Microsoft Marches On Moscow To Do Battle With Linux

Microsoft has announced that Windows XP Starter Edition is to be made available in Russia, in an effort to combat piracy and the rise of Linux.

Microsoft will release a low-price version of Windows in Russia by the end of the year, in an effort to wean Russian consumers off pirated software and Linux.

The software giant will also announce later this week that it will bring a version of Windows XP Starter Edition to a fourth Asian country — after Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand — bringing the total number of countries in the programme to five, but they have not specified which country this will be, although they have said it will not be China. A likely candidate is Vietnam, where Internet cafes are popular and products like Mr. Yee’s Windows 98 can be bought for $1 in the street.

Windows XP Starter Edition is Microsoft’s attempt to gain more customers in the developing nations, the fastest growing markets in the world. The OS differs from regular Windows in a number of respects. For example, users can run only three programs on the operating system at once and home networking has been deleted.

It is also only available preloaded on authorised PCs: Microsoft does not sell the software separately in stores.

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