MS Plans Low-Cost Windows for Brazil

Atryn writes "According to this C|NET article, Microsoft is planning to release its XP Starter Edition in Brazil. Could the pressure of Brazil's overtures toward Linux be forcing Microsoft Brasil to compete?"

Comments

Big Fight

[fembots]

The Brazilian government has launched an initiative called "PC Conectado" (Connected PC), via which it hopes to sell up to one million computers (each costs $300 - $400 U.S.) to lower-middle income Brazilians this year. The cost of the PCs will be partially subsidized by the government.

I wonder if MS can justify $400 million to secure 1 million Brazilian users. They might as well pay for the PCs with pre-installed Windows OS free of charge.

Is this excessive even by MS standard?

Re:Big Fight

[Dan Farina]

This is, by Microsoft's standards, a relatively cheap way to keep application writers from targeting *NIX platforms. No move is too excessive, because an operating system without applications will never become a serious competitor. If a country's population moves into the computer age accustomed to and expecting applications for the *NIX platform, then Windows will lose the big card of application availability and have to compete on technical merits instead.

It's much easier to simply prevent those applications from becoming major in the first place.

Re:Big Fight

[1u3hr]

I wonder if MS can justify $400 million to secure 1 million Brazilian users. They might as well pay for the PCs with pre-installed Windows OS free of charge.

If even one country, even not a first world one, was to "switch" to Linux (or anything else), there'd be an incubator for creating the whole ecosystem: business apps, games, servers; to force hardware companies to make drivers; to provide polished interfaces for Juan Sixpack. This would be an immediate threat to MS worldwide. So nothing is too much to justify, that's why Gates and Balmer will fly to Australia, India, Munich, London; ANYWHERE to bribe and/or threaten to stop this happening.

Re:Big Fight

[greenguy]

I can't speak for Brazil, but here in Nicaragua, the Spanish word for six-pack is... "el sixpack."

Those of us Linux users in other parts of Latin America are keeping a close eye on Brazil. Other governments may not have the foresight Lula does on this, but pockets of the population do. Those who have are fortunate enough to have both the formal education to understand computers and the insight to grok Linux, that is.

Starter Edition?

[agm]

Features cut from the various Starter Editions have included support for multiple user accounts; networked printers; the ability to personalize desktops with multiple looks and feels for different users; and support for screen resolutions above 800 X 600 DPI (dots per inch). Starter Edition also prevents users from launching more than three applications simultaneously.>

I didn't realise the Starter Edition was so crippled. I would consider that barely useful!

Re:Starter Edition?

[compm375]

What will happen is people will buy Starter Edition, then yes, pirate it. That is still better for MS than if they did't buy any version of Windows. This can't hurt MS at all. $36 USD (is that the cost?) is better than $0.

Re:Starter Edition?

[i_should_be_working]

The thing in the technology world that I absolutely hate the worst is when a company expends extra effort to make a product worse. It make me really despise them.

I would understand if the low budget version was worse because they *didn't* put as much effort into it. But they actually paid someone to make it worse on purpose. I know this practice has been around for years. I just wanted to complain now.

Anyway, go Brasil!

Re:Starter Edition?

[cgenman]

On the one hand, I always thought that multi-user stuff was trouble for most first-hand computer users, and wouldn't mind seeing it gone.

On the other hand, only three applications simultaneously? Opening up the process manager, I see 54 running processes, from basics like TaskSwitch.exe to my e-mail filter K9.exe to this browser. How can one say what is an app and what isn't? A folder window is open. Is it an app? Is Mozilla an app when it is preloaded into the tray? Is I.E. an app? Is I.E. an app when coming from a folder?

Maximum 40GB HDD? Can you even get drives that small anymore? Maximum 128 MB of RAM? That maxes out on one of the chips in a modern piece of RAM.

Geez, the only thing this looks like it will be good for is shuttle missions.

Re:Starter Edition?

