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Windows 7 Sets Direction of Low-Power CPU Market
Vigile writes "News is circulating about Microsoft setting hardware limits for the Windows 7 Starter Edition rather than sticking to a 3-application limit. With just a few simple specifications, Microsoft has set the tech world spinning — not only is Microsoft deciding that a netbook is now defined as having a 10.2-in. or smaller screen, but by setting a 15-watt limit to CPU thermal dissipation they may have inadvertently set the direction of CPU technology for years to come. If Microsoft sticks to that licensing spec, then AMD, Intel, VIA, and maybe even NVIDIA (who might be building an x86 CPU) will no doubt put a new focus on power efficiency in order to cash in on the lucrative netbook market."
Seriously /., you can't even buy starter edition in the US or most technologically-capable countries. It's for underdeveloped countries. It's been this way for years now, it was like this for Vista also.
Was, past tense. Between Windows Vista and Windows 7, Microsoft swapped the roles of Starter Edition and Home Basic. In Windows Vista, Starter Edition was for the third world and Home Basic was for entry-level hardware in the industrialized world. But in Windows 7, Home Basic is for the third world and Starter Edition is for low-cost subnotebook PCs.
Flash has been on Linux for ages now. In most distros its just an apt-get away from being installed. Silverlight has Moonlight which is sorta comparable, but in all my browsing I really haven't come to an occasion that Silverlight was ever necessary.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
When we see a Space Shuttle sitting on the launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are the solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at a factory in Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs might have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site so they must be US Standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) or 4 feet, 8 1/2 inches.
That's utter bs. If you bother to check wikipedia, you'll find out that diameter of the boosters are 12.17 ft. That's not us standard gauge by any means. Plus, if you think about it, NASA doesn't have any issues shipping the main fuel tank assembly to florida.
"When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, it seems like two minutes. When you sit on a hot stove for two minutes, it
Ed Bott did a bunch of research on what the Windows 7 three application limit really means:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=844
In short, he says that: ...
- Windows Explorer, Command Prompt, Task Manager, Control Panel applets, other Windows system tools don't count
- Many applications that run as system services and present themselves through the notification area (aka system tray) don't count (anti-virus, firewall, little utilities, etc)
- The version he tested doesn't exempt installers, but Microsoft said that they should be
- Internet Explorer is NOT exempt, but there is no limit on the number of tabs you can open
- If you don't like the three-app limit, there is a built-in way in Windows to upgrade to a higher edition that doesn't have the limitation. You don't have to reinstall Windows or lose your data or anything; it's just an online purchase and a change of product key, and the upgraded features are unlocked with a reboot
So it's not like you're screwed if your computer came with Starter and you need more. But if you don't need more, hey, you just saved some money....
How many people are going to be limited by Microsoft's decisions? Obviously, the unintelligent and unimaginative. I don't even WANT a netbook - but if I did, and IF I wanted Windows, I would re-format, and install a pirated edition with no restrictions. MS has no right to decide which part of their operating system I am "permitted" to use, and which parts I am not "permitted".
Oh yeah, someone tell me how DISHONEST it is to pay MS 15 bucks for a castrated operating system, then reinstall the same system without limitations. I'll be quick to remind you how dishonest Microsoft is in all of it's dealings, including this underhanded attempt to cut competitors out of the netbook market. Most *nix distros will install full version, without restriction, provided you have minimum disk space and minimum memory to run a full fledged GUI.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Seriously /., you can't even buy starter edition in the US or most technologically-capable countries. It's for underdeveloped countries. It's been this way for years now, it was like this for Vista also.
And, from TFA:
Windows 7 Starter Edition, unlike XP Starter Edition, will be for sale to users in both developing and developed nations.
That's why /. is called News for Nerds, Stuff that matters. When something that was one way is now another, many people call that news.
