Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate and Enterprise
When it released Windows Vista two years ago, Microsoft took some lumps from critics and competitors for offering six versions of its latest operating system. So how many versions of its successor to Vista – Windows 7 – will Microsoft offer?
Once again, six is the magic number.
In a Q&A that Microsoft posted on its site Tuesday, Windows general manager Mike Ybarra said the different flavors of Windows 7 will include Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate and Enterprise. Microsoft made only small changes to its naming scheme, chucking out a “business” version of Vista in favor of a “professional” version of Windows 7, for instance…
A company spokeswoman says PC makers will conceivably be able to install as many as four out of the six versions of Windows 7 on their computers. Some of the differences between the various flavors are huge…
It isn’t clear whether the company is intentionally crippling Windows 7 Starter to give consumers an incentive to buy machines with higher-end versions of the software. Netbooks are widely seen as a potential threat to Microsoft’s business if they start to cannibalize sales of more expensive, full featured machines. At the moment, most netbooks come with Microsoft’s older Windows XP operating system, which it plans to stop selling by the end of next June (or one year after Windows 7 goes on sale, whichever is later).
In other words, Microsoft hasn’t a clue.
Um….
http://lifehacker.com/5145732/windows-7-version-lineup-simplified-to-three
Looks like the GM business model all over again.
#1. Just read. I think Adam Pash misquoted Ed Bott at ZDNet. I just pinged Ed to verify. I’ll let you know.
Okay, Ed Bott said, Starter Ed is OEM pre-install, and only on specialized hardware configurations. You can search ZDNet under Ed Bott. He said he wrote about it there.
So, that’s 4 editions that are available to the US market.
So like Vista, you get the Home premium version, unless you want to be managed by a Domain server, in which case you get the Business version.
In that this is confusing to the fosstard’o’sphere, is why the label fosstard is sticking so nicely, and in just a few months time has become web 2.0 viral.
LOL
It is nice to see that Microsoft is finally ingoring the 5% of customers who complain so much that they become more of a cost than profit center.
Also, on MSN, they are advising employers to simply fire the office know-it-alls.
Anything Microsoft does is wrong on this site. You bash their OS, then you complain that they make them hard to pirate.
I don’t get it. They seem to be doing a better job of aiming 7 at what the customers want. What they want generally is ONE freaking install disk. Then let the user pick on install. Business, Home, Ultimate, bloat, no bloat, minimal, maximum, happy medium, whatever. Too much to ask I guess.
Wow, the fanboys are strong here, and incoherent. Actually, the marketing guys are now talking 7 Skus since they’re adding Netbooks. They’re promising a “simplified” upgrade process.
The problem is that the marketing group has several years of the whole people ready campaign entrenched into their minds with training and materials. The cost of re-engineering the sales force is too high. From a technical pov it’s a piece of cake.
#7,
They are aiming it what consumers want. They have (thankfully) stopped trying to appease the fosstard set (you).
Oh also, Vista already did what you asked. You can buy anyone one of those computers at NewEgg or Best buy and upgrade it to business, by just clinking through.
That you didn’t know that tells me that you are one of the people that Microsoft has simply started to ignore when designing their software… Because you never supported it in the first place;)
If you want to talk about bloat… Why do I have to download the entire operating system on my iPhone every time I patch???
#8,
In that Apple and the entire fosstard’o’sphere have so far failed to build a workable SMB implementation beyond the simplest file shareing abilities(and file contention is still broken), tells me that it continues to be worth while to pay extra for domain support. That is nearly a year after Samba was given all the specifications to Microsofts implementation of SMB btw.
You let me know when they work that out, and I will quit easily upgrading to the business editions and joining the Domain in oh… about 10 minutes time;) Just get that sucker up there on Sourceforge, and that will be my solution.
Heck, do one better, make a complete end to end solution, and have the server run linux and I will check it out. But until then, bah, I have better things to do with my time. (I really enjoy blogging on Dvorak, and thanks to server 2008’s seamless Domain support I have time to do that)
cheers!
It sounds like Win7 (aka Re-vista) is finally shaping up to be what Vista should have been in the first place.
Unfortunately it still takes a Cray supercomputer to run it.