[Zemran]

Such a crippled version will make Linux look more attractive in comparison.

Re:Starter Edition?

[hunterx11]

Probably more effort than it takes to pirate regular Windows.

Re:Starter Edition?

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree. It's like wanting to buy a car. The salesman wants $10,000. You only have $8000. 'That's okay', the salesman says. 'I'll just slash the tires and key the door.'

Re:Starter Edition?

[Pyrion]

The competition in this case just happens to have the market share of a Lamborghini, the sturdyness of a Mercedes, the fuel economy of a Honda and the handling and feeling of security of an M1A1 Abrams tank, and you can get these for free, legally.

Re:Starter Edition?

[NanoGator]

"have you ever used windows 2000 for more than 5 minutes on a 128 meg system? I have and even running more than one app at once is PAINFUL"

I have. The reason it's 'painful' is because I have it better today.

I'm not saying you're wrong, but you'd be surprised how relative 'long' is to a computer user, especially one who hasn't spent hours or something spiffier. Don't forget what the BBS days were like.

Re:Starter Edition?

[jez9999]

Generally I tell people (that I know in person, and ask why their computer is slow) that if they have 30 or more processes when they first turn on their computer, they have too much junk and/or spyware and need to disable a lot of it.

Damn, I'm glad you didn't advise me when I was a computer newbie.

I have absolutely zero spyware on this modest Windows system, it runs fast enough, and I currently have 42 processes running, many of them system/local service/network service. I don't consider any of my processes to be superfluous.

Please stop giving such generalized advice to people who may have good reasons to have many processes open.

Uhhh

[Eric(b0mb)Dennis]

If it didn't work in Asia, why would it work in Brazil?

Re:Uhhh

[GulagMoosh]

Why exactly is this a Linux story? I have nothing else to say.

Re:Uhhh

[0x461FAB0BD7D2]

Their excuse for providing this Starter Edition is that it is a low-cost alternative to XP. If the Starter Edition provided modern features, they'd have a hell of a time trying to sell XP.

As others have mentioned, it's a gateway to XP and future Windows OSes, while simultaneously providing competition to Linux, and broadcasting Microsoft's view of how far Linux has progressed. Microsoft is not serious about this. It's a ploy so that it can say, "Hey, at least we tried. But people still want to be pirates. Now book 'em, Dano."

Veeery Smart(tm)

[TheAvatar666]

Brazilian people already don't pay for windows. Do they really think they'll start paying for a crippled version of it? Right on Microsoft. Right on. I for one, wouldn't use it.

What're the odds...

[menace3society]

Everyone always talks about how, especially in third-world type places, computers with Linux pre-installed just end up getting an illegal copy of Windows put on, and either ignoring or erasing the linux installation. How much does anyone want to bet that the same thing happens with XP Starter Edition?

Sure, maybe, maybe some people just use Starter Edition for a while, then realize its limitations and decide to upgrade. If they can hardly afford a $300 computer, will they really be able to afford a $260 OS upgrade? Chances are, they'll talk to everyone about how they need an upgrade, until the kid from city hears about it and comes along with a CD-case full of cracked Windows CDs and installs it for $10.

Re:What're the odds...

[strider44]

why on earth would they put a pirate version of Windows on there? These aren't computer scientists or even geeks, these are poor people who know almost nothing about computers. Given a year they couldn't tell the difference between KDE and Windows XP.

No if the government gives them linux then they'll use linux simply because they wouldn't even know any alternatives exist!

Bzzzt....

[raehl]

$200 million to secure the *FIRST* 1 million users.

M$ is still robbing them no matter what.

[Mark19960]

see, they have already recovered development costs,
probably 10x over.
if they sold the professional edition for $10 they STILL MAKE MONEY.

So, now they insult users by stripping it down, which is NO DOUBT going to cause 1/2 the software out there to BREAK, then sell it for something like $50-$75 anyhow!

