Windows 7 editions

[Marin85]

Does anyone know what the main differences between Ultimate, Business and Home as of now are?

Thanks

Marin

[sarbin]

i've been poking around the ms beta sites and haven't seen anything yet.
sorry...

[Marin85]

I know, it´s a "tricky" question, I have googled before posting here Anyway, there must be a difference because all three installations seem to occupy different amount of HD space. I guess the Ultimate comes again bloated with "cool" M$ apps... but not really sure, thought Win 7 Ultimate might be put on a diet this time...

[GomJabbar]

This is probably the best you can get for now. The feature set may not have been finalized for the Windows 7 Beta flavors, but I imagine the differences between editions will bill similar to Vista.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/window ... fault.aspx

[Marin85]

As I saw your link, for a moment I thought that M$ maybe has announced them

[beGi]

Microsoft unveils Windows 7 SKU lineup

[Marin85]

So, again there are "only" 6 editions to chose from

[beGi]

IMO it's better to choose from 6 versions (and prices), and it is easier to find OS that fits your needs...

What is the purpose of having OS with all those capabilities that you don't use (or vice versa)...

I think 6 versions availability is reasonable (form price/performance/capabilities perspective)...

[Marin85]

Well, I could understand 2 or 3 different versions, but to me 6 different versions is just way to much. Yet I understand that M$ has its good reasons to do so... As for the features included, I think it would be much better if they had rather implemented an option to chose during install which features/options to have included in one´s setup. This is partly the case with what M$ calls Windows features in Vista, but IMO the variety of these is very limited. Having such an option during the installation process would - among other things - also save space.

[K0LO]

If you filter out the specialty versions it boils down to only two choices for most people - Home Premium or Professional.

[beGi]

Here is more detailed report...

[Marin85]

@beGi: Nice finding! Thanks for the link.

@k0lo: Yeah, you are maybe right. I guess it´s just my curiosity that wants to try out all these versions and sinks deep in the mess. But as you say, for most users there will be only two or three versions to regard (I count the Ultimate too).

Marin

[GomJabbar]

I first read about this at Engadget. Paul Thurrott's site does a better writeup. I do like seeing the following:

And also unlike with Vista, these product editions are all true supersets of each other, so there are no overlapping feature sets (which is good) and upgrades will be much simpler (which is even better).

<snip> For example, a customer that chose Windows Vista Business didn't get Media Center, a digital media application that was part of the Home Premium product. But business users enjoy digital media too, especially when travelling, and they told Microsoft that this division in the feature set didn't make sense.