

Microsoft to Limit Capabilities of Cheap Laptops - dhs
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/145719/microsoft_to_limit_capabilities_of_cheap_laptops.html

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tptacek
This isn't "evil", it's basic market segmentation. Microsoft doesn't _want_ to
limit the capabilities of any device, but if it sets the price of XP to a
level that works for ultra-cheap vendors, it surrenders a vast amount of money
to companies like Dell.

Like any business, Microsoft wants Dell to pay what XP is worth to Dell, and
Asus to pay what XP is worth for the Eee. It can't simply charge one amount to
Dell and another to Asus. So instead it uses arbitrary specifications to
create a category of XP license that is unattractive to Dell and cost-
effective for Asus.

You can argue about the ethics of this up and down, but when you start looking
for it, you see that we're awash in market segmentation. Often, the most
egregious examples of it actually have consumer benefits: take airfare, where
the total ripoff fares I pay for last-minute business travel effective
subsidize tickets for tourists who would not otherwise be able to fly.

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JeffJenkins
Information Rules is an excellent book going into details of how markets work
in information economies where the marginal cost of a product is near-zero. It
covers segmentation, lock-in, network effects, etc. (
<http://www.amazon.com/dp/087584863X/> )

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smanek
To recap: Microsoft says that if a producer wants cheap window's licenses,
they have to limit the specs on their umpcs (screen < 10.2 inches && hd < 80GB
&& ! touchscreen).

This is a good thing.

If a consumer wants, e.g., a umpc with a touchscreen, they will be forced to
get a linux one. Getting more people to try linux (and giving the linux
hardware an intrinsic edge), is probably one of the worst things microsoft can
do to itself and one of the best it can do for linux.

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halo
I think that's an optimistic way of looking at it. Another way is that the
people who create these devices will just limit their specs to be below
Microsoft's requirements.

I think this is amongst the first time MS has directly had to respond to Linux
as a threat on the desktop though.

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qwph
If I had a ULPC, and I really needed to run Windows software on it, I'd be
tempted to try running Wine.

<http://www.winehq.org/>

~~~
wanorris
Personally, I'd just remote desktop into a stray Windows machine unless I
absolutely had to have it onboard. I don't know that I'd want the added load
from Wine on a lightweight Linux laptop.

Those forthcoming 9" Linux Eees for $500 with 20GB SSDs look really enticing.
Emacs + Firefox + a terminal is really all you need.

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xirium
The lack of touchscreen interoperability will be a major limitation which will
encourage open source adoption.

Unfortunately, current client trends are counter to Microsoft's strategy.
Firstly, people are buying laptops rather than desktops. Both are getting
cheaper. Secondly, Microsoft follows the classic monopolistic tactic of
racheting prices. Successive versions of Microsoft software a typical more
expensive despite initial costs already being re-couped. These trends create a
situation where the cost of an operating system and pre-installed applications
take an increasingly large share of the retail price. This creates a third
trend of laptop manufacturers who opt-out of the "Windows tax" and only supply
units with tailored open source software.

In two years, we'll probably have a device which is a mix of laptop, mobile
telephone and Nintendo DS. It would be a clamshell design with two 11 inch
screens with the bottom one being touch sensitive. You cannot rely on
Microsoft to support such a device. Nor would it be viable to include Windows.
So, such a device would mostly be used with open source operating systems.

This design has already been tried. Unfortunately, it was quite a few years
ago and it was a commercial failure. However, since then, the technology has
improved, the cost has fallen and the volume of people who only want to run
open source software has grown significantly. This would make a similar
attempt much more likely to succeed.

It is understandable that such a trend would adversely affect Microsoft.
Therefore an attempt to steeply discount Windows on limited hardware has two
benefits. It creates an artificial divide between premium hardware and almost
disposable devices where Windows is viable on both. Secondly, it reduces the
inclination for low cost manufacturers to abandon Windows.

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pg
Wow, just like the old Evil Microsoft. They forgot something, though: Apple is
no longer a negligible force. I wonder if this move will ultimately backfire.

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SwellJoe
I'm always greatly amused (and a little confused) when anyone mentions Apple
as a force of good in the face of Microsoft.

What, exactly, did Apple ever do to make you believe that they are a
benevolent force in the technology industry?

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pg
All I meant here was that they're a competitor. So if Microsoft gratuitously
breaks some range of devices, users will have an alternative.

But Apple is a more benevolent force than Microsoft in that they owe their
market share to the quality of their products rather than to taking over the
PC standard from IBM.

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wanorris
Apple hasn't shown the slightest interest in the market. Their idea of a
lightweight computer starts at $1800.

Meanwhile, Linux is eating their lunch in this segment.

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mechanical_fish
_Their idea of a lightweight computer starts at $1800._

Well, no. Apple's idea of a cheap, lightweight computer costs $300 to $500,
fits in your pocket, and (optionally) doubles as a cellphone.

(If you don't agree with this interpretation of Apple's product line, wait a
couple months after the official third-party iPhone apps arrive and consider
it again...)

You can't type on the iPhone very quickly, of course. It won't run emacs or vi
very well. It probably won't run a web development stack, or a decent Java
compiler. So if what you really want is something like an EEE you should buy
an EEE. There's no reason why Apple's idea of a cheap, lightweight computer
should match yours...

Whether or not the iPhone is in the EEE's market segment depends on what you
think that segment is. I'd say that it's squarely in the "super-light super-
cheap portable box for checking mail and web" segment. If you're talking about
the "light, cheap portable box for fixing your website via SSH from a
coffeehouse in the Florida Keys" segment, it's a lot less clear.

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wanorris
If you can't run the software of your choice, it's not a computer, it's an
appliance.