This is a SLAP IN THE FACE.

Why do you think the icon for them here on /. is the borg?

All the money that bill and his wife supposedly give away, but they cant donate a goddamn copy of windows to some poor family just KILLS ME.

M$ can ROT IN HELL.

If you take a step back and think about it...

[3770]

There would be no extra cost for Microsoft to sell them the full version for the same price. And they would be far more competitive with Linux if they did.

The only reason to sell a crippled version is to not undermine the market in the rich countries.

If they sell the same version for a substantially lower price MS will have a hard time explaining that difference.

I guess that this is obvious really.

But even if it is obvious, when you think about it, I believe it is enough of a smoke screen for people in rich countries to not question the prices of the full versions of Windows.

Re:If you take a step back and think about it...

[ral315]

This might be irrelevant, but I think MS may be worried about people buying a $36 full version, and shipping it to the U.S. to undercut MS' profits.

It's part of an anti-piracy strategy

[tyates]

In countries like Brazil, Indonesia, Thailand, & Malaysia (the countries listed in the article, and I've been to three of them), you buy your software for $2 from a guy who burns CDs at the local Internet cafe. Microsoft says this is for the first time user, but it's really for the government and big corps who are actually concerned about whether they follow licensing rules. Microsoft's strategy for developing countries is to go: govt-> multi-national company->local company->middle class individual->everybody. They're still on the govt step.

I don't forsee any better success than Asia...

[LaughingLinuxMan]

Well it worked so well in Asia :-P. The problem is that these parts of the world need low cost FULL featured OSs and applications that can be customized and integrated easily. Maddog Hall has explained at our LUG meetings on several occasions the advantages of OSS in such environments. Scientists at underfunded universities in this region can easily get real work done without wasting hard fought funding on hard to purchase and integrate opaque proprietary software.

--LLM

Compete?

[Frodo Crockett]

Could the pressure of Brazil's overtures toward Linux be forcing Microsoft Brasil to compete?

You call a crippled OS that can only run three foreground apps at once competition? They're going to be laughed out of every government office they set foot in.

Not to generalize, but ...

[B3ryllium]

... people buy software in Brazil? Since when?

This is fireselling

[Douglas Simmons]

Microsoft's greatest asset is their marketshare because in this particular industry large marketshare leads to larger marketshare. If you have a few chunks of the world here and there unwilling enough to pay the Microsoft tax, then there will be a greater demand in that country to make software for society to be accommodated with. Then that free/cheaper software born out of competition chips away at Microsoft's leverage to use their marketshare to gain more.

I'd bet it is worth more to Microsoft to give away Windows to every Brazillian for free than to lose some business by pricing it too high, if they could only do one or the other.

$300 PC?

[YrWrstNtmr]

Like this one or this one? It's not that much of a stretch to get a cheap box, even with the disgustingly expensive Windows on it.

Bad Marketing

[boingyzain]

Maybe in the coming days of Longhorn, Microsoft should sell a standard Shorthorn version, with built-in limitation.

I believe normal users don't really know/care the differences, but if you tell them A is a standard version, it has xx features, they can also buy B with x features, people tend to choose former.

However, if you tell consumers A is a standard version with x features, they can also buy a premium version with xx features, people still tend to choose the former, but some of them will upgrade to the latter simply because it is better.

Oh by the way, naming it Shorthorn is just as bad as XP Starter, MS should have the standard Longhorn with fewer features, and come out market Longerhorn as the premium.

One BIG thing working against MS

[i_want_you_to_throw_]

If you're a foreign government and you're running everything on MS then your entire infrastructure is being controlled by a foreign power. Doesn't matter how well MS wants to play it is already at a disadvantage in that regard.

Re:reminds me a dealer

[nathanh]

Who would want to buy a crippled operating system?

Because you can't afford the uncrippled version?

