Wondering What Each Of The Six (count ‘em, six!) Win7 Versions Contains?

Published on June 26th, 2009

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Read all about the sweetness and light Microsoft will be so graciously bestowing upon us. I can hardly wait. For Snow Leopard.

50 users responded in " Wondering What Each Of The Six (count ‘em, six!) Win7 Versions Contains? "

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# 1 rectagon said, on June 26th, 2009 at 4:04 pm

You can hardly wait for snow leopard? Surely, thou jesteth.

MAC – 1 version – 8 sets of hardware
WINDOWS – 6 version – 4599 sets of hardware… and climbing.

# 2 Ghost said, on June 26th, 2009 at 4:10 pm

Remember that only two versions (home premium and pro) will be generally available. The rest will be specials or on netbooks.

# 3 Somebody_Else said, on June 26th, 2009 at 4:24 pm

Not this again. The anti-Vista bullshit was bad enough.

#2 got it, Home Premium and Professional will be the only versions most users will use. The others all fill various niches. Enterprise is Professional for mass deployment, Starter and Basic are for low cost computers. Ultimate is analogous to the old Plus! packs Microsoft used to sell.

Would it be smarter for them to simply have one product? Sure, but computer manufacturers would have a fit.

Oh, and Apple blows.

# 4 rosebush said, on June 26th, 2009 at 4:27 pm

#1 – There are 2 versions of Mac OS X

1. OS X Client/Desktop
2. OS X Server. With either a 10 user license or Unlimited.

Peace

# 5 GregA said, on June 26th, 2009 at 4:38 pm

Yes, because with almost 2 billion computers in the world and 95% of them running windows, Microsoft should take a one size fits all approach.

# 6 GregA said, on June 26th, 2009 at 4:42 pm

#4,

Actually, Apple sells zero operating systems. The only way to buy the Apple operating system is with it bundled with a computer. Those things you are buying are actually just service packs.

# 7 MIkey Twit said, on June 26th, 2009 at 4:47 pm

No, you can buy OS X independent of any hardware. Just look at Apple’s store or Amazon, where it is available. It is licensed to run on Apple hardware only, but many enterprising souls have it also running on PC hardware via mild hacks.

Not getting into any Mac vs. PC debate, just stating the facts and correcting your mistake.

# 8 cheapdaddy said, on June 26th, 2009 at 5:00 pm

Installed RC1 Ultimate over Vista Home Premium and it doesn’t run any worse (or better) on a celeron 540 lappy w/2g. With almost everything running in the background and everything wanted to update/phone home every time I turn it on (or run a virus scan) I’m last in line to use my own machine. Even stuff I deleted like wild tangent games still has zombie processes.

# 9 steelcobra said, on June 26th, 2009 at 5:13 pm

Looking at the chart, the average user won’t need anything above home pre. You don’t need them to join to a domain. Most users don’t need the full-fledged EFS, if they encrypt at all. XP mode seems to be for running legacy apps. And all the stuff exclusive to Enterprise/Ultimate are sysadmin and enthusiast features, not something you’d TRUST the average user to set up on their own.

# 10 Special Ed said, on June 26th, 2009 at 5:25 pm

I’ve been using Win 7 and each successive release candidate including the final and trying to give this the full benefit of the doubt. I still prefer OS X. Unless you have done a similar comparison, I’d suggest you STFU. Even if Win 7 was a turd polished Vista, it is much better than Vista.

# 11 Poppa Boner said, on June 26th, 2009 at 5:32 pm

The 6 versions should have been called:
Mildly Retarded
Retarded
Severely Retarded
Whacked Out
Vegetable
AlfredOne

# 12 dusanmal said, on June 26th, 2009 at 5:37 pm

@#9 So no one needs automated backups? Market is dominated by laptops, yet no encryption (and BitLocker can only be found in the top of the line) and no location based printing? [Chances of data being stolen with your PC and inability to simply use laptop as intended]. No XP mode but for top of the line although need for it is among average users…
Worst of all is deception for the more and more predominant netbook owners. Crippleware for them…
I like what I hear about W7 as OS, but this MS strategy will bite them back… On low end (netbooks) via Linux, on high end via MAC…

# 13 steelcobra said, on June 26th, 2009 at 5:47 pm

#12 Will they even know they need to do it, or set it up if they do? That is the question.

