I have been a windows user since the early 90's windows 3.0, I am fed up with MS and am not buying any more M$ products,so I now have Linux on my PCs and have bought myself a Mac book Pro.
Sorry M$ you dropped the ball !!

The real point of all this is emerging markets. Microsoft OS's are everywhere in the far east and africa, but only about 5% of them are paid for. MS is trying to appeal to consumers who don't have (and will never pay) $100 for an OS when they can buy a pirate version for $5. So they create stripped down versions for $20, and keep all the nice bits for the full version - otherwise there would be a roaring trade in imported software from the east back to the west. They will still fail though.

"That $11,000 doesn't take into account the actual usage of OS which could help you earn money".. OS help me earn money?

I thought it was my talent that earned me my money. The only one earning money on OS is MSFT period!

Every manufactor has multiple products. The reason? the cheaper products jusify the price of the more expensive products.

Sa,e thing with Micrsoft Software. You need different product lines to justify the price of the more advance versions.

Also there is a lot of crappy hardware out there. (And newbook are crappy hardware).

It is better for the crappy hardware to use the basic version of the software then use a version that comes with too many extras as it slows down the machine or uses more space etc, or it is better microsoft sells a current OS for that crappy hardware then and older version of windows. Microsofts software is only supported for so long. (updates, patches, drivers etc). So the the end user to have a current OS is best. Also if microsoft goes and sells older software it hurts the image of the newer software, in the end its bad for Microsoft. If all users use current software its easier for Microsoft as they only have to provide support, patches etc for the newer OS.

I see nothing wrong with multiple versions.

Its actually good.

I ran Vista Home premium on all types of hardware, including 1.6GHz computers (Athlon Xp). As long as those computers had 1GB ram and a video card supporting Aero, Vista works great. Now if you don't have the 1GB or video card supporting AERO, Vista Home Premium still runs, just without the fancy eye candy. I have not run into any hardware yet that doesn't work with Vista. Support is really good. I have my own computer shop. There might be a few wireless cards and network cards that have no drivers, but things are great.

A lot of people that complain about Vista ready hardware just have no idea.

Also take note, that Vista Basic is a lot like Windows Xp home. And Vista Home Premium is a much like Windows Xp pro except with the buisness applications.

Vista Basic gui is similar to Xp i the way there is no AERO/Eye Candy.

Well there is a lot of people happy withb Xp gui, so why bitch about Vista Basic?

VIsta Basic is an OS that is current so it will be more ontop of security and more compatable with future applications, and it can run on all pre-existant hardware just like Xp can. So whats wrong with that? Its like giving your old hardware new life.

That is the only realistic idea.
One core OS, and plug-ins.

Give some away (DX, IE, Media Player) charge for others - Video editing, calculator lol.

Then they can make money and have world dominance.
Not to mention it would make supporting their insane amount of (edit) stuff easier.

Release one trim version and use Windows Update to add in features like IE, Media Player, etc. Seriously, after the updates run you've already replaced all of those programs 6 times over anyway.

The article says that both XP and Vista users will have to do a clean install, not true. Vista can upgrade right to Windows 7 without doing a clean install, so programs and data will carry over fine. XP can't upgrade directly to 7 like that because of the differences in the graphics driver model

I sure hope that I am not the only one who thinks the European Commission is run by a whole lot of Double-Standard Microsoft-Bashing goons.

Why is it that it is an issue for Microsoft to bundle Internet Explorer or Windows Media Player with Windows when it is very apparent that they (the European Commission) see it to be perfectly fine for Apple to do exactly what Microsoft is doing by bundling Safari and QuickTime with OS X? Where is all the action against Apple here? Or have the European Commission by some odd coincidence never heard of Apple before?

If they are going to pass a motion which will require Microsoft to remove Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player from being bundled with Windows, then those communist asswipes who call themselves the "European Commission" better make damn sure as hell that Apple doesn't bundle Safari and QuickTime with OS X.

In fact, it totally surprises me that the European Commission seems all so interested and engaged in the act of bashing Microsoft that they totally forget about Apple's existence despite Apple having committed far worse offenses on the subject of the enforced bundling of software.

Apple requires consumers who purchase an iPod or iPhone to install QuickTime (while pretty much all other phones and the majority of MP3 players out there are able to behave as a USB thumb drive and hence eliminating the requirement for proprietary software).

Apple requires consumers to use their (Apple's) own OS X operating system on its own and already very expensive hardware (whereas with a PC you are at least presented with a choice as to which operating system you wish to download or purchase).

