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Windows 7 SKUs

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gomerpile

Disabled
Joined
Feb 23, 2005
Windows 7 according to Cnet and others are saying windows 7 will have 6 versions (Starter, HomeBasic, Enterprise, Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate.
Why all the SKUs.I can understand enterprise, home, Professional why all the others. Something else is bugging me about all this stuff why no upgrade version. I have an awfully bad feeling windows 7 ultimate is going to be extremely expensive.
Sry I put this in the wrong area
 
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From what I've heard Starter, Home Basic and Enterprise will not be available as OEM or Retail to the consumer.

Starter will be only available for developing countries and emerging markets. (similar to XP Starter Edition and Vista Starter)
Home Basic will be pre-installed on low end laptops/desktops. (similar to XP Home Edition and Vista Home Basic)
Enterprise will be only available to large companies with Windows licenses through Microsoft Software Assurance.

That basically leaves us with Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate that we can choose.

Home Premium will be the major choose for multimedia and games. (similar to XP Media Center Edition and Vista Home Premium)
Professional will be the major choose for businesses because of the added business related functionality like IIS, fax, and remote desktop. (similar to Vista Business and XP Professional)
Ultimate is a superset of everything. (similar to Vista Ultimate)

There will be Windows Vista upgrades for these three versions:

Windows Vista Home Premium --> Windows 7 Home Premium
Windows Vista Business --> Windows 7 Professional
Windows Vista Ultimate --> Windows 7 Ultimate
 
Also note that Professional is a superset of Home Premium this time, so it contains all the features of Home Premium this time around, unlike Vista's version.

In addition, something people tend to forget is that XP also had quite a few editions out there - with only Home and Pro (maybe Media Center as well?) available to retail. We also had Pro VLK (equivilent to Enterprise), Tablet PC edition, and 2 versions of Media Center. Might have even been a few more in there for emerging markets as well (what Win7 Starter and Home Basic are slated for)
Really, not much of a change.
 
So really for the average consumer there are 3 versions. Possibly a fourth we could encounter on netbooks/tablets?
Sounds way better than all the editions vista has.
 
indeed is a strange thing with all these versions
 
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MICROSOFT has unveiled the latest version of its Windows operating system. It promised that it will deliver a better experience for users when it arrives late next year. Windows 7 follows Vista
 
Also note that Professional is a superset of Home Premium this time, so it contains all the features of Home Premium this time around, unlike Vista's version.

In addition, something people tend to forget is that XP also had quite a few editions out there - with only Home and Pro (maybe Media Center as well?) available to retail. We also had Pro VLK (equivilent to Enterprise), Tablet PC edition, and 2 versions of Media Center. Might have even been a few more in there for emerging markets as well (what Win7 Starter and Home Basic are slated for)
Really, not much of a change.

Indeed...

XP Starter Edition
XP Home
XP Professional
XP Professional X64
XP Professional Corporate (Enterprise w/e)
XP Professional Corporate x64
XP Media Center Editon 2002
XP Media Center Edition 2005
XP Tablet PC Edition
XP Embedded Version (for early consumer electronics with OS)
XP Fundamentals Version (paper thin version of XP for old *** pcs)
Windows Server 2003 is based on XP
also the countless region specific versions such as the Euro version w/o Media Player.

We really do not need all the versions of Vista out there either, I think we would have been fine with Home Premium and Ultimate only but w/e. Looking forward to Windows 7 and what it may bring. Been using Vista since day 1 and have loved it so far, I'm sure Windows 7 will impress and then some.
 
i think that they did very good with the vista release as far as multiple options go. at the same time though, it seems as though the price differences between the different versions didnt really seem fair as per what each different version offered.
 
Indeed...

XP Starter Edition
XP Home
XP Professional
XP Professional X64
XP Professional Corporate (Enterprise w/e)
XP Professional Corporate x64
XP Media Center Editon 2002
XP Media Center Edition 2005
XP Tablet PC Edition
XP Embedded Version (for early consumer electronics with OS)
XP Fundamentals Version (paper thin version of XP for old *** pcs)
Windows Server 2003 is based on XP
also the countless region specific versions such as the Euro version w/o Media Player.

We really do not need all the versions of Vista out there either, I think we would have been fine with Home Premium and Ultimate only but w/e. Looking forward to Windows 7 and what it may bring. Been using Vista since day 1 and have loved it so far, I'm sure Windows 7 will impress and then some.

Do not forget the paid add on editions XP Plus! and Plus! Digital Media Edition.
 
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