# 14 Jägermeister said, on June 26th, 2009 at 5:50 pm

Pay to actually be able to address your machines memory. Wow, what a feature!

# 15 Buzz said, on June 26th, 2009 at 6:23 pm

This certainly proves that Apple has it all wrong by giving away the whole store for $29.

Microsoft is all about maximizing Bill Gates’ personal worth. End of story.

# 16 Luc said, on June 26th, 2009 at 6:31 pm

#9: “the average user won’t need anything above home pre.”

That’s the grand mistake that Linux makes.

“Linux is good enough, the average user doesn’t need any more than email, Web browsing, media playing and a little word processing.”

But the average user is a mythical character that doesn’t match anyone in real life. Every user has to accomplish that one above-average thing once in a while and will be furious if the machine lets them down. Especially if the machine is a computer, a machine that was invented to bend and shape endlessly everything it’s supposed to work on. Especially if the machine is rigged to fail at accomplishing a task it would otherwise be able to do.

Those artificial limitations are gouging, they’re ripping people off, and even the most clueless computer owners realize that. No excuse for such practice is acceptable.

# 17 GregA said, on June 26th, 2009 at 6:45 pm

So what you are saying is those are service packs because they dont actually come with a license to run the software…

Just correcting your oversite…

# 18 Uncle Dave said, on June 26th, 2009 at 6:55 pm

#18: What are you talking about? You buy a copy of OS-X, it’s the full thing. There are no ’service packs’ of OS-X.

It does have the ability to upgrade an existing installation so in that limited sense it could be called a service pack, but you could wipe out or replace the hard disk and install it from scratch.

Microsoft, on the other hand, sells their OS as both full copies and upgrade versions that require an installed copy of their OS. The upgrade versions could be called service packs, sort of. OS-X isn’t sold that way.

# 19 Mark Derail said, on June 26th, 2009 at 7:29 pm

Poppa, somehow I doubt Alfred1 will read a Windows software related post.

FWIW, I enjoy reading comments of his when you all agree with him, he sounds perfectly sane.
(ex: star tattoos girl)

As for Windows 7 – it’s the 64 bit and systems with 16G or higher ram that will really shine.

Too bad Microsoft had to screw around with “Program Files” and “Document and Settings” directories. That’s the big reason why companies are not switching (yet).

# 20 Jägermeister said, on June 26th, 2009 at 7:40 pm

#11 – Poppa Boner

LOL

# 21 Greg Allen said, on June 26th, 2009 at 8:22 pm

It’s telling that the privacy tools, such as file system encryption, are only availabe in the most expensive versions.

It tells me that MS isn’t serious about computer security.

# 22 Travis McCoy said, on June 26th, 2009 at 8:52 pm

OH GOD I CAN’T ENCRYPT UNLESS I BUY THE EXPENSIVE VERSION

I’d be suprised if a full 1% of microsoft’s userbase encrypted files

# 23 ECA said, on June 26th, 2009 at 10:00 pm

http://images.pcworld.com//news/graphics/167444-windows7_editions_guide_original.jpg

bigger pic..

umm, i DONT GET WINDOWS xp mode uNLESS…
i GET THE PRO OEM VERSION?? and above..
WHO IN HELL wants 192 MEG of ram, WHO can afford 192, and WHAT mobo can support it..

# 24 steelcobra said, on June 26th, 2009 at 10:39 pm

192 is a Nice, Big Number. 11000000/C0 in binary and hexadecimal, for those familiar, that happens to fit nicely in an 8-bit addressing space. The point isn’t if it can be put in there now or in the near future, but that there’s essentially no limit to it at this time.

