Windows Vista to come in seven (or more) versions
posted Sep 12th 2005 8:28AM
Despite what we've heard about Media Center and Tablet PC edition features being squarely integrated into the product, Microsoft still hasn't lost its touch for the flexious in their forthcoming version of Windows. That's right, we're going from Home, MC, Tablet, Pro, and Pro 64 (and to a lesser extent, Starter)—all clearly delineated—to Windows Vista Starter Edition, Vista Home Basic Edition, Vista Home Premium Edition, Vista Ultimate Edition, Vista Small Business Edition, Vista Professional Edition, and Vista Enterprise Edition. We won't tell you all the goodies each version's supposed to have, but the next time we see him we will definitely tell Bill that staggered pricepoints and confusing upgrade feature sets are no way to ensure people buy (or like) your OS.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this one in]
Just one word.... ASTA LA VISTA BABY...go to hell cause no one gives a shit! Microshit Vista...lol..what a joke.
windows vista - seems a little MISTED up to me.
wonder what it will look like when the fog clears?
Oh boy, I can't wait to have to hire seven times the number of people we currently employ just so we can test our product on all seven of Bill's new OSes!
But seriously folks, this is why my home PC is now a mac.
ugh.. another screwed naming convention, XP was supposed to eliminated the disparities between consumer (95, 98, ME) and enterprise (NT, 2000) names by simply using Home and Pro monikers... And then they threw in MCE, Tablet, MCE 2005, Pro 64, Starter.. That's what I love about Microsoft, they come up with a good idea on paper, announce it in style, mega-launch the products, and then they fuck it right up again. Look what they've done with Pocket PC/WinCE, 2002, 2003 SmartPhone Edition, 2003 SE, etc: everything is called Windows Mobile now; I wonder how long that's going to last though.
Excellent...Now I know what to search for on Bit Torrent.
What are the chances that at least one of the seven versions will be secure and stable?
Nmmm, lots of versions, overweight and insecure, not to mention it is years behind others... maybe they should call it Microsoft American Children.
How's Joe Public supposed to know the difference between 'Basic' and 'Starter', which both sound like they could be the base version? Similarly, 'Ultimate' comes before 'Professional' in the list, but *sounds* better, so is it? Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Where's the media-deficient edition for Europe? Do Microsoft think that it's a certainty that they'll win their second appeal?
... M$ must be still riding on their different versions of xbox kick. They're really gonna confuse the heck out of the average consumer. But I know which version I'm going for as the non-average consumer: TEH ULTIMATE XTREME VERSION!!!!!!! (Seriously, I'm really surprised they didn't name one of their versions extreme...)
And this is why my home machine uses OS X, one version, one upgrade path, no hassles.
God I hope IE works the same on all versions, I'd hate to buy all those OSes just to test sites to work around MS's poor standards implementation in IE 7.
someone else can comment on the "under-the-hood" technical details, but the GUI looks exactly like XP with a new skin. the start menus, control panel, etc are all exactly the same from a visual standpoint.
While GUIs may not be the most important element of an OS its still an important component. and when releasing a "new" os I would think they could have invested in some decent visual improvments. From the looks of things the MS designers /graphic artists haven't been upgraded. (suppossedly they hired an ex MAC guy to create the icons, but I cant see the improvements) they would do better to make the GUI open source and let several billion better designers take over.
imagine wanting to upgrade your 10 year old car, only to find out they just painted the old one, and gave it a new name. (or 9 new names)
"And this is why my home machine uses OS X, one version, one upgrade path, no hassles."
Talk about a GIGANTIC difference in who Apple has to satisfy and who MS has to. The Apple userbase isn't exactly diverse.
Plus, if you actually read the linked article you'll see that the average consumer (you know the ones who might actually be confused by this) will only be presented with 3 choices: Home, Home Premium, and Professional. I would bet those 3 are the only ones your average Best Buy/Wal-Mart will be carrying.
Whoops, I meant Ultimate not Professional. I guess it is a little confusing. ;-)
I'm guessing this has more to do with anti-trust lawsuits than marketing silliness.
This allows them to include stripped down versions plus versions with extra features such as anti-virus without getting involved in more legal trouble...
