I have officially lost faith in mankind... - by lost_soul
Renzatic on 29/1/2010 at 11:41
Well, the start edition is the low end of the low end, only there to make your computer functional without any, and I mean any, bells and whistles. The only way you can get it is to either travel to some backwoods country and buy it there or find it preinstalled on some netbooks.
It would've been far preferable if MS never made it at all, and only stuck to the Home Premium, Pro, and Ultimate skus. But then I guess they wouldn't have have had a new product to push XP out of the picture, and would've lost out to Ubuntu as the preferred choice on the low end hardware front.
Chimpy Chompy on 29/1/2010 at 11:54
Ah ok fair enough.
CCCToad on 29/1/2010 at 13:28
Why would you lose faith in Humanity?
Its your faith in corporate America that should have been shaken. However, you shouldn't have had any to begin with. I don't really know what to tell you if you did.
heywood on 29/1/2010 at 15:12
Let's face it, if you couldn't get Windows on a netbook, it would still be mostly computer geeks buying them. Sales started off pretty slow when you could only get Linux.
Starter is Microsoft's answer to the question of how to get Windows onto low end netbooks while keeping the OEMs happy and not cannibalizing their existing sales too much.
Look at it this way: If Microsoft charges the same price for OEM licensing of Home Premium no matter what computer it's sold with, low end netbooks aren't going to have it. They're not going to lower the price of Home Premium so that it can go onto a $280 netbook because they'd lose all the revenue from regular laptop and desktop PC sales. One other option is to come up with a scaled OEM pricing structure for Home Premium that depends on the type or cost of the computer it's sold with. But I vaguely recall they got in trouble with regulators for doing something similar before, and OEMs hate it because it creates a big purchasing/billing/enforcement hassle. So instead they created a cheap stripped down version, and crippled some features to discourage OEMs from putting it on higher spec machines.
I think most consumers are happy because they have a familiar and up to date OS, and the missing/crippled features don't really prevent them from using the device for what they intended, and most of all the cost is cheap. Microsoft is happy because they can still make a few bucks on netbooks without hurting their existing sales too much. And manufacturers are happy because they can sell more netbooks by putting Window 7 on the box. The only people who are going to be pissed off are those who hoped they could get a spanking new full featured laptop with the latest OS for $300 and those who get reflexively pissed off about Microsoft no matter what they do.
lost_soul on 29/1/2010 at 16:54
The customers should be smart enough to realize that XP home is a more functional product than 7 starter. Newer does not always = better, and nobody is going to be playing any DX10 games on a gma950 anyway. :)
Jackablade on 29/1/2010 at 17:35
I think that changing the wallpaper is one of the only things that middle-aged moms want to do with their computers after checking email. Aren't they the market for these ultra-cheap, ultra-empty machines? I think it was a mistake for Microsoft to remove such a simple feature.
heywood on 29/1/2010 at 18:05
Quote Posted by lost_soul
The customers should be smart enough to realize that XP home is a more functional product than 7 starter. Newer does not always = better, and nobody is going to be playing any DX10 games on a gma950 anyway.
I'm with you on preferring XP Home over 7 Starter, and I agree that probably a lot of people want 7 just because it's newer. But one legitimate selling point of 7 over XP is security.
You can still buy new models with XP Home. My local Best Buy has the Asus 1005 and 1201H in stock with XP, the local Office Depot had the HP 311 with XP, and you can still get XP by ordering direct from Dell, HP, Toshiba, and possibly others. Microsoft has said they will continue to sell XP Home until the end of October (1 year after Win 7 release), so if there really is demand out there for XP on netbooks it will continue to be offered.
Also, the Special Edition of the HP 110 comes with Starter but does allow you to select from 15 included wallpapers in addition to sporting a snazzier lid. I wonder how many people are willing to spend the extra $50 over the standard 110 for a little more visual appeal.
CCCToad on 29/1/2010 at 19:59
Quote Posted by Jackablade
I think that changing the wallpaper is one of the only things that middle-aged moms want to do with their computers after checking email.
Thats exactly the point, and hence why its not a mistake. In previous "lite" editions of windows, the more advanced versions didn't have any features that such users would even understand, notice, or care about. Now, there is a feature missing that they will notice.
heywood on 29/1/2010 at 20:53
Forget about the cosmetic stuff like Aero glass and UI personalization. You can always download Stardock MyColors if you want to change the wallpaper or theme.
More importantly, Windows 7 Starter lacks Windows Media Center, remote media streaming, and user switching. Those are features that would be genuinely useful to a lot of people using a netbook. It also lacks DVD playback and XP compatibility mode which might be useful to some, and multi-head and domain support which probably nobody cares about in a netbook.
It's funny how people mock Apple for offering image over substance and then the first thing they want to bitch about in a netbook is the wallpaper.
lost_soul on 29/1/2010 at 22:11
A wile back, I took my xp netbook over to my mom's house and hooked it up to an extra monitor/keyboard/mouse. It is an instant low-power desktop machine. If they start only shipping the OS that lacks video-output capabilities, they could also remove the VGA port from the machine to make prices even cheaper.
