RSSMicrosoft Starts Up XP Starter Edition
By David Worthington | Published August 11, 2004, 9:00 PM
As reported by BetaNews in July, Microsoft has expanded its initiative to provide a low-cost distribution of Windows in Asia. Although the program was originally directed exclusively toward social welfare programs in Thailand and Indonesia, it will now be expanded to Malaysia. The software will be available in all three countries by October.
CNET News.com is also reporting rumors that Brazil, Jordan and Russia have also been targeted for expansion.
Windows XP Starter Edition is a stripped down, localized, no-thrills distribution of the operating system that includes rich tutorials to assist first time PC buyers. Microsoft has designed the software with a direct upgrade path to the full version of Windows.
"Microsoft Windows XP Starter Edition demonstrates Microsoft's commitment to collaborate with the Thai government to provide significant benefits for our citizens and their future," said Dr. Surapong Suebwonglee, ICT minister of Thailand. "The development of Windows XP Starter Edition represents an encouraging step forward to help bridge the digital divide in our country by making software more available and more relevant for first-time PC users."
Thailand's Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) program was chartered by Thailand's government to assist lower income citizens to be able to afford and own PCs. Although it initially opted out of ITC, Microsoft shifted its tactics and is now offering pricing incentives, Windows XP Starter Edition and a specialized version of Office XP.
The combined threat posed by Linux and software piracy has been the Sword of Damocles hanging over Microsoft's head. The first batch of ITC subsidized PCs came preloaded with Linux TLE and the OpenOffice.org productivity suite. Linux TLE is a Thai language specific build of Linux that has gained a foothold in the South East Asian marketplace, where, prior to Windows XP Starter Edition, open source software was once the only viable alternative to software piracy.
Software piracy in South East Asia will not diminish even with this new effort from Microsoft. I appreciate MS's move on this unfortunately there are many problems that causes piracy to stay put. First of all, the exchange rate. In Malaysia for example, US$1 = RM2.5 before the currency crisis started on 1997. Post-1997, the exchange rate is now US$1 = RM3.8. This means prices of foreign goods have jumped significantly. I am not a financial analyst but simple calculation is enough to show that Malaysians are suffering from this effect. Pirated CDs can be bought for as cheap as RM5 per CD or RM10 for 3 CDs. That would mean less than US$1 per CD when buying in bulk. What can be done? Most of my country mates would have to use more than a month's salary to buy MS Office Premium original version. I would prefer OpenOffice though it is not as user-friendly. As such, the government is now starting to popularise the use of open source software as an alternative. Next, open source products are getting better everyday. Example of open source software: MySQL, Pheonix, OpenOffice, Shareaza. Small to medium size companies are going for open source software packages to help cut down their expenditure. The final reason is the refusal to reduce prices of products sold by foreign software vendors. I noticed that some foreign book distributors offer discounts to South East Asia. Why not software vendors follow their foot steps? I feel that Microsoft should have started such an effort long time ago. The damage has been done, it is now very hard to reverse the trend. There is one thing that Microsoft can do though, sponsor updated software to every government-owned-schools to instil the users to have pro-MS mind thus when they start working, they will buy MS software to use.
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