In February we told you about Microsoft’s plans to introduce a "light" version of Windows XP aimed at Thailand. The plan seemed squarely aimed at the emerging market, but we’re also betting that recent plans to kick the MS habit in Asia have led the company to reconsider its rather uniform global pricing model. Today Microsoft has officially announced the Windows XP Starter Edition program, a five-country pilot program that will provide low-cost Windows to Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. It remains unclear as to the identity of the other two countries, although Microsoft has been keeping close contacts with Russia, India, China, Brazil, and Jordan. All countries involved have developed government programs that seek to seed their populations with computers.
Starter Edition will be customized to each country beyond the normal language customizations required. Localized versions will also have features meant to promote the homeland:, such as "country-specific wallpapers and screensavers with familiar landscapes, flags and geography-specific traditional designs." The company says, however, that Start Edition is more than just a pretty local face. Instead, XP SE sports a number of features aimed at the first time user, some of which seem genuine, while others are fancy excuses for disabling normal Windows features. With regards to the former, SE will include a new Getting Started guide and Help feature tailored for first time users who may have very little interaction with technology. In the latter category we have "Simplified task management," which is PR speak for "you can only run three apps at one time." This would appear to be SE’s great Achilles’ heel, but the company believes that this is appropriate for such first time users. Other limitations include (prepare or the horror) 800×600 maximum resolution, no support for multiple user accounts, and no support for Microsoft Networking, meaning no PC-to-PC networking will be possible outside of TCP/IP (FTP good, NetBIOS bad).