Apple has even utilized tactics (on customers using Windows based computers) such as including additional software (in this scenario Safari) in its QuickTime software updater to push its new software onto Windows based computers (and in most cases unknowing to the user as most users do have the habit of simply checking "yes" to all items whenever an updater prompts there is a so-called "update") in an attempt to unfairly gain market share.

So despite all of the highlighted points above with regards to Apple (and possibly a lot more), where is all the action against Apple here, eh? You so-called "European Commission"? Where? Precisely my point made. The European Commission is run by nothing but a while lot of Double-Standard Microsoft-Bashing goons. I'd even go as far to say that some of them clearly are eligible to being branded as Apple fanbois and fangals.

So, there are a lot of different opinions about Windows in general but can we all agree that it is high time we moved to 64bit now? I don't know who is able to buy hardware limited to 32bit any longer. Seem to me 64bit will not mature until it is the ONLY option. If people need legacy apps then run them in compatibility mode or virtualise a 32bit environement. Let's all have at least enough RAM to be able to display all the bling in Vista Mark 2

That $11,000 doesn't take into account the actual usage of OS which could help you earn money that would make that $11,000 over ONE HUNDRED YEARS look like a drop in the bucket. It's like owning a car: a necessary expense to achieve far greater things than you would if you just lived like a cheap-ass you whole life.

Say ok maybe not 100.. say from the age of 10 onwards your parent bought you a PC.. and you know.. PC "standard" life cycle is 5yrs max so.. hang on.. I punch my trusted calculator.. is been with me since grade school..18 replacement cycles... say USD100 OS alone.. that is USD1800.. Lets work out what is the NPV say 3% interest? I work out to be bout USD11,000 cool dollars..missing when I am old.. sobering thought.. If I get to 100yrs.. and IF the Vole can survive past 3 generations

That lifehacker blog post just links back to Ed Bott’s blog post, which was one of the early ones listing all the same collection of versions we’ve been talking about. Ed’s posting is also missing one or two details, like the fact that Starter Edition will be offered on netbooks. That’ll look really good compared to Linux, I can tell you...

Tell me OO great OS developer.. how long did it take you to simplify things. I love old Nokia phones. The work! i am starting to Like the Idea of Linux.. reading their mission statement is like reading the proclamation of independence of the united states.. bring tears to my eyes... nothing much free stuff thesedays.. air, rain, snow, earth quakes, forest fires.. then you have Linux.. Heck I'll try to give Linux a donation.. if they accept..

http://lifehacker.com/5145732/windows-7-version-lineup-simplified-to-three

"If the world was a village...

Microsoft would be the drooling village idiot, with cotton wool in his ears, telling everyone else to speak up.
posted by : Richard, 04 February 2009"

That about sums it up for me. xp pro was the best made one ever. its a mystery now. xp 64 could have gone on for a long time but was not marketed. no idea why?

is a boobie trap to confuse poor users to try different distros and pay again and again for the same thing.. Linux free no? I got the CD delivered to my door step all the way from Netherlands.. did not even have to pay postage.. package on my desk screaming.. Try Me!!! Freedom OS.. no need to pay.. free for life..that is the Ubuntu promise.. no Microsoft Tax!! Vista and whatever cam with it is hogging my little 250GB hard disk I only able to have 30GB of personal data at the end of the day without having to loose the ability to run Vista incremental backup utility..

Need to start paying less and rationalize my personal spending on multiple OS

Even according to Net Applications (whose numbers are somewhat debatable) Microsoft is continually loosing market share. All is not lost, though! Here's how to win the OS war: Offer a free version of your OS. Make it bootable from any medium. Remove DRM, product activation and all backdoors. To convince users you really removed those backdoors, make it Open Source. Get yourself a bug tracker like everyone else has. Show users and corporate types you care about software quality and stability. Offer loads of easily installable apps. No demos - only the real thing! In 64 bit. Customizable to run on any device.
And now for the hard part: You also need some feature that Linux doesn't already have.

@Someone Special... I didn't know the BigMac came with tomatoes.

Multiple versions, there is just one way to make this possible.
You can create an applicantion (win professional), after that you'll probably upgreated (win ultimate).
But you wont ever do something worts than it is. And so it is, MS does, doing STARTER version.

of 'custom' install for Windows. Remember when you could select which components you wanted during the installation process? You could just uncheck the box for Outlook Express and Media Player. I don't think you were allowed to skip out on IE... it's been so long, I can't recall exactly. Oh well. Microsoft knows best, eh? They know specifically which bits and pieces you want and they will make sure you get them.

getting small businesses to convert to having a server, Microsoft's Small Business Server, when they don't have the Pro version of XP. Many SB's have XP Home, some now have Vista Basic, Home Premium, etc. And if SB Server will require Windows 7 Enterprise to connect with full functionality then SBS is going to be harder to sell.