And it’s GigaBytes, not Megs. 192MB is insufficient to run XP.

And if you’re asking about what kind of systems? How about those custom render farms needed for modern CG film work? The frames on Pixar’s stuff is massive, in the multiple terabytes range when initially rendered, which means they need massive amounts of memory to buffer the data as it’s being rendered to provide a constant stream. Admittedly, I know they don’t use Windows (one of those situations where Linux IS appropriate), but you can’t say that there is no demand for that kind of memory space.

# 25 MikeN said, on June 27th, 2009 at 12:35 am

>192MB is insufficient to run XP.

I ran it on 128 MB just fine. Until I installed SP3, then even 384 wasn’t enough.

# 26 pedro said, on June 27th, 2009 at 2:31 am

#3 What did you expect? MS comes out with the same bullshit it did with Vista and you expect people to obey and accept? People aren’t just that stupid yet. Wait a little longer.

#19 Networking in 7 is a little pet peeve of mine. Their efforts to dull it down have make me puke at the notion of handling networks with it. I just read PCMag’s description of it (for home networking) and I thought they were talking about rainbows & ponys.

# 27 derspankster said, on June 27th, 2009 at 4:25 am

I run both XP and Win7 RC with Virtualbox on my Linux box. I see absolutely nothing that appeals to me in Win7. Actually, I’ve TRIED to find something to embrace about 7 and I just can’t come up with anything. I’ll continue to fire up XP in Virtualbox for those Windows centric tasks I might have.

# 28 Geekazoid said, on June 27th, 2009 at 5:41 am

I hate(d) Vista.

I just installed 7RC last night and have been playing with it since.

I like it so far. It has the eye-candy of Vista and the ease of use of XP.

The installation was painless. I almost thought I had forgotten something. Very few mouse clicks to get it installed.

# 29 steelcobra said, on June 27th, 2009 at 5:42 am

#25: from what I’ve experienced, a good general figure is 256MB to run XP smoothly, and 512 if you actually want to run any apps.

# 30 Sea Lawyer said, on June 27th, 2009 at 6:20 am

You know, I admit that it shouldn’t bother me, but I find the persistent use of made-up words like “embiggen” to be really annoying.

# 31 deowll said, on June 27th, 2009 at 6:59 am

I’d say they need a business version that can be absolutely chained down and a home version that has a lot of toys.

Upgrading a system shouldn’t cost over 30 or 40 dollars. My reason for saying that is that that I think they would end up making a lot more money due to a lot more upgrade sales. Well fifty which is what they are offering to those who do it soon isn’t bad.

My issue is that I’ve done a lot of OS upgrades in the past and in the short term I never, ever saw any gains that I could quantify in any meaningful way for doing it. My favorite software aps have always run just like they were running before I did the OS upgrade. If nothing changed with my aps what exactly did I gain?

If I spend the money and go through the botheration of replacing Vista on this machine with 7 I’m mainly going to get to learn a new user interface and the thrill of that is gone. I’ve gone through more interface changes than I can easily recall.

My reaction to those is where did they stick the whats it? There ok. It’s the same kind of thrill I’d get if the cleaning lady stuck my socks in a different drawer. A little hunting will let you find everything but is it fun? Did I actually gain anything by this? Yawn.

An OS upgrade should not be confused with a hardware upgrade if you need one. If you need one go for it. The thing is a bleeping net book actually has the muscle to do everything I need to do with no problems and about as fast as quad 4 except video editing!

# 32 Greg Allen said, on June 27th, 2009 at 8:04 am

>> Travis McCoy said, on June 26th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
>>OH GOD I CAN’T ENCRYPT UNLESS I BUY THE EXPENSIVE VERSION
>> I’d be suprised if a full 1% of microsoft’s userbase encrypted files

And, apparently, that’s how Microsoft wants it.

If MS built transparent security right into the OS (every version!) and apps, then everybody would use it.

