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Windows XP Starter Edition a Non Starter

By David Worthington, BetaNews

June 23, 2004, 7:09 PM

BetaNews has confirmation that despite published reports, Microsoft is not preparing a major release of an entry level version of Windows dubbed Windows XP Starter Edition.

Windows enthusiasts speculated that Windows XP Starter Edition was a realignment of the software giant's Office and Windows releases with Office 2003 Service Pack 1 and Windows XP Service Pack 2 that would effectively re-launch both products; however, Windows XP Starter Edition is merely the formal name given to a no-thrills version of the operating system that will be distributed exclusively in Thailand and Malaysia.

The Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) program was crafted by the government of Thailand to assist low-income earners to be able to afford their own PCs.

While first declining to participate in ITC, Microsoft has since shifted its tactics and offered up pricing incentives, a stripped down version of Windows XP Home and a specialized version of Office XP.

Rich tutorials are included for the benefit of first time PC buyers and Microsoft offers customers an upgrade path to the full retail version of Windows.

The first crop of ITC subsidized PCs came with Linux TLE and the OpenOffice.org productivity suite preinstalled. Linux TLE is a Thai language specific distribution of Linux that has gradually worked its way into the South East Asian marketplace, where open source software provides a viable alternative to software piracy.

A Microsoft spokesperson commented on the company's participation in ICT saying, "We look forward to seeing how this product will be received by Thai citizens, and the impact it will have on their efforts to enable access to technology."

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By frankjcrow

posted Jan 5, 2005 - 3:04 AM

Despite published reports? Ya, all two or three of them...which, as far as I know, come straight from Microsoft Press. Like:

www.microsoft.com/pressp...WinXPStarterPilotPR.asp

I found the "Windows XP Starter Edition" banner whilst examining the WINBRAND.DLL file that came with my copy of Windows XP Home Edition SP2.

So I looked it up and found those "published articles" and this forum discussing the issue. It doesn't seem as though many people are aware of this product. I haven't done a survey or anything like that so I could be wrong.

What sticks out in my mind, and what sort of bothers me, is that not only is this *not* a major new development, it is in fact one of the many configurations of Windows XP.

The same kernel and base o/s runs XP Pro, XP Home, Tablet PC Edition, XP Media Center Edition, and all of the Windows 2003 .NET Server editions.

So basically what I am reading is that Microsoft is offering XP to other countries at a dramatically reduced price, with minor new features but does *NOT* offer this benefit to people in the United States.

I've read all of their reasons for doing this and I haven't found any that couldn't be applied to one part or another of the United States.

I really think that Microsoft ought to be willing to extend the same opportunities to people in the United States as anywhere else unless there are some legal reasons why not.

It sounds like the issue really boils down to Microsoft wanting to get every penny from anyone, anywhere, without really thinking things through outside of that greed motivation.

This just sounds like more of the same to me in various ways coming from Microsoft as of late.

They really just continue to invent more and more ways for themselves to make more money. Everything else is secondary to that apparently.

But that's just my opinion.

Starter Edition...how thoughtful and evolved. I'm so impressed.

-Frank