So any SB with netbooks isn't going to be able to get full functionality out of them? FFS those muppets in charge are definitely not doing this for the good and ease of their customers and providers of MS services.

Ugh, this article is almost cut-n-paste from Engadget...This article really overstates how complicated this is. There will only be 2 versions of Win 7 widely available to the public (example: in a Best Buy) and that is Home Premium and Professional. Ultimate isn't being widely distributed and the other versions are OEM only.

What does this mean? 95 percent of the U.S.A will only deal with 2 versions of Windows like they do with XP. The rest are probably in IT so it makes sense that they get Enterprise or build computers for developing nations and put Basic on it.

Pretty simple really and not a big deal at all.

It all boils down to this: Both MS-DOS and Windows became popular in no small part due to the fact that they were cheap and simple to install.

What Microsoft is doing now, is asking customers to pay more for Windows (those that don't get it pre-installed) with no obvious benefit. I've seen software companies do this before - they've just forgotten what made them popular in the first place.

Most people use Windows because it is the path of least resistance. Change that and you will see the customer base start to ebb away (however slowly).

That picture is not indicative of the current windows 7 experience. And I'm tired of hearing about how 'Docklike' the updated taskbar is and yet again MS ripped off Apple. Lets use a brain cell for a second.....Hmm the Quicklaunch feature was out before the Dock and the new taskbar is a merger of the quicklaunch and the already existing features of the taskbar. Very similar to the Dock yes, but not ripped off. If anything the Dock is ripped off of quicklaunch.

Pls remind me how many Linux distros there are ?

I think I saw a headline somewhere saying that number of distros surpassed number of Linux users.

Microsoft would be the drooling village idiot, with cotton wool in his ears, telling everyone else to speak up.

I find it to be fairly stupid of MS to keep the old names when they were so blatantly slaughtered in the press.

My Idea would be to sell an ultra mobile edition, which should combine the starter and home basic versions. And sell it only bundled to netbooks/entry pcs, no retail packages. That way you can provide both an entry version and ship around the "Vista capable Fiasco" since everything sold either has the low end version bundled or must sport enough power to support the regular home version.

For retail keep the home version (now home premium), professional and ultimate. No distinction between 32 Bit and 64 Bit as well, include both versions on the corresponding DVDs.

That way you'll at least keep the retail mess to a minimum.
Currently there are still 4 XP versions and a whopping 16 Vista Versions in our local retail (both german and english, 32 Bit and 64 Bit, normal and System Builder Versions...). That is something which should go and never return.

This is far simpler than you are making it out to be. 98% of the PC buying population will likely get Home Premium. If you buy a Tier 1 PC in a store in a developed nation, you are something like 98% likely to get Home Premium. That's it, it's simple really so don't make it sound like a big mess, it's not.

Geeks will buy Ultimate, and geeks rarely buy pre-made PCs. They will buy the FPP, an OEM copy of Ultimate, or pirate it anyhow. And guess what, if they decide to upgrade that PC from above, just type in the key and game on. No reinstallation necessary at all!
Small business will want Professional and can upgrade any PC they buy anywhere by typing in their Pro key. No reinstallation, type in a key and have a nice life. They can get that key from an reseller that does MS licensing, which is most any VAR. Or they can contact MS directly, or buy FPP's, etc. They can literally upgrade multiple ways, whichever is more convenient for them. How simple is that?

The two bottom versions are not for the developed world, so you can stop the reporting on it and whining about it right about now. Really, you are stating to sound as bad as an Apple fanboi. These versions won't be installed in countries that speak English, they will be primarily in BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China).

Enterprise is a unique entity that you cannot buy in any store and only affects relatively few individuals at massive companies.

Do us all a favor, actually TRY Windows 7 before your next article, and perhaps try to get some perspective before the next one?

Thanks.

Is it just me or did they just rename it because Vista has a bad name?
If they would call it SP2 or SP3 people would still not buy it.

i read another article that said the only two versions that you a consumer could purchase would be the home premium version and the professional version. all the rest are only available to OEM. So obviously that cuts it down from 11 to only four versions that the average consumer needs to worry about. as for having a computer thats capable to run the software from what I've seen and read it should run on a variety of machines

Because you're such an XP fan I'd like to enumerate the various flavors of that version that he struggled (but ultimately succeeded) to choose from:

Starter
Home
Professional
Tablet PC Edition
Media Center Edition (2 different versions)
Volume License
Home-N
Professional-N
XP Professional 64-bit

Wow! How did all you XP users manage to survive such a difficult choice?