But they refuse to do that, despite the crisis of privacy-loss, fraud and ID theft on the internet.

# 33 Mikey Twit said, on June 27th, 2009 at 9:34 am

#17 GregA said

What Uncle Dave said. He corrected YOUR oversite.

# 34 GregA said, on June 27th, 2009 at 10:25 am

Again… look at the psystar lawsuit. OS X boxed editions come with no licence to run OS X. That is not an operating system, that is a service pack. That is the official Apple position on the issue.

The only way to buy an OS X operating systems is on a mac computer. Additionally, installing those boxed versions of the software cancels your original version of the software, it is service pack, it says so right in the EULA.

# 35 Somebody_Else said, on June 27th, 2009 at 10:25 am

#32

There are plenty of great free file and full disk encryption tools like Truecrypt.

I’d even say they’re preferable. I’m not sure I trust closed source encryption tools like Bitlocker.

# 36 chookalana said, on June 27th, 2009 at 10:34 am

Apple has 1 version of Snow Leopard – $29.00

Yes, Microsoft has MANY more computers to work on, but I’ve installed Windows 7 Ultimate from new computers to 4 year old computers. I’ve installed it on at LEAST 7 kinds/brands of computers. And Ultimate alone works fine on all those computers.

They cripple it on purpose, simple as that.

One would think that they would have learned from Vista. Microsoft will ALWAYS be Microsoft. They hardly ever learn from their mistakes.

# 37 harold said, on June 27th, 2009 at 3:13 pm

I hope it’s as good as WXP Pro 64 bit.

# 38 888 said, on June 27th, 2009 at 3:16 pm

Most of Microsoft garbage OS users are just home lamas, using their PCs for web browsing, email, IM and occasional burning of a disc with pictures or films.
I say 90% of Windoze users are exactly this.
They don’t need Windows 7, Vista or even XP.
I’m sure Windows 2000 would still serve them well now and in next few years to come.

Yet they think they need “new windoze” because they are brainwashed dumbos, believing in everything they were told by “authorities” (and Msoft falls into this category, at least in their twisted minds).

# 39 ahtnos said, on June 27th, 2009 at 3:25 pm

Look at Enterprise and Ultimate. They are identical. The sole difference is they are licensed differently. Why do we need two names for the same version? And why not more? Why not call the retail version of Ultimate/Enterprise Windows 7 for System Builders.

I just looked at wikipedia, where the chart’s from. Ultimate may also be called “Maximum” in some markets. There will also be an “E” variant of every version, which will be sold in the EU and won’t include IE.

I think Microsoft is trying to pull a GM. GM sells the same car under different brand names, and, say, changes the headlights and radio. Microsoft sells the same OS under many names, with some features removed from some versions.

# 40 steelcobra said, on June 27th, 2009 at 3:32 pm

#39: To be fair, Enterprise volume licensing can also mean a custom package/setup for large-scale deployment, especially considering that Vista/Win7 use a modular imaging installer rather than a traditional file-arrangement installer. For a large scale deployment, you can create multiple install versions using the same base volume license copy for all of your different hardware configurations.

Whereas with Ultimate, it’s a single-default-install to one machine.

# 41 pedro said, on June 27th, 2009 at 3:42 pm

#38 What the hell was that. Change your meds!

# 42 Special Ed said, on June 27th, 2009 at 5:18 pm

#30 – I hate stupid words too, like lawyer.

# 43 jbellies said, on June 27th, 2009 at 5:20 pm

#31, #38 Talk to each other. A lot of the flak that Vista took was over upgrades. MS likes to sell them, it’s a high per-license fee coming in. But most of the time the most cost effective for the user who, for whatever reason *needs* the newer OS, is simply to buy a new computer with the OS already installed. Not only way cheaper (because the bulk license is included in the cost of the computer), but more likely to work, too. Yeah, then you have a computer to give away.

Win2K still works great. You need to have an alternative strategy to protect yourself from malware, because updating to the latest patches isn’t an option. Three good starts are:
1. aside from the OS, don’t use any MS software;
2. turn off all the options;
3. use a router-firewall.

