E-book-capable laptops with a catch from Microsoft: 80G drive limit and screens no bigger than 10.2 inches
Will this hurt or help e-books?
Partly as an anti-linux move, Microsoft is offering to sell Windows XP Home to manufacturers for as little as $16 per machine for use in developing countries. The future of the OLPC XO-1’s successors? For more prosperous markets like the U.S., the price tag would be a little higher.
Sure enough, there’s a catch—in fact, a bunch of them. For example, screens can’t be bigger than 10.2 inches, nor drives roomier than 80G, and no touch screens are allowed. In addition, RAM can’t exceed 1G, nor chips be better than 1G single-core processor (at least as a rule).
Besides thwarting linux, one other big goal is to prevent econo-machines from being able to run Vista. Don’t you love the monopoly mindset?
E-book related pros and cons
From an e-book perspective, here are some pros:
- Low-cost machines are fine for reading e-books, as long as the screen resolution is decent. A PC World report doesn’t mention any res limits. So the net effect might be to encourage the production of good, e-book-friendly laptops that can run commercial e-book apps such as Mobipocket and Adobe products, including the ePub-capable Digital Editions.
- The 80G drive limit is no big deal for most e-book readers—at least for now, when multimedia books aren’t so common. Same for the RAM and chip limits.
- Maybe this will be the kick in the pants that linux people need to be more responsive to the needs of ordinary consumers, including e-book-lovers. I want to see more FBReaders out there—and a better existing FBReader.
- Perhaps with all the fine print in the Microsoft offer, linux will actually get a boost from vendors unhappy with the restrictions, and we’ll soon see a wealth of open source apps for e-books. Don’t count on this.
The cons:
- Anything bad for open source, free software, etc., is bad for e-book fans in the long run, and I see this scenario as far more likely than the last one mentioned above. While the linux world hasn’t been too accommodating toward us so far, the potential is there. The open source approach could ultimately mean a greater choice of apps and more customizable ones. Not to mention more difficulties for DRM. But will Microsoft choke off the market for linux on the low-cost machines?
- Touch screens are always nice for e-book users, especially on laptops convertible into tablets. But Microsoft won’t allow this?
So, gang, what’s the bottom line here? Short term, I see positives such as more of the cheapie laptops that can run common commercial programs. Long term, I see more challenges for open source apps in e-books and other areas.
The numbers: Microsoft expects that sales of ultra-low-cost PCs will reach 10-13 million in ‘08. Others are not as optimistic.
May 11th, 2008 at 9:32 am
Considering that Microsoft wants to wean everyone away from XP to Vista, I suspect that the primary reason MS is offering XP Home for this purpose is because Vista is quite a resource hog (compared to XP). There are no doubt other reasons, though.
May 11th, 2008 at 10:40 am
Given Moore’s Law, Microsoft may be worried that even lower-end laptops may be Vista capable in the near future. Microsoft in one sense fears low-priced hardware since that hides the cost of the OS. Lots of factors at work here. Some big Microsoft customers like Dell, moreover, accustomed to more expensive laptops, may actually love the restrictions. Thanks. David