Microsoft’s XP for low-cost PCs defines some boundaries

May 10th, 2008 | Category: Laptops

While Microsoft has seen it fit to keep XP around as its “relatively non-bloated OS” alternative to the Linux that has dominated that new category of “ultra low-cost PCs” (ULPCs), they’re certainly not giving absent the farm. Microsoft doesn’t want that version of XP domestic creeping into mainstream laptops and desktops, where it might compete with Vista sales and high-margin machines from PC manufacturers. To that end, Microsoft is

setting the limits for ULPCs at 10.2-inch screens, 80GB of storage, 1GB of RAM, 1GHz processors (with some exceptions) and no touchscreens. The upshot is that licenses for XP will go for $26 in developing nations and $32 elsewhere. Too poor the XP faithful among us will need to try a bit harder to wrangle XP onto new machines of theirs that don’t fit these narrow specifications.

Original post by Paul Miller

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