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Windows XP Starter Edition off to Slow Start
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft may have started shipping its cheaper version of Windows in Asia, but getting support for its low-cost computing vision is still very much a work in progress. It seems Starter Edition has not gained much interest from vendors, nor has it generated much interest from end users." I haven't seen any sort of consumer research, but I imagine people don't like to have their number of possible network connections restrained by the host operating system.
It all goes back to TCO... and unless you're Steve Ballmer (YEAAA GET UP!! I LOVE THIS COMPANYYYY YEAAA!!!) the TCO is definately less with Linux. And that is just the tip of the iceberg young grasshoppa.
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does that take into account the connections started by spambots?
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How surprised can anyone be if full version bootleg copies of XP are sold in the malls for $5 versus $32 for a legal, though crippled version.
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Wouldn't this be like XP Home vs XP Pro?
Then again I suppose anything can be spun through marketing. You figure something that's been lamed-down wouldn't get much play to begin with...but I guess if you spin it as the standard version, then maybe people may bite.
Also, the whole thing was created to curb off some piracy from the Asian market. That way, people who couldn't afford software may "buy" the starter edition instead of pirating an XP home or whatnot. From this standpoint, any sale they make is a bonus against rampant piracy.
Now for those folks who would rather pirate XP than use something like Linux (which I'm sure there are a lot of), I'm not really sure how best to market to them if you're a Linux Evangelist.
The people who are really going to feel this are the people who actually buy the upgrades, who install the newer versions from CDs they've *bought*. In short, the people who buy Microsoft Products. They're going to buy the cheaper version and realise that they can't do everything they could with the new version that they could with the old one. So, they'll probably either switch back to the old, or see what the other options are.
They should strip out the features people DON'T want, not the ones they do. Remove MSN messenger. Remove IE. Remove Windows media Player. Give me an Operating System, not a load of applications which are difficult if not impossible to remove when I realize they are there (and I never wanted them in the first place). Remove theme support, remove all the clunky "wizards" and other "features" that were supposed to make my life easier but instead frustrate the hell out of me.
Don't put an arbitrary limit on the number of programs that can be run at once. Get rid of the stuff I don't want to pay for to begin with. I never would have switched to Linux had I had access to a $50.00 version of Windows that didn't have all that crap built in.
Well, I bought Pro because
a) it comes with IIS as an optional install
b) it comes with a single-user terminal service licence (ie you can connect *to* it using remote desktop)
b) was the real selling point for me; I love being able to access my machine from work. Sure, I could futz around using ssh and so on, but my preferred mail client is GUI-based, not terminal-based.
It's official. Most of you are morons.
Here's a friend's accounting of how organized piracy is in HK:
<genjzzz> there are several plazas in hk that sell only computer and video game stuff
<genjzzz> a lot of grey market stuff there
<genjzzz> and counterfeit stuff like ps accessories
<genjzzz> ps2 that is
<genjzzz> and oversea versions of consoles that have no reason to be in hk
<genjzzz> i bought my cdrs from an organized group of individuals
<genjzzz> maybe about 14 in all
<genjzzz> anyway, inside one of the plazas, they have a corner shop set up with only color photocopies of the software they have available
<genjzzz> about 300 or so
<genjzzz> they have look outs at every entrance
<genjzzz> so i walk in and find the software i want
<genjzzz> and someone take the order and give me a slip with the software's stock numbers on it
<genjzzz> then i walk to the other side of the plaza where there's a "cashier" standing around
<genjzzz> i give him the slip and the money, he tells me who to see about pick up
<genjzzz> usually a few stores away
<genjzzz> the cashier gives me a slip with a number on it, that's my receipt to get the items
<genjzzz> so the dude tells me where to pick up the software: down the street and up the stairs at some store
<genjzzz> in about 15 minutes
<genjzzz> so i wait and go up and see some guy with a bunch of cdrs in plastic bags with receipt numbers on them
<genjzzz> i give him my receipt and get my software ~
<genjzzz> so they have seperate places for choosing, paying, information, and pick up
<genjzzz> and the warehouse of the cdrs is never revealed
This isn't a case of a few guys selling cdrs to friends, it's a huge, well-established business.
When XP came out I pirated it, and pirated all the software i needed for it. About a year after, I realized that my two options were:
1) Spend hours collecting virii on shady websites or downloading from slow unreliable p2p users to get 90% working cracked software
or
2) Find what I need quickly on freshmeat, or something similar to what i need, download and modify it with the promise of free support from the author.
However, all the best OSS is for the *nix platform. For me, the choice was obvious.
Been completely open-source for over a year now, contributing wherever I can.
Want to know how to market linux to XP pirates? Stop fucking porting your software to XP.