Seriously, if you need Windows for whatever reasons, and you can't afford to buy the uncrippled version, and you're adverse to the illegal and arguably immoral copying of software that belongs to Microsoft, then the crippled version is the next best thing.

That nobody would want it is the POINT.

[shaitand]

Microsoft doesn't expect anyone to buy this. It is a statement. They are releasing this to show that competition with linux does not result in a superior product. At the same time releasing this to compete with linux is a way of insulting linux, implying that linux is crap.

And last but not least, they are releasing this so they can claim that their pricepoint is fair. They will claim that this is all they can offer at these rock bottom prices because software developments costs... etc. etc. etc. We all know how huge their profit margins are on windows so we know it's a load of crap. On the other hand it is not entirely... it looks good on paper to beurocrats who do not use the software themselves, they hope people will turn around and buy full versions, and Microsoft doesn't just have to make huge profits. They have to meet or exceed ANTICIPATED profits that are based on their previous ridiculous earnings or their stock will drop and that hits the top dogs pocketbooks.

Re:What is Microsoft thinking?

[SorcererX]

$36 is about 5% of $741, and $741 isn't all that bad, I live on about $1200 from scholarship over here, and prices are several times as high.

Re:What is Microsoft thinking?

[JoeMerchant]

It all depends what it's worth to you....

I spent my life savings ($700) for a 4MHz computer with 16K of RAM.

You're saying that $36 is about 5% of monthly income in working class Brazil - in the US, I'd call poor working class about $24,000 a year - $2000 per month, 5% of that is $100 - which is just about exactly what I see copies of XP home for sale on the shelves of Office Depot. If you make more money, well, then, sir, you really want to upgrade to XP professional, then, don't you?

Remember, also, the OEM system builder resellers get software for something like 10% of list price, so $36 becomes $3.60 in those machines - who wouldn't pay an extra $3.60 to have a "legit" copy of Windows in the box they're selling?

-----------

Wealth, Fame, Intelligence and Strength await in iCLOD city.

How much would you bet

[rbanffy]

How much would you bet that Microsoft would prefer if people got pirate versions of Windows "Less-Crippled Edition" instead of trying, say, Linux?

I know I would, if I was in their shoes.

Re:How much would you bet

[ajs318]

Microsoft would well prefer that people were using pirated Windows rather than any non-Microsoft product -- not just GNU/Linux. Microsoft want you to use Word, not some povvy cheap £50 word processor from some independent vendor, even if the £50 one does all you need it to do. John Willy thinks that he will be better off with a £500 word processor than a £50 one -- and why save £450 by buying the £50 one, when you could save £500 and stick two fingers up to The Man at the same time by pirating the £500 one?!

That's where all the local independent software suppliers went. {Though, to be frank, if they were selling closed-source, I've not much sympathy for them.}

In my city, there was a bus route that was very very popular: it linked a busy council estate where almost nobody had a car with the centre of town. When the buses were deregulated, an upstart startup company began running competing buses on the same route, charging a lower fare. The "main" bus company responded by introducing more of their buses, cutting their fares, and accepting the competitor's return tickets. Eventually, every bus travelling up and down that main road was costing somebody money; and the competitor was pushed out of business before the established company. Today, no buses at all run on that route; and the local bus company is owned by a used car dealership.

As long as people are using Microsoft software, they are dependent upon Microsoft software; and if they aren't paying for it today, maybe they can be tapped for money tomorrow somehow. Either way, MS is prepared to swallow that cost ..... piracy is not really hurting them. They have so much money that even if nobody ever bought another Microsoft product again, nobody at MS would go short.

The Open Source community is really in the best position to compete with Microsoft, because Open Source also has unlimited reserves. The capitalists are about to find out the hard way that other things beside money can have intrinsic value .....

Re:reminds me a dealer

[WNight]

You're under the impression that copying from Microsoft is immoral. (As opposed to misguided and pointless.)

Microsoft has spent more money than I'll ever have on what should be illegal, outright bribes (oh, sorry, campaign contributions) to politicians who coincidently refuse to charge them for their crimes.

