Windows 7 Sucki–Starter Edition

Edit: I am very, very sorry. As Josh has pointed out in the comments, W7SE is not avaiable in the USA, EU, Japan and Australia–it’s an anti-piracy measure.

I guess I should’ve looked at several sources. Although I’m rather disappointed in PCWorld for not making the above abundantly clear in their dead-tree issue.

Sorry.

In general, I try to avoid ranting about Microsoft.

For this, though, I’m willing to make an exception.

I quote from an April 2009 PCWorld article by Daniel Ionescu:

Windows 7 Starter Edition

This Starter Edition is aimed mainly at emerging markets and at netbook users. With this edition, users will be able to run only three applications simultaneously, but they will benefit from interface improvements such as the new taskbar and JumpLists. In addition, consumers will be able to join a Home Group (to share media files over a local network).

In case you missed it: “users will be able to run only three applications simultaneously.” WHAT!? And another WHAT!? Is this 1990? Have we not realized what a watershed event the emergence of windowed GUIs was? Has the ability to multitask not been at the core of PC use for the past two decades? Yes, three is bigger than two, and it’s a whole lot bigger than one. But I’m still in a state of shock. To be honest, I think I’d rather use XP, tasbkars, JumpLists, HomeGroups (which seems to be inferior than XP’s networking) and bloat be darned. Some people may not feel the same way–I mean it will have been nine years between the release of XP and 7, and I’m sure that there really are a lot of improvements in Windows 7.

But I also find this incarcerating move by Microsoft very hard to justify. I classify it in the same category as that annoying sect of software that charges you for the privilege of using a demo version (Finale, I’m looking at you). Junky, limiting, and expensive.

I suppose people who are truly bothered by this will just get the next edition up–Windows 7 Home Basic (ooh look, it lets you share an internet connection! Wow!). But I suspect that netbooks are going to start shipping with the option of either W7SE or some incarnation of Linux, and only that. I don’t think W7HBE is light enough to run on netbooks, and OEMs and Microsoft alike won’t be too thrilled with providing an XP option.

Despite all that, I’m not concerned. Either it’ll be perfecty adequate for netbooks, fixing Vista’s numerous problems and modernizing XP, or it’ll be terrible, and more people will use Linux (with support for many media formats, powerful networking, and the ability to run an unlimited amount of apps!). To take down a monopoly-holder, you don’t just need to make a better product–they need to make a worse product. So, as Internet Explorer has so proudly shown us, I’m expecting Microsoft will shoot itself in the foot with this move. 2010 may not be the Year of the Linux Desktop (despite what Digg and Reddit might think), but I think it will be the Year of the Linux Netbook.

I can’t wait.