The Hindu Business Line : Gartner advises against use of Windows XPSE

RESEARCH and analyst firm Gartner has recommended that potential users steer clear of Microsoft's Windows XP Starter Edition (XPSE) "until the company provides room to grow with the user".

Microsoft announced it will begin offering the less expensive version of Windows XP to three countries in Asia, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, said a news release from Gartner.

Although it is not mentioned whether this version is being offered in India, Gartner has warned that Windows XPSE for emerging markets, which contains new functionality targeted at first-time users, is unlikely to help in the fight against piracy and "in fact may encourage potential customers to buy the full version of Windows XP home from a software pirate".

"Microsoft could have made a big difference with this product, but is more likely to be seen as pushing the upgrade path and frustrating users rather than delivering the value that this product is capable of, due to unnecessary limitations," said Mr Dion Wiggins, Vice-President and Research Director at Gartner. "Fortunately XPSE is still in Beta so it is not too late to make changes before the October launch."

According to Mr Gilliland, Microsoft has put significant effort into its XPSE having studied 1,000 first-time users in Thailand for almost a year following the launch of the Thai ICT PC programme last year. "While Microsoft should be commended for these efforts, they fall far short in other areas," said Mr Wiggins.

"The most significant is the deliberate crippling of the operating system to allow just three applications to run at a time. Microsoft claims this provides a simpler end-user experience. But if a user were to run Yahoo! Instant Messenger, Microsoft Instant Messenger and an Email client they cannot open a Web browser or anything else for that matter."

The cut-down version of the XP operating system also restricts the hardware the end-users can run.

XPSE will not recognise more than 128MB or RAM or 40GB of HDD. On top of this, the maximum video resolution is set at 800 x 600.