In the time you've taken to call /. dumb, you could have RTFA and learned also:
Specifically, according to TechARP's information, Microsoft's maximum specs for machines it will consider to be netbooks/"small notebooks" will change in the following ways:
Screen size: With XP and Vista, maximum allowable screen size was 12.1 inches; with Windows 7, it will be 10.2 inches
Storage: Maximum limits for XP and Vista: 160 GB HDD or 32 GB SDD; with Windows 7, it will be 250 GB HDD or 64 GB SDD
Graphics: With XP and Vista, netbooks/small notebooks was "less than or equal to DX9; with Windows 7, there will be no limitation
CPUs: With XP and Vista, netbooks/small notebooks had to have "single core processors that do not exceed 1 GHz frequency, or Intel Atom (N270, N280, 230, Z500, Z510, Z515, Z520, Z530, Z540, Z550); Intel Celeron 220; AMD (MV-40, 1050P, TF-20, Geode LX, Athlon 2650e, Sempron 210U); VIA (C7-M ULV, Nano U1700, U2250, U2300, U2400 or U2500). With Windows 7, the maximum will be "single core processors that do not exceed 2 GHz frequency, and have a CPU thermal design power that is less than or equal to 15 W, not including the graphics and chipset."
Pathological kinda promises Path + Logical - but instead, you get stuck with pathetic.
Uuuuhhhhh....sorry, but that was XP and Vista starter. Those folks will now be getting Win7 Basic. They have already stated that Win7 Starter WILL get sold on Netbooks in the good old US of A. And as I said, that is just to start. I can easily see a scenario where MSFT prices Win7 sooooo cheap that pretty much all the desktops and laptops that get Vista Basic or XP Home now end up with Starter. Then MSFT can "maximize their IP" by trying to push upgrades on all those poor saps that got boned.
Remember one of the bigwigs IN MSFT ended up with a $2100 email machine because he didn't know the difference between Vista Capable and Vista premium Experience. You honestly expect Joe and Velma Home user to know the different Win7 SKUs and the level of cripple in each? As someone who work retail i can tell you that 90%+ of home users think "I have Windows" and that is it. They can't tell you if it is XP Pro or Home, or what the difference is, they can't tell you if it is Vista Basic, Premium, Or Ultimate Electrolyte Edition. They just know "I have Windows".
Hell I have been building PCs since Win3.x and even I, am confused over exactly what will qualify as an "app" under Starter. Things that run in the tray and as a service don't IE does but with unlimited tabs, huh? I as a user would have no fricking clue when I launched a program whether it would fit under MSFT's idea of an "app" or not. And even the shittiest machines today can run 3 apps without breaking a sweat.
Just let me say that if this isn't proof that Ballmer needs firing I don't know what is. It was bad enough with the..what was it? Six or seven flavors of Vista? But now while the economy is in the crapper and his profits are down to pull this level of bone headed move is just ridiculous. At least No Aero on Basic made sense, since it was being put on machines that wouldn't run Aero anyway. I smell a whole lot of lawsuits coming down the pike for MSFT. All those clueless customers that went to "buy a Windows PC" and get burned by Starter is going to have an easy class action if they don't make it really obvious, as in a big sticker that says "this computer can only run 3 programs at a time" which I'm sure the OEMs are gonna love, and any company whose app is counted under the three app limit will point to some app that don't get counted and scream "the monopolist is using his power to twist the market! We'll sue!"
They are gonna take what looked like it could be a good OS and thanks to Ballmer and his marketing drones they are gonna turn it into a giant clusterfuck. The only good that may come of this is the board get tired of his dumbass maneuvers and fire the Ballmer monkey. I thought the Pepsi guy that nearly drove Apple into bankruptcy was a shitty CEO. Hell he looks like a genius compared to Ballmer. This is a boneheaded move from a company that has made nothing but boneheaded moves since Bill stepped down and gave the reins to the monkey. Maybe the next guy will be somebody from the Office team and they will actually make Win8 a winning OS.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Please god, stop the madness. Starter edition is an edition that they plan to sell for next to nothing to developing (read: third world) nations in order to provide the same kernel and ability as the rest of the business world (ideally to increase their participation in the market and get them out of the "developing nation" category by fostering growth of the IT sector and all the dependencies it places upon an economy.)