I'm wondering whether it'll be released as the Pirated Edition also :P
BTW i found a great Windows Vista Community.
It seems that it is the most active forums that's currently available. the URL: http://www.winvistasecrets.com/
I'm wondering whether it'll be released as the Pirated Edition also :P
BTW i found a great Windows Vista Community.
It seems that it is the most active forums that's currently available. the URL: http://www.winvistasecrets.com/
> > "And this is why my home machine uses OS X, one version, one
> > upgrade path, no hassles."
>
> Talk about a GIGANTIC difference in who Apple has to satisfy and who
> MS has to. The Apple userbase isn't exactly diverse.
Not entirely true. My physics tutors use apples to work on and as an extra helping hand in labs. My maths tutors use ibooks an LaTex, and I myself write my philosophy dissertations and do my general research on a powerbook. I know most of the staff in the CS dept use laptops and work on both unix workstations and Windows boxes, furthermore apples are used by graphic artists, designers, musicians, producers, movie specialists, etc etc...
In the end, it turns out it's quite diverse after all. In fact you might say the only two niches Windows has are gamers, and corporate users who cannot find equivalent games/solutions on OS X. Other than that you really do get all sorts of people on macs.
Having reread my post, I must add that I bear no affiliation to Apple. ;)
Micro$oft was the reason I switched to Mac OS-X a few months ago.
Brian #12...
>>>"And this is why my home machine uses OS X, one version, one upgrade path, no hassles."
Talk about a GIGANTIC difference in who Apple has to satisfy and who MS has to. The Apple userbase isn't exactly diverse.>>>
That's the point with OSX.
There are only 2 versions... your typical user ("basic") version and a server version.
You get all the features anyone would want or need in the "basic" version of OSX. Whether you're a grandma who just wants to email and surf the web or you're a biotech researcher working on DNA sequencing or genome studies, you get the same set of features, capabilities/functionality and reliability.
And yes, there is a great diversity in the Mac user base... casual home users to engineering, science, IT, etc (many UNIX IT people have taken a liking to OSX).
Oh no 7 different versions? This is so confusing? I mean when I go to the grocery store and see 15 types of mayonnaise I don't know what to do. I stand there dumbfounded at the choices. Regular, low fat, low cal, vegan, with dijon, etc etc. 7 whole versions! 7? Are they serious? I can't handle it. I'm going to crawl back into my cave and stare at the 1 rock on the floor to ease my mind. 7? I'm just glad GM only make 2 cars and Heinz only has 3 products. Geez. 7?!
If I was about to pay $200 for a jar of mayonaise, I would want to be sure that I was getting the right one.
Oh I agree Josh. And with 7 choices how is that possible? I mean think of the permutations? I can see you too are baffled by this many choices. We should just go back to kindergarten and leave this to the Einstein's of the world. 7! What are they thinking. Even Einstein couldn't deal with that kind of complexity.
@21
When you buy food, you want choices in taste. An operating system is supposed to be a base for whatever your tastes (read sofware) are. You should be able to perform any function on any of the operating systems.
Now how about a person, who needs advanced networking (because he has his own network at home and shares everything between various PC's, both windows and mac), is a gamer; so needs support for the latest graphic cards, or likes to experiment with new software to find out his system doesn't support certain dlls?!!!!
The Ultimate edition is the one which all the pirates will want, and it isn't offered with bulk licenses. So those people will be way more inclined to buy it rather than pirate the crappier versions.
"And this is why my home machine uses OS X, one version, one upgrade path, no hassles."
oh? Then I guess you'll have fun upgrading your powerpc to the next few intel osx releases
Still waiting for Vista Bob Edition.
iceanfire -
apple'll still be releasing upgrades for 10.4 even after the intel switch and i wouldn't be surprised if 10.5 was ppc as well. This is the whole reason for universal binarys (compiled for ppc and x86 in one package), they will work on both systems and i think it's more for backwards compatibility with ppc rather than forwards compatibility with x86.
typical commenter on engadget -
You have one operating system. A security issue is found. A patch is released and everyone is happy. You now have seven operating systems. 3 different patches are released. Average users have no idea which one to get. As each system has had one seventh of the testing, it doesn't work on 2 of the 7 systems. Oh, great.