~~~
mechanical_fish
I'll grant that. But whether or not someone prefers the computer or the
appliance depends on the software they choose.

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wanorris
I'm sure there is some substitution between the categories, but I guess I
still think of them as pretty separate.

Pesonally, I have a phone that runs both ssh and vi (a Samsung i760 Windows
Mobile 6 phone with a touchscreen and slideout keyboard), and I'm still
interested in getting an Eee.

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eznet
Once they secure their position, I wonder if MS will start imposing comparable
constraints to the future OLPCs (which they should have never been allowed to
put their grubby hands on)? Also, I wonder who in the world their PR dude is
and if he sleeps most all days... In any case, they really should be working
on improving their public appearance through their policies rather than trying
to impose restrictions on their potential customers. Dumb.

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Kaizyn
This might offer consumers a cheaper alternative to buying Windows Vista
Business or Vista Ultimate and 'downgrading' to XP for new licenses of XP.
That way, you get a cheap, Linux-ready laptop along with your OS license.

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ashu
This company will never mend its ways. I hope (and I know it may just be a
hope what with its billions of cash reserves) it dies a really painful death
for trying to be against progress almost all the time. Control freaks.

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Create
It is simply the abuse of monopoly [and THAT is illegal].
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartel>

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utnick
These Ultra Cheap PCs already have these limited capabilities... thats why
they are 'ultra cheap'. Sounds like a non story...

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SwellJoe
Only a non-story if you believe ultra cheap PCs will continue to have limited
capabilities. This is Microsoft's way of insuring that the low-cost machines
remain limited enough to where the price of Windows doesn't make the system
significantly more expensive for the consumer than Linux. Luckily, the cat is
already out of the bag to some degree...the Eee PC has been quite successful
in its Linux incarnation.

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etal
It's interesting that the limited specs don't mention RAM or processor speed,
and don't rule out solid-state drives. A small screen and 40-80 GB storage
could be a pretty sweet machine, with or without a touchscreen -- the price
for these laptops could just as easily drop to $99, where the cost of Windows
is a serious problem, or rocket up to $800, adding wild custom hardware and
tweaking the OS significantly to accommodate it. This looks like a move that
could have a ton of unintended consequences.

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DougBTX
From the article:

 _Besides limits on the screens and hard drives, to be eligible, the systems
can have no more than 1G byte of RAM and a single-core processor running at no
more than 1GHz._

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metatronscube
Yeah we all know that!! Its called 'Windows'