Starter Edition is not Netbook Edition. There is no Netbook Edition. I repeat: There Is No Netbook Edition of 7.
Here are the editions of Windows 7, from least capability to highest, and each successive entry is a superset of the previous one's capabilities:
Windows 7 Starter: OEM distribution to "developing markets" only. We're talking third world here. China? No. India? No. A lot of African nations apply. Sold for dirt cheap.
Windows 7 Home Basic: Retail distribution to "emerging markets." Like China, India, Taiwan to a lesser extent, basically not fully developed nations that are economically growing.
Windows 7 Home Premium: This is what your netbook will have if you buy it yourself.
Windows 7 Business: This is what your netbook will have if you bought it from the "Small Business" section of the online retailer.
Windows 7 Ultimate: This is medium sized businesses and developers will likely use. Basically a one-off type license of the following edition.
Windows 7 Enterprise: This is for volume license agreements only, and is identical to Ultimate.
If you're reading Slashdot, chances are, you won't be able to buy Starter edition anywhere. In fact, I'd like to see you get a price on it. From anyone.
For those of us who remember, multi-tasking (after a fashion) was made possible on Windows 3.1 via the TSR - Terminate-and-Stay-Resident programs that left a stub, inert but still in RAM - that allowed a limited task-switching capability.
TSR was not a way to have multi-tasking on Windows 3.1; TSR was a way to have pseudo-multi-tasking in DOS before Windows [and other multi-tasking environments such as DESQ(view)] came by. In fact, most TSR apps would NOT work in Windows.
Of course, TSR-multitasking was not really multitasking, since the TSR was not really 'running' at the same time as whatever you were running under DOS. Multitasking was offered by Windows (which before version 3.0 did not offer 'real' multitasking either). or by other programs such as the mentioned DESQView.
"I'm never quite so stupid as when I'm being smart" (Linus van Pelt)
MS don't care about solving the world's energy crisis. They're simply doing a deal with Intel to keep the status quo.
Via's Nano is a potential competitor for the Atom platform in netbooks. However its TDP clocks in at 17 watts at 1.6GHz, and 25 watts for the 1.8GHz version. So for Via to compete with Intel in this market, they have to under-clock their CPUs, which naturally sacrifices performance - making Atom competitive in benchmarks.
The other limitation in Intel's favour is the single-core requirement, which cements the N270/N280 as the dominant CPU. x86 vendors such as nVidia & AMD won't bother with this market segment when they have multi-core designs on the table. Hence Intel doesn't cannibalize sales of Nehalem CPUs.
The Wintel cartel is alive and well. Let's hope low-cost Linux netbooks with multiple core ARM and MIPS chips will erode their market at this price range; forcing MS and Intel to compete on a level playing field.
I won't comment on AMD's future offerings but Via already have a competitor in this space but the Nano runs at a slightly higher TDP than 15 watts for > 1.6GHz. What kickbacks MS get from Intel for excluding the Nano from the netbook market niche is anyone's guess.
No, the story mentioned "the lucrative netbook market" in general terms, not Microsoft-specific ones. Microsoft's market is for Operating Systems, they don't sell netbooks. And there's the assumption that it's a lucrative market, with no evidence provided.
... and then they built the supercollider.
No and no.
FTFA
Windows 7 Starter Edition, unlike XP Starter Edition, will be for sale to users in both developing and developed nations.
Hmm, did you ever see an actual train? It generally is not as wide as the train tracks it rides on. Not many people would fit in otherwise. For example, trains carry standard size shipping containers, which are 8 feet wide. Exterior width of a typical boxcar is 10 feet 8 inches. Since there has to be some space at both sides, 12 feet is not an unreasonable width for a single-lane train tunnel.
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