The messy concept of the LIPs from when XP was LIP-less

by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2010/09/18 07:01 -04:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2010/09/18/10064409.aspx

Sometimes, our documentation can be confusing.

Like for example, take Comparing Windows XP Professional Multilingual Options, and the text/tables from Appendix A and Appendix B. These tables have managed to confuse many people.

I'll provide them here:

Appendix A: Localized Versions of Windows XP Professional

There are 24 fully localized versions of Windows XP Professional.

Appendix B: Windows XP Multilingual User Interface Pack Languages

There are 33 languages available in the Windows XP Professional Multilingual User Interface Pack, which is an add-on to the English version of Windows XP Professional:

Note: Any of the following supported languages that do not have an official localized version listed in Appendix A are recognized as the only localized version in their corresponding geographic areas.

Now really all they were trying to convey was that the last CD of the MUI version of XP (which came on several CDs) contained these nine languages that were not like the others that were also available separately as localized versions.

They were also smaller than the other 24, and could rightfully be considered "Language Interface Packs before Language Interface Packs actually existed".

In fact, once LIPs did exist, a few years after this was written (ref: Microsoft, you giving us some LIP?), these nine "partial MUI packs" became LIPs!

These nine "MUI languages" became the only ones that one could find a way to download for Windows XP when one searched around the web.

 Now this of course confused a lot of people later.

Even though before LIPs existed, these nine MUI packs were just as difficult to get as the others.

I guess we can blame it on some sloppy definitions in the model that led to a bit of confusion (if you want real confusion, take that last XP MUI CD and install one of these languages and then try and install the corresponding LIP!).

Of course removing the whole Comparing Windows XP Professional Multilingual Options white paper would make very little sense, since there is a lot of other information in it that is not confusing.

Editing a 7-year-old white paper can also be a little tricky (it probably should have been edited back in 2005 when the model was changed to allow for LIPs).

Hopefully something can be done; if not it will just continue to confuse people....

Joe Clark on 19 Sep 2010 6:06 AM:

Michael S. Kaplan on 19 Sep 2010 6:23 AM:

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