The reason I wouldn't pirate their software is that I wouldn't want to polute the world with more incompatible windocs and open my computer up to every virus under the sun. I'll do everything in my power to hurt Microsoft - they're waging a war against me - wanting to lock me out of my PC, wanting to lock me out of my media, wanting to make me a criminal for trying to make something work (EULAs that they say prohibit reverse-engineering.)

The worst thing right now for the computer market are the software vendors. They're rich because they came in at the right time and have released horrible, horrible software. Maybe open source software is crappy, but if you've ever tried to install and tweak XP you'll know it's just as bad. They've got the interfaces, but god fucking forbid you want to change settings on one monitor without fucking up the other. Impossible. Change the refresh on one, watch the color depth on the other change. Change the layout, watch the refresh change. Change you network name and reboot before it takes.

All that and they're trying to make tinkering illegal to force people to use them. Evidently capitalism, you know, competing by making a better product, is too much work for the poster boys of American industry - the only way Microsoft has "innovated" (and this counts Adobe, whose latest Photoshop is the old one, with a raw importer - wow! The power of industry!) is DRM and ways of keeping paying customers from using what they buy.

Anyone who has ever admined unix boxes and MS boxes knows of what I speak. In unix your config files are text files which can be SCPed around - with military grade encryption. With windows you can supposedly push changes, but it often doesn't work and when it does you're doing it with their proprietary software and its fragile and insecure. With Windows you can (oh all thank Lord Bill for saving us from even more useless clicking) push updates from your central server, but only if you buy about a few different packages from them and the stars are aligned correctly.

And they wonder why there are windows viruses. There are windows viruses because in 2005 it doesn't have actual fucking multi-user permissions and properly seperated logins. It still can't prevent local-root exploits. Rather than fix this though, they try to lobby congress and have open source software ruled a threat to advancement (for what, being better?) and try to ban it in any publicly funded arena, despite that being exactly where people deserve to have open source - where they pay for it with their tax dollars.

No, fuck Microsoft. I'll do my part by buying a CD here and shipping it to the Asian pirates. Anything else I can do to take a bite out of their bottom line? I only ask because they're willing to piss on everyone to get richer - seems like they should welcome the "competition".

Re:reminds me a dealer

[Greyfox]

Why do you think MS never made a big deal about the rampant MS DOS piracy. Piracy MADE Microsoft what it is today. If they'd made an effort to force users to license DOS, application authors might have targetted other platforms. They got an entire generation of programmers and businesses hooked on their software and when they started to get anal about licensing, it was more of an effort to switch platforms than it was to just pony up the cash and continue on the MS path.

Re:Price Fixing

[WNight]

Yeah, you can't forbid importing a product from one area to another. Doctrine of First Sale in the USA and quite a few other laws, in the USA and abroad, prevent this. What you can do though, is make something useless anywhere but where you sell it, and by pursuing needlessly harassing and expensive lawsuits, drive anyone without billions of dollars into the ground for trying to exercise their lawful rights.

Microsoft is trying their damndest to put me out of work by bribing politicians into banning open source (they've asked that OSS be banned - if they'd asked earlier they might have succeeded) and costing the world economy billions by sticking useless middleman costs onto all information processing. They didn't design the web, they didn't design any of the protocols we use, and they didn't add any value to any of the above, yet they claim to have invented modern computing and put a computer on everyone's desk - as if the innovation to charge ruinous lock-in rates is what sped adoption.

Fuck Microsoft for doing it, and fuck the MPAA for giving them the idea.

How can we cost Microsoft money? Anything from mailing them a brick in a prepaid envelope to hiring some Russians to hack in and wipe everything they can touch? Anything less is letting them win with their bribes and outright criminal actions.

Re:Price Fixing

[sirReal.83.]

Why do you think DVDs are generally region-coded?