You buy a game. You think it will work. You have the wrong version of the OS and it doesn't work. The developers had to test for 7 different systems so quality testing goes riiiight the way down.
Hi, welcome to microsoft tech support, what version of windows do you have?
um........ basicproextremeedition?
"oh? Then I guess you'll have fun upgrading your powerpc to the next few intel osx releases"
I'll probably pop in a disk, hit "archive and Install" and come back in 15 minutes when its done. That is unless Apple is unbelievably foolish and decides to cut off 80%+ of its userbase by not offering upgrades to the OS for existing hardware.
For what its worth, although I use a Mac as my main work machine, I actually own more PCs than Macs. With that said, I have a hard enough time explaining to average people (not computer geeks like us who read Engadget at work - average people) what two flavors of Windows are.
Sadly most people I know think Windows *is* a computer. If they upgrade at all (and most don't they buy a new PC since that's how you get the new Windows) they buy XP Home if they're at Home or buy Professional if they're at work.
Sure, choice is good. I think having perhaps 2-3 versions of the OS is fine. One for consumers, one for business and one for servers seems adequate. But seven versions all with marginally different features? That's not overkill, it's foolish.
7 versions might not be such a bad thing if marketed correctly. If your worry is about confusing the 'hunt and peck' crowd out there all you need to do is make THEIR choice obvious. so basicaly instead of presenting them with 7 choices, you present them with 1+6 choices, with option 1 being the OBVIOUS (based on marketing) choice, and the six others as options for the more technically savy individual who will do research and make an informed choice.
'Brain' makes a good point. The 'casual' home user isn't going to be building their own system, so they likely won't be purchasing their OS a la carte.
They'll buy a cheap Gateway or HP at Walmart or Best Buy or whatever, or they may decide to go high tech and purchase from Dell online. They will make their purchase based on the 10 - 20 item bulleted list of features on the shelf or the web page or catalog, and probably won't care what OS it runs so long as it plays DVDs, MP3s, gets the internet and so on and so forth.
They probably won't even be aware of the other versions existence or of what they can do (how many times have any of us asked someone what OS a friends system that needs fixing ran and they either had no idea what an 'OS' was or didn't know anything about it beyond that it was 'Windows' ?) . Case in point, XP Home. That's what the majority of pre built systems ship with, and most people don't complain. How many of us geeks would actually BUY XP Home though ? I'm guessing just about none.
Ultimately people buy what the companies sell them. How many of us question what OS is running on our microwave oven ? Not many (though I'm sure some do...and are trying to replace it with Linux). And to most people the computer is simply another appliance that should 'just work' out of the box.
In short most people don't know whats going on from the start, adding this extra confusion won't phase them at all cause they don't even realize it's an issue...
"Typical commenter on engadget -
You have one operating system. A security issue is found. A patch is released and everyone is happy...
You have no glue. Vista is ONE OS with different features. The same patch or program works on all 7 versions the same way. All MS is doing is disabling or enabling some features depending on the OS.
7 versions??? WTF!
C'mon Msoft... to avoid confusion, make 2 versions... Professional and Server. Then sell the add-on's that ppl need to add on like Media Center or advanced options.
What a nightmare that must be to have that many versions running around... I can hear the support call now:
SUPPORT: Micrsoft Vista support, can I help you?
USER: Yes, I'm having an issue getting DVDs to play.
SUPPORT: what version of Vista do you have?
USER: I'm not sure. How can I tell?
SUPPORT: Click Start then right click on My Computer. Choose Properties. Then it will ask you to type in your CD key. Let me read that off to you. FG7TH-GGKG9-TTUY7-RRGJG-3FF4S-STFU2
USER: I think I mistyped something. Can you read that back to me?
SUPPORT: (reads back CD key)
USER: ok, it says I'm running Windows Vista Home Premium Edition.
SUPPORT: Ok. That version doesn't support viewing DVDs. You will need to upgrade to Windows Vista Professional Edition. In order to upgrade, you will need to back up all of your data, reformat your hard drive, purchase a copy of Windows Vista Professional Edition and install it.
USER: Sure seems like a lot of work....
SUPPORT: Contact us if you need further help. Thanks for calling Microsoft.
... I can just picture something like that happening.
I hate that!