# 44 JimD said, on June 27th, 2009 at 7:54 pm

Six Versions of Win7 ??? That’s Ballmer’s P&G experience showing !!! What else would you expect from a Soap Salesman ??? Cutting the “Product” into different sized “Cakes” !!!

# 45 Floyd said, on June 27th, 2009 at 8:18 pm

Been working on my wife’s Mac for two days to remove the $100/year MobileMe package (annoying, but it’s gone now), then putting on Thunderbird and GMail to replace it (turned out to be easy with a little reading).

The next biggest annoyance was fighting the MacOS user interface. Sorry Mac OSX people, you users would be better off using the underlying BSD Unix than the Mac OSX interface. Even the user interface on the old Macs was better.

By comparison, my experience with Vista has been a piece of cake for two years–no blue screens. I hope Win7 is as good…

# 46 steelcobra said, on June 27th, 2009 at 9:15 pm

As a kid raised by my public school system to use Mac OS…Windows is the only way. Linux lacks two key elements: Common software compatibility and a user-focus design, and Mac’s are too Cult of Apple focused to notice that they aren’t as open and free-form (yes, I said that about MS, but really, you can do nearly anything to the OS and the hardware you want to to make it your own, and if you can’t, the software is out there) as Windows.

Now, hopefully when I get Win7, I won’t have the weird-ass soft-crash issues Firefox seems to have on Vista.

# 47 Glenn E. said, on June 27th, 2009 at 10:20 pm

I agree with Sea Lawyer. When did “embiggen” become a real word? That’s not very cromulent.

# 48 Uncle Dave said, on June 28th, 2009 at 7:54 am

#30,47: All words were “made up” at one time or another. Embiggen has been around for a while now and it has entered the American, neigh, the world’s conscious usage like a tick burrs into sunburned skin.

If it’s good enough for one, Homer Simpson, it’s good enough you! It’s even in the Springfield theme song, for cripes sake!

“That a people might embiggen America,
that a man might embiggen his soul.”

Now if the word I invented — Interwebitubes — right here on the blog would go into widespread use, the world would be a better, embiggened place!

# 49 Rick Cain said, on July 5th, 2009 at 12:44 am

Microsoft is falling victim to the market segment obsession like intel did, where they intentionally were disabling CPU caches in order to “fit” a certain price point.

Retarded, but nothing new. Howzabout Microsoft’s obsession with Standard and Enterprise versions of the same software, with a huge premium tacked onto extra features rarely used.

# 50 Chris W. said, on July 7th, 2009 at 3:09 am

Well, I have both a mac and a pc in front of me right now. Generally speaking, the mac gives me less trouble and is a lot easier to write “ad hoc” programs for, but the pc is much more compatible with 3rd party software.

I also have experience in Linux and Unix, and while I find their power to be great if you are willing to overlook certain refinements (and in the case of Linux, any sense of UI consistency), they are mainly only useful as servers.

Speaking as a 7 year member of Comptia and someone who works on computers all day, I can tell you that fanatics in all courts are generally wrong.

#45 – You just aren’t used to the UI.. trust me on that one, it’s like anything else, takes a while to get used to… Mac users moving to PC’s have just as much problems.

The entire thing with having several different versions of the same OS is disappointing, and will hurt M$ in the long run. (There is no better faster way to disgruntle customers than to make them FEEL as if the are being ripped off, even if they aren’t.)

It is a nightmare for potential developers as well, as they will have several different possible feature sets on any given box.

As to #3 “Would it be smarter for them to simply have one product? Sure, but computer manufacturers would have a fit.”…

That insight is preposterous… Computer manufacturers hate it most of all, because they have to preemptively guess their customers wants and then perform the equivalent of paying to have their support staff to be trained SIX TIMES… (So that they know which solutions will work for which customers..)

Anyway, just my 2 cents..
Chris

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