Re: OT: Windows XP Service Pack 3

Brian Morrison wrote:
<SNIP>

MS's key issues are:

a) how to sell when the cost of the Windows licence is an
ever-increasing part of the total cost of purchase as hardware prices fall

b) how to convert over to 64 bit OS code while preserving backwards
compatibility with hardware for which they do not have driver source
code and where the originators have disappeared. This latter is more
common than you might think.


They are pretty scared, these low price machines along with the OLPC project (Linux machines) are a serious threat and M$ have taken action:

1) It has been forced to prolong the life of XP until 2010 and
2) It has been forced to supply XP to OEMs at $26 for low powered computers.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7395687.stm

"News group IDG reports that Microsoft plans to charge PC makers selling to India and China $26 (£13.27) to put a copy of Windows XP Home on a low-cost laptop. For machines sold in developed markets, such as the UK or US, the price will be $32.

A retail copy of Windows XP Home sells in the UK for about £55 ($108) - though the prices PC makers pay for the software is likely to be lower.

The low prices apply only to machines that have no more than 1GB of RAM; a hard drive up to 80GB in size; a processor running no faster than 1GHz; a screen no larger than 10.2in (25cm) and no touch screen. "

These machines would choke on Vista but should hum along on XP. The problem for M$ is that India and China, like many developing markets, see the economic and philosophical sense in using LInux.


Wither Vista?!


Charlie.

--
M0WYM
www.radiowymsey.org

Wymsey - Ten years Old!
www.wymsey.co.uk
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