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They should also use the "Pro" moniker on the low end (aka Home) edition and rename "Pro" to "Corporate Edition." There seem to be far too many people that feel that they need the "Pro" version of something, simply because it's better.
Back when I worked at CHIMPUSA in college, i met many people like that. They had NT back office because it was 'more powerful' than workstation. When I asked them why it was better, they just stared at me blankly.
MS has a HORRIBLE nameing convention. First off, they keep changing it. Jesus Bill, I'm using all my gray matter remembering syntax for all your differing programming languages, can we keep the naming convention on the OS consistant?
How about going back to the NT names? Workstation for workstations, server for servers, and TheJesusCristServer(tm) for enterprise servers. ('The JesusCristServer, it works miracles!')
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
But they won't since it'll make them less money. They probably only bought out XP Starter to counter piracy and vendors choosing Lindows in the ultra-budget PC market.
:)
I doubt microsoft are going to keep the development name 'longhorn' so a 'shorthorn' is off the cards totally, my guess is it'll probably be either windows 2006, or Windows.Net
Not to give Ballmer any undeserved credit, but Microsoft is in a different phase of corporate life now than in the Bill Gates era. As a business grows in terms of customers, products or employees, change becomes increasingly difficult and inefficient.
Stock analysts have compared MS to a guy in his 40s going through mid-life crisis, wanting to act young but not having the body or mental outlook for it. I read a good article on Motley Fool a couple years ago that said MS is in stage 3 of the corporate life cycle.
Stage 1 is the Startup stage, where obviously you take a lot of risks and do a lot of innovation.
Stage 2 is the Growth stage, where you focus on expanding market share by learning how to replicate your success as cheaply and efficiently as possible, which usually means developing a culture of standardization and uniformity.
I forget the name of Stage 3, but it's where the company can't make changes fast enough to compete in the real world. At this stage it should be reinvesting its money in younger companies and branding their innovations.
Employees who produce the most new ideas -- the young, creative people with the least structured minds and the greatest ability to go without sleep -- are the ones most alienated by Stage 3 corporate culture. Microsoft's problem, according to the Motley Fool article, is that it's a Stage 3 company trying to perform like a Startup. If Ballmer's to blame for anything, it's his failure to accept that fact.
Someone will just figure out what MS did to "cripple" WinXP, and uncripple it.
Just like WinNT server and workstation: the server differed from workstation version in just two registry keys. MS thought they were so smart in putting those keys into a process that would watch them and make sure they never changed.
Yeah right.
Just hex edit that binary so it'd watch the wrong registry keys, modify the keys to the WinNT server values, and turn your WinNT workstation into a WinNT server.
> Auto-updating antivirus with scheduled scan.
Many need Administrator priviledges to update (unless you've got money to spend on serious business grade AV).
No consumer antivirus on the market today NEEDS admin privs to update the virus definitions.
The same is true for anti-spyware definitions.
And you evidently missed one main point, since you validated it in your first sentence; "when the parents want to do something new..."
I specifically referred to an average older user needing internet, email and maybe some flash/java games. That's all they really want. And they STILL don't need XP Pro to do it.
I sell computers to these exact people. And our shop sets them up exactly as I described. And when we check with them or they come in 6-12 months later, they're still happily doing what they wanted with NO problems.
OBVIOUSLY if they start using it for other things, the situation changes.
No unauthorized use. Trespassers will be shot. Survivors will be shot again.
I really loved the 95 Plus pack concept. Why can't all the bloat be moved to a Plus pack?
Microsoft crippled this OS on purpose. They really don't expect anyone in their right mind to use this POS. I believe that it released solely to prevent a Linux distro from being pre-installed on Asian PCs after the BSA hit squads start cracking down on PC builders in that market.
The worst thing in the world for Microsoft will be Linux starting to be shipped on PCs as the default OS in significant numbers. Their monopoly is dependant on making "Windows = computer" in the minds of the masses. This product was only put out so that OEM PC manufacturers in the East have less incentive to package Linux on their PCs. They are probably giving these licences to the OEMs.
Microsoft doesn't give a crap about piracy on home PCs: that's business as usual for them for the last two decades. Keeping them in the Microsoft fold, even for free, is far more important than losing mindshare to Linux. I'll bet that XP SE was specifically designed to "upgrade" to hacked XP Corporate very smoothly.
Of course, with XP SE being so crippled, it is essentially useless. Which means that every business (possible juicy target of IP raids) will still have to pony up the funds for full-blown Windows licences.
This is actually quite a brilliant move by Redmond. On the surface, it seems folly to develop a product that will never be used by anyone, and charge nothing for it. But given the alternative (loss of their monopoly), it will be money very well spent for them.
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You mean like XP Home or the Office Basic/Standard editions? They seem to be quite popular.
It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.