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Seriously. Apple has the right idea, 1 desktop, 1 server. IMHO Windows probably has good reason to have a "corporate" edition as well, but now (assuming all Vista edition are kept) Windows 7 will have:
*Starter
*Home basic
*Home premium
*Business
*Netbook
*Ultimate
That's 6 editions, just for the client! Utterly ridiculous.
Windows really only needs three editions of the client OS:
* Home
* Corporate
* Ultimate
Home would have simplified networking and file sharing with homegroup, wouldn't have AD or domain networking, and possibly media centre features.
Corporate wouldn't have homegroup, would have advanced networking and filesharing, domain/AD support, policies, wouldn't have media centre, and so on.
Ultimate would combine the two.
During the install, it should check if it's a desktop, laptop, netbook, and configure default settings accordingly. Things like power management policies, disk access policies, 3D accel, and so on.
Of course, that would be just too logical for MS. They seem to be getting further and further away from KISS.
Anyone who buys the Ultimate edition deserves to be shot for their stupidity. The first time around it is (maybe) forgivable that they fell for microsofts bull****.
The fact that microsoft is going to pull the same trick twice makes me really angry and hopes nobody buys it, so microsoft will learn. I hope for the best, but I very much expect the worst
IMHO more than two Client Versions is already too much.
If there would be an Corporate version that wouldn't work with home groups that would be an disaster. Just imagine all those business Laptops that are almost useless for working at home.
Having two versions is already an nuisance. Vistas versioning scheme was one of the reasons i switched to Mac. I could never manage to remember what Version would come with exactly what features and ultimately would have required the Ultimate version which costs more than an second hand MacMini/new Office PC in europe 330€ (=420$) and yes, i'm aware of the OEM versions which come at slightly less ridiculous prices, but those get bound to the Mainboard you install them on first time and i don't spend 200€ on throwaway licenses.
I totally agree. Additionally, I don't think there should be any licensing distinction between 64-bit and 32-bit versions. I should be able to just buy a e.g. Windows 7 Ultimate Edition and install whichever word-length works best on my hardware.
Additionally, I should be allowed to switch word-length at will (e.g. If I was only using 32-bit because my printer wasn't compatible, I should be allowed to go 64-bit when I upgrade my printer. Or if I discover that the 64-bit drivers for my graphics card are unstable, I should be allowed to go 32-bit while I wait for improvement.)
You mean "Fancy graphics and Media Center"?
Anyway, that's not the point. "Home Basic" has no real reason to exist beyond "Windows Vista from $99". The only PCs that ship with it are super-budget models.
That 99% of people should not even have to care about the difference between "Home Basic" and "Home Premium". They should just get "Home" (which would be roughly equivalent to "Home Premium").






Member since:
2006-01-06
Here we go, another "edition" of Windows, when Vista already has too many.
Seriously. Apple has the right idea, 1 desktop, 1 server. IMHO Windows probably has good reason to have a "corporate" edition as well, but now (assuming all Vista edition are kept) Windows 7 will have:
*Starter
*Home basic
*Home premium
*Business
*Netbook
*Ultimate
That's 6 editions, just for the client! Utterly ridiculous.