I always thought XP home was a mistake. It's such a pain dealing with the home edition as opposed to Professional, especially networking.
And it really sucks the Media Center edition doesn't allow you to join a network without using a registry hack.
Seriously... cut down the # of versions!!!
diem,
there are 'several billion' graphic designers who are better then the one who made the icons for windows vista? wow, thats amazing considering there are only about 6 billion people on the entire earth.
oh? Then I guess you'll have fun upgrading your powerpc to the next few intel osx releases
--
If by UPGRADE.. you mean.. buy a new computer.. something most people do every 3 years anyway..
And old PowerPC software runs fine on x86 OS X.
They'd go a long way if they just cut back to one version for everyone and differentiated the features based solely on your licence key.
Man I can't believe some times the dumb asses that visit this place.
How many of you read the f@cking article? Hardly any I take.
"zOMG! m$ teh sux for cunfuzing me!"
Ok, I'm pretty happy that microsoft is doing something like this, it will give people some choice so they don't have to fork out extra $ for things they don't need. I hardly doubt any one will be confused because:
The normal consumer will get:
Vista Home basic: people who just want a machine that works out of the box. They wouldn't even know what os they are running let alone know what "os" is. Think of this as XP Home.
Vista Home Premium: will be for people who get Media centre edition now, it will probably ship with "media" pcs. This is the consumer that uses his PC as a media box.
Vista Ultimate: typical hardcore gamer, professional in some area or a tech savvy person. oh and pirates! ahoy me hartys! This is the equivalent to Win XP today.
With all the other versions I'm pretty sure most people won't know about. Those versions are more tailored for businesses and networks. They won't be confused as they will be able to evaluate the needs and get the right os. These people typically buy HUGE license packs so every $ will add up.
Whoa OMG Confusion! Give me a break.
Rayk:
"it will give people some choice so they don't have to fork out extra $ for things they don't need."
This is software, not options on a new car. It would actually be cheaper for Microsoft to trim the line down so they'd have fewer sets of packaging to produce, ship and support.
They should Home/Business/Enterprise (server), at most.
It would have been so nice if it were just "Windows Vista" ... I like the name, but I must say it looks fugly. I use different skins on XP as it is (I make it look like MacOS!)
Only two versions come with Windows MCE built in, I think that's a real mistake. How are MS going to take over the living room when their MCE stuff is in one version and of course the ultimate.
Ultimate, what a stupid thing to do, ultimately this will be the most pirated copy and for those that buy it, well they probrably wont make the most of it. I'd have more fun with the N version, its what you do with it.
hi friends!can any one help me?i have brought windows vista cd from a cd vendor and when iam installing vista,it asks me the security hardware key and my computer vendor doesnt give the hardware key.can any one help me in this.if any want to help me please email me at venkatesh.forever@gmail.com.thank you.
im running windows vista (build 5112) with ie 7. Its not a huge improvement, but for an early beta and knowing the features they are installing, im more then pleased. in a week its only crashed once (which isn’t too bad for an early beta, and was only caused by trying to install incompatible software), all my hardware works and most of the software i have tried to run. Although i am not a huge fan of microsoft's business practices, this OS is definitely a huge step forward. And to those who blast them for ripping of apple, don’t forget it was apple who ripped of zerox's GUI all those years ago.
and on topic. the seven different version all have a use.
Starter Edition - A replacement for windows codename blackcomb (stripped down 2000) which has always been the microsoft OS to sell at extremly low prices to developing nations (3rd world, which the expression incedently no longer exists), which they have pleged to do for a long time. End of the day it wont do much. but it wont cost much either
Vista Home Basic Edition - basic version for bob and sally to be sold on every dell computer.
Vista Home Premium Edition - the multi media pc edition.
Vista Ultimate Edition - student and gamer edition
Vista Small Business Edition - Equvilant of 2003 server small business.
Vista Professional Edition - Development users
Vista Enterprise Edition - Large business/networking
all makes sense to me. and anyone who cant work it out will just buy whatever there told to buy or comes with there pc.
Either way, if you dont like it dont use windows. dont bitch about windows. I mean i cant stand the fact that macs only have 1 mouse button, yet i dont go into discussion boards regarding macs and bitch about it...