Comments on: Microsoft to bring XP starter software to India

Hindi version of the operating system costs just $36. One catch: Customers can only open three windows at once.

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funny...

With all the American jobs that have been sent to India you'd think they could at least pay full price for Windows XP.

Or Microsoft could make an inexpensive version of XP available here in the states.

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funnier

If americans paid better prices for Indian or Chinese goods, sure, Indians could pay more to Mr. Gates. Or if the US lowered its barriers to imports.

As it is, in Purchasing Power Parity terms, Indians pay much more for Windows than Americans do. $ 36 is 1-2 weeks salary for a middle class salaried Indian. Do average americans pay a week's wages for Windows? nowhere near.

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Microsoft making a mistake

Typical computer users in India would want English + Hindi as a lot of people are bilingual and hindi translations of computer terms are non-existent or cumbersome.

3 windows? I wonder how they came up with that magic number? browser + e-mail client + wordprocessor?

This is going to drive Linux desktop sales with no such limitations and much better performance, not to speak of MDI browsers like Mozilla. A good thing too..