The truth is the VAST majority of users get new OS installs with new computers. Most Dell, HP etc. computers will just come with home premium and people won't even notice.

It is a silly practice but the market they are gonna loose with this, they already 'lost' with Vista.

Ultimately the lack of innovation and this new paradigm they have of moving something (like stuff in the control panel) and calling it new by not allowing the option to revert to XP style will be their undoing.

If this is true, MS haven't learned the lesson yet. And just three apps at a time on starter??? That is ridiculous. I can see pirated XP being the most popular OS on the netbooks, once they completely stop selling XP officially. @Dave:instead, they should give us a choice what to install during installation.

Well I cant believe MS is this dumb. Cant wait for the Apple commericals with the roulette wheel again.
MS plays guess your needs should be the new Apple game show.

There should be only 2 versions. Server and Workstation. That is a sensible division. This spin the dice and guess what you need is foolish, confusing and too much than the common comsumer can understand. I guess they want Apple to pick up a larger percentage of market share. I am seriously thinking of Linux.

Watch Out, If 7 Ultimat takes arm & Leg, is mere update, it means you lost other arm & Leg getting O/S to update to., User is Quadraplegic. Type with Your Nose, is M/S Cheer? Hey-Good News on Home /Front, PASSED Inspection for Housing. Its annual thing on Bolling AFbase. Strangely after near three years, there isn't enough Ultimate Capabble Hardware to be affordable to home pubics. Its being made, yet three years to go from halfway capable 690 chipset, to 790/X58 now. Its Marketing caught between XP & Moon. Maybe delaying Xp final rest caused this. STeWie drashek

"Starter
... Users will be limited to running only three applications at a time, not counting background processes."

So, they sell you aneven more) crippled OS to force you to upgrade later? I have a hard time believing even M$ would do that. Time will tell.

...One of the biggest gripes about XP was all the 'bloatware'. With Multiple versions, you buy what you need/want. Home users don't need the same stuff as business users, and there are home users who want all the 'bling' and others who want just the basics. MS is just responding to the Market/Customers.

Well well, Microsoft are up to their old tricks.

Really, why do they even bother? the corporate version will be pirated & custom made versions via nLite etc will be created to suit your personal needs.

Starter? home basic? premium? is this a friggin joke?

Obviously MS marketing has gone into orbit & is out of sync with the ground.
Look at XP, XP home edition, XP professional & then you have the server editions.

How to make a bigmac complicated?
Bigmac with cheese? bigmac without tomato? bigmac without tomato & without cheese? bigmac without meat & without cheese but with tomato?

Here is a wondrous idea for MS, why not sell windows 7 in modules?
This way everyone can buy their own version of a bigmac & will not pay for crap they never wanted.

*shock, horror & disbelief*

Home Basic - Will be a waste of time and money as it was with Vista!

Home Premium - Should be the only one that shops sell, keep it simple and keep it reasonably priced (£150 max)

Professional - Renamed 'Business Premium' and targeted for small businesses...

Enterprise - Renamed 'Business Corporate' and available to corporate accounts and large businesses only.

Ultimate - Axe, waste of time/money!

... Microsoft can shove Windows 7 where the sun dont shine, as this was one of the reasons I like millions of others refused to UG to Vista and stick with XP!

Why they cant just bring out 2 simple versions is beyond me, surely this would give them the best chance of people upgrading and earn revenue in the long run...

Home Premium - for all those wanting Windows 7 on their home computers - and this should be the only version ALL STORES IN EUROPE SHOULD STOCK - just because Microsoft bring out loads of versions doesnt mean the market needs to baffle consumers with them!

Enterprise (Business) - for all those companies wanting to UG their systems to Windows 7 and keep it simple.

MS idiots!!! There should just be Home and Server. Home should have a UMPC install option which is basically Home but without all the unnesessary crap.

I was also hoping all versions were 64-bit for memory and driver reasons. It will be 2010 for Gawd's sake. 2GB costs £17 now. Most entry PC's will have 4GB by then. Sod 32-bit. Most CPU's sold since 2007 have x64 extensions anyway.

Its better then Vista, the main problem with Vista was the Home Basic/Premium fiasco. With 7 most people will see Home premium on the shelves at Comet/PC world etc and Pro/Enterprise at work.
Any one who NEEDS ultimate (domain server at home, understands bitlocker etc) hopefully is cleaver enough to do the tiny amount of research needed to figure out the differences..