@#6 Actually, there have been some very positive articles here about W7 beta testing and agreement that some crucial “frontend” (UAC) and “backend” (performance) improvements important to end users are in. Everything on merits … Hence, this half thought out move to stick with old and hated distribution model is particularly sticking out.
#7 have described it best. As for #9 Reply:
“and upgrade it to business, by just clinking through.” – you are pointing at exactly what’s wrong and where consumers feel cheated. There should be only one install version. Ultimate. At one price. Than, if consumer wants something less on his system he/she should be able to DOWNGRADE it for free by just clicking through. Or upgrade it back, still for free as to his/hers heart content.
I read an article that I believe: programs that won’t run on Vista (most third party apps) won’t run on Re-Vista either.
NOBODY buys an OS for the OS==we all buy an OS to run programs.
If my HDTV recording and editing software won’t work on Re-Vista and runs mostly ok on XP, why ever upgrade?
We need a change in “the law” so that if M$ decides to stop support of a previously issued software suite, anybody else should be able to provide same.
Some Bubba types may think that the “owner” of something has rights over everyone else in the world===but when the world votes otherwise, that ain’t the case. Even under current law, if the “license” became a “fee” on its non-support, then the product would be open to support/modification from whomever wanted to provide same.
Licensing something that substantively is a “product” is just a legal dodge to screw everyone else. In America–thats called shrewd business.
#13 He really sounds like a MS partner consultant type.
#15,
You sound like the group home type.
#16,
Go figure, he wants animated desktops, but then he is against bloat…
What is Microsoft to do? If they change now to say 3 versions. Then upgraders will be wondering what version to use. It would be a nightmare all over again. I do like the ideal of limited retail versions. This will help.
To be honest I never saw a big difference between Ultimate and Premium. I just think Basic is useless and should be canned. Premium appears to be the popular one for consumer’s and would atomatically set graphic effects based on hardware. So why have Basic I say?
Nailed it first try 😀
#20,
Well he nailed it except for the part where he called it a disaster. Um, Microsoft set a two year goal of 200 million computers by second year, and they nailed that goal several months ago.
So… once again, it is only the fosstard set that is characterizing selling 200 million of something a disaster…
Um, from a ridiculous slashdot meme… I dont think that word means what you think it means…
I think microsoft is right on, and should continue to ignore the fosstard’o’sphere.
GregA said: “Why do I have to download the entire operating system on my iPhone every time I patch”
You’re just a secret Mac fanboy.
#22,
Yeah, I thought I was too. Until I learned that iTunes sucks just as bad on OS X.
Vista Ultimate is good enough for me: no BSOD’s.
Why upgrade?
I think they should drop home basic, but otherwise they have a good system:
Home Premium for home users
Business for small/med business
Ultimate – all features + addons, sort of like the old plus packs
Enterprise is just the buisness version with a different activation system for large scale deployments. Starter is only bundled with low end computers in poor countries/emerging markets.
They forgot the Intergalactic version.
#26 How the “Bob and Ted who work at the Starbucks but can’t get a date with girl from the Kinkos next door” edition?
#28,
All those versions, and it is still less muddled than the linux situation. How sad is that?
# 28 Miguel said, “http://tinyurl.com/ardpxp
Maybe M$ should read the entire article.”
Maybe, maybe not. Maybe, you should post something where the entire article is available…
#31 You’re right, but I don’t have a URL for that, just the mag… Best I could do… The article name is ‘The Tiranny of Choice’ and I think it appeared in Sci Am MIND magazine maybe a year or so ago. If you google Tiranny of Choice you’ll get a few articles that point in the general same direction – more choice is good up to a point, then it becomes bad.
#29 As for Linux, I hadn’t thought of that! Maybe the excessive number of Linux distros is also hindering it’s adoption?
Remember, MS-DOS and the IBM PC standard became THE standard because they was only one of them, and everyone centered on that – in an era with dozens and dozens of incompatible ‘micro’ computers.
I also just found this on DIGG, regarding the relatively simple Apple product lineup:
http://tinyurl.com/czhdnh
The tin-foil-hattedness and Microsoft hate in these comments is painful to read.
Get a life people. If Microsoft only offered a single version you’d be complaining that they don’t offer you any choices.
The current setup lets you buy a cheaper version of the OS with the features you need. Nothing wrong with that.