moderators: moderate this post based on information sharing and not on promotion of warez
On the contrary: if Windows includes basic antivirus, then Symantec/whoever has to come up with Double Super Plus Turbo Extended Anti-Virus. It has to have New! Improved! features just to be a saleable proposition compared to the freebie thrown in with Windows. This virtually guarantees it will be bloatware.
The other thing is that the large majority of users will never bother installing any product other than the basic one included in Windows. This shrinks the potential market for competitors and will inevitably drive some vendors out of a previously viable market.
In the short term, bundling is good for the consumer, because it's "something for nothing" but in the long term it's driving competitors in other markets out of business by bundling software at below cost with a product in which MS has a near monopoly, and that's bad for competition and bad for consumers.
THAT's what the EU Media Player case was about.
I've been writing software since 1977. I remember when a "PC" meant a Commodore PET/CBM, bundled with its builtin green screen, keyboard and tape drive. No choices. Or an Altair 8080, which was built by its owner from parts sometimes as simple as a switch bank - too many choices. Nowadays, there's a market for companies like Dell, HP, Gateway, which bundle standardized parts and their own specialized components, to make the vast array of choices into manageable packages.
Listen to your own advice: "everybody is just like me" is a fallacy. Getting only the same WMP with the same XP for eveyone sure does save on support costs, and avoids those confusing choices. But of course we want to be able to have the PC environment best suited to us. So there is clearly a market for a retail layer which assembles HW, OS and app components from the galaxy of options, into an understandable set of choices from which the mass of goal-oriented, tech-disinterested consumers can buy. Linux, with Linspire and other vendors, is delivering that model. Even Windows could work that way, with brands like AOL or Electronic Arts, or even TV brands like CNBC putting together PC bundles to serve their market segments. But Windows bundling competes unfairly with all those options. Consumers don't get manageable choices, competitors don't stand a chance. That's a middle ground that's being explored profitably for all, wherever it's not preempted by something like a Windows monopoly. We deserve better, and we can get it.
--
make install -not war
Let Fujitsu ship with WMP, let Sony ship with RealPlayer, let HP ship with iTunes, let Microsoft sell Windows:WMP edition and Windows:Reduced, etc.
Why force WMP on the desktop? When a user clicks on a media file, no prompting will occur because an alternative media player will/could/should be available. And WMP is just one of many alternative media players.
GPL Deconstructed
OS X and Linux both typically come with tons.
As well, in OS X's case, removing these applications and replacing them with another is trivial. Don't like iTunes? Drag it to the trash, empty the trash, and you no longer have iTunes. All this, and you don't suddenly lose functionality- iTunes does not contain the Core Audio API, and you can safetly delete any i* application without another application losing a dependency.
As an experiment, put Address Book in the trash, and see if iCal or Mail can still access your contacts. It can.
Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.