Brazil: Independence & openness against arroga

[Futurepower(R)]

Brazil: A country that uses proprietary software with hidden file formats is not an independent country. This is particularly true when considering software from the United States. The U.S. government spends a huge amount on spying on other countries. Some of the spying is done to benefit U.S. companies to allow them to compete with foreign companies.

Brazil: Do you want to be a partner of a company that has broken the laws of its own country? If that company has in the past shown little respect for the laws of its own country, would it respect the laws of Brazil?

Brazil: Remember that hidden elements of the U.S. government supported the military coup against democracy in Brazil, without the knowledge of most U.S. citizens.

what are they thinking ?

[moro_666]

i live in a small country in northern europe, we aint exactly poor but we earn usually less money here than the european and american workers that have the same job.

most here people dont buy windows here, they use some pirate version or have chosen linux instead. cause they just can't afford to spend money on software. besides the local people here really have no respect for software as a product.

russia is right beside us, people there earn even less. bill gates in his wildest dream can't sell no windows starter edition over here (they have launched it there, but believe me, there is no progress on selling there). i wouldn't wonder if their government would use pirated versions of microsofts tools too.

brazil is somewhat on the same level of economy as russia. a big country, and no money whatsoever (at least on the hands of microsoft's target group).

if you give a brazillian a choice to buy a limited windows version, pirate a windows version or use linux, he will choose one of the two last, no doubt about it.

none is really interested in buying a limited version of windows in a country where a solid worker earns the fee of window's licence in 1-2 months.

Competition?

[Anonymous Coward]

How can anyone say microsoft is in competition? XP starter edition, a limited OS that you pay for. Linux, a robust open source OS. Where is the competition in that?

Re:All about keeping Linux Out

[shufler]

In Asia where MS has already launched the Starter Crap Crack-Whore Edition, most user simply wipe off starter edition and replace it with the $2.00 Pirate XP Pro.

Microsoft has received their money for XP Starter already. I doubt at that point they really care if they go and pirate XP Pro. Even if they put Linux on it, they're still paying the Microsoft tax when they buy a new PC.

800x600dpi?

[derkyjadex]

screen resolutions above 800 X 600 DPI (dots per inch).

On my 17" monitor that would be a resolution of 10400 x 6000.

I think they could have left the "DPI" out.

is the os cost the real problem?

[freddej]

Just a little thought here: After reading all about this linux vs. win there is so much more you get from a linux distribution, and I'm not talking about the down-to-core os-tools, but the applications that you can ship with the os, like free office applications, good web browsers, image editing and so forth and so on. Windows is just crap without a ton of other software downloaded or bought, with an own linux distribution you can distribute a complete pc-home-work-machine, not a dumb terminal that needs external software to be really useful (m$ paint anyone? :)

Re:is the os cost the real problem?

[phuturephunk]

Yeah, but linux still loses because of one big thing (among others): Windows is completely fire and forget.

I don't have to go out and find software to play MP3s and then spend a ridiculous amount of time downloading RPMs...and Bin files and whatever..compiling, reading the errors, re-compiling..whatever..to get it to work. I challenge one Linux user to tell me that the mplayer install, for instance, isn't byzantine and confusing. Font files? So I have to download this...and then install that..oh, but I'm missing the glib files so gmplayer won't compile properly..oh so I have to download that, but now that has dependencies too....Unacceptible.

I really think the community needs to address this, because it's the single most harrowing problem for anyone who may be looking to jump into *nix as a new user migrating from Microsoft based products...and I don't say this as someone who wants to flame Linux or BSD, or whatever. I'm a geek working in a Novell/Microsoft shop and I'm constantly looking for a reason to justify the use of Linux in any facet of our operations, it's just so hard to wrap your skull around when you're immersed in other technologies.

