With piracy a continuing threat and open-source operating system Linux spreading further around the developing world, Microsoft said they’ll start selling a stripped-down, lower-cost Windows XP system in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand in the coming months.
Called Windows XP Starter Edition, it will be available in the three Southeast Asian countries in a one-year pilot program, shipped pre-installed in personal computers, and localized for each of the three countries’ users, with what Microsoft called extra features and tools to make it easier for first-timers to hit the Internet.
“It will be our most affordable Windows operating system offered to date,” Microsoft senior vice president Maggie Wilderotter said in a statement. “We’re very excited to see what the reaction will be.” The company also expects to bring two more as yet unnamed countries into this Windows XP Starter pilot program.
Microsoft also said it might introduce the Windows XP Starter to other developing markets after the Southeast Asian pilot program ends, not to mention a possible introduction of the product on a wider scale.
Microsoft already offers Windows at lower prices to governments that offer more inexpensive computers to their citizens, but several Asian governments are said to have taken up Linux systems to cut costs and answer security problems, since Linux as open source can be copied and modified freely, according to one report.
