Historically, we in the U.S. have rightfully considered ourselves IT trendsetters. But when it comes to the inexorable move away from Microsoft, we look to be followers more than leaders – with Europe and Asia, especially, taking the lead. Microsoft’s pending release of a “lite” version of XP in Asia would seem to acknowledge that fact.
While there are certainly companies and individuals in the U.S. taking advantage of “Microsoft-only” features in end-user applications and back-office systems, I’d imagine that all but the most dyed-in-the-wool Microsoft supporters would concur that the feature bloat in, say, MS Office presents far more options than we ever would need to use.
Conversely, most of us could get our jobs done with minimal problems using the Open Office productivity suite on Windows or Linux. Yet, we don’t switch. (I haven’t.)
For most of us, it is not our decision – but the decision of a corporate hierarchy likely with deep ties to Microsoft. For many of us as well, there are key applications, such as Outlook (linked to Exchange in the back end), that we rely on as “lifelines” and that can’t easily be substituted by open source offerings (although Outlook Web Access has improved vastly).
For still others, it may just be inertia. Their approach might be summed as: It works, we are used to paying for it (over and over again) – so just leave it alone.
And so for most companies with an established IT infrastructure, it takes some significant event. I wrote last year about just such an event – the plan to move some 15,000 or so desktops in Munich to Linux.
Microsoft fought hard to keep this from happening – reportedly even including a personal visit by CEO Steve Ballmer. Still, it went ahead – until recently. Microsoft’s newer tactic of threatening patent violations for Linux users seems to have stopped the project dead in its tracks. A report in The Register, a U.K. publication, says the project is on hold until any potential patent violation issues are resolved.
In Asia, so I’m told, U.S. patent law doesn’t trigger the same kind of fear that it does elsewhere. So Microsoft might not be banking on this strategy for that marketing.
Additionally, many Asian countries just now are beginning mass computerization. Thus, they (fortunately for them) don’t have the baggage that we have when it comes to integrating old (Microsoft) with new (open source).
Finally, many Asian customers just cannot or will not pay the kind of money Microsoft wants even for its lowly Windows XP Home Edition. Enter Starter Edition.
Shipping soon in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, the reduced-function version of XP Home is being called a pre-emptive strike against Linux by some analysts (unnamed in a CNN story).
With the stated intent of offering a “simplified” computer environment, Microsoft mercilessly hacks away at core functions. With breathtaking audacity, Microsoft’s official releases tell us how shackling the user to 800-by-600-pixel video resolution is a helpful feature of the starter edition. The company has further simplified your life by allowing only three applications with three windows each. While that might sound like a lot, it means three browser windows, three IM windows and any other application of your choice – and that’s it.
The ultimate “simplification,” though, is to remove all support for PC-to-PC home networking and printer sharing. Back to the good, ol’ “simple” days of sneaker-net. Only Microsoft would try to get away with taking most of the value out of a product and telling the customer that it is for their own good.
This unconscionable gutting of XP should send a message to prospective users, will certainly make Linux more attractive and ultimately might cause Microsoft more harm than good.