And that brings me to my second big gripe about *nix and another count on why Microsoft will always win if the status quo is maintained: There are no great communicators in the Linux community. There is no voice to explain to the masses why this is a better option than allowing Microsoft a stranglehold on the market. There is no voice rallying the masses of disaffected geeks out there to create something like a common, easy to use, installer..to provide for two levels, one simple and one complex, to cater to how the user wants to use his/her system (One day I just hit "next" all the way through, the next I work on compiling it myself..depending on my mood). Most of the forums dedicated to *nix culture are filled to the brim with assholes who couldn't convey the concepts they cheerlead for in plain English to save their lives. BSD is a perfect example of this. FreeBSD was actually my first foray into a *nix platform by way of my friend giving me a bought copy that he had laying around. I read the manual...hard to understand, so I hit the forums out there on the internet. At every step I was berated and talked down to even though I had valid questions on how the technology worked. I got frustrated and walked away. (I'm using FC3 now on my primary computer at home and it works well enough..)

And that's tragic when you think about it, 'cuz the whole concept of Open Source is beautiful. It stands boldy in the face of those who would turn our computers from the wonderful tools of creation that they are into second generation boob-tubes. A concept like that deserves a unified front. A concept like that deserves more than the community is seemingly willing to give.

Now, I'm a computer geek and I got fed up and said the hell with it, how do you think someone who just may be looking for a more stable option to do simple tasks at home is going to feel?

So you guys can flame this and mod me down if you feel it necessary, but I just gave you a typical Microsoft immersed IT guy POV and I have a feeling I'm not alone.

Someone, somehow..has to come out of the community of *nix users and bridge the divide. Prove to me why I should take the time to deal with all the headaches of Linux instead of just double clicking "Setup" and watching it go...or better yet, just eliminate those headaches entirely.

Bzzzt again....

[Anonymous Coward]

$200 million to secure the first 1 million *MACHINES*...

You can bet your ass that in a "lower-middle income" house in Brazil, the whole family will use the same box.

Also, given the economies of scale and other influences MS could bring to bear, they could probably do a box for $200 if they wanted.

The hardware would probably be so crap that WinXP wouldn't run on it, but hey...

About brazilian users

[vhogemann]

As a brazilian citzen, I can say a word or two about our average computer user... They're clueless, as any other computer illiterate in the world. So, if it's not crippled for GAMES most users won't notice the difference.

Also, most of the users use whatever OS that came with their machines. I don't know of any home user that bought a LEGAL copy of Windows to update.

This "Windows Starter Edition" wont do any good for Microsoft here. The home user is already using Windows, so sales wont grow up. The small business are using Linux SERVERS, not desktops... so thei're attacking the wrong front here. And, finally, the governament is commited with OpenSource.

It would be a lot better if they created a "Microsof Office Start Edition" to fight OpenOffice. This is what is really driving people to Linux Desktops around here.

Reduced Edition

[Anonymous Coward]

So how come the "Starter Edition" with all it's crippling restrictions is supposed to be so great but M$ wants to tag a European edition of Windows with no media player a "reduced media edition"?
If being asked to not bundle one program due to concerns over monopoly power abuse deserves a "reduced" name doesn't the "Starter Edition" deserve a "Multiple Reduced Functions for Suckers" name?
Microsoft's abuse of it's monopoly position is so great that it even involves the naming of their products.

Re:Big Fight-- show some might and BITE

[Nasheer]

"God, PLEASE, if you exist, give Brazil the senses not to buy into this microsoft (...) addiction. (...)

Brazil, if you're listening, REGAIN your freedom and independence. (...)"

Sorry, God is unavaible at the moment. But his substitute has already dealt with this. You see, the Micromind proposal for shipping the "Connected PC" with its Windows X-tremelly Poor Sucker Edition was already rejected by the Brazillian government. I'm sorry I don't have an English link, but you can use the fish.

I can, however, translate the words of Sérgio Amadeu, director of the Federal Data Processing Service (SERPRO):

"We don't want to offer an inferior technology for those with lower income. This is discrimination."