• Windows 7: four versions that matter

    Posted on February 4, 2009 at 05:48 CST by • Comment in the Forums

    Microsoft just lifted the news embargo on its new lineup for Windows 7 versions. There’s a good analysis on Ed Bott’s blog and an insider-sounding “interview” with Paul Thurrott.

    Microsoft did several things right:

    They limited the number of versions. If you’re choosing, you only have three choices (the fourth, Win7 Starter, is only available pre-installed on netbooks).

    They made each bigger (and more expensive) version a superset of the smaller version. Thus, when you move from Win7 Home Premium to Win7 Pro to Win7 Ultimate, you gain features and don’t lose any.

    They aren’t over-hyping Ultimate. This was the cardinal sin of Vista marketing.

    The bottom line: unless you need to connect to a corporate “domain”, you want Home Premium. If you do connect to a domain from time to time, you want Pro, unless you need BitLocker encryption for the hard drive. In that case, you need Ultimate.

    There are a few if’s and’s and but’s, but that’s about the size of it.

    Oh. Microsoft did one thing wrong. They used very confusing names for the two least-expensive versions. Windows 7 Home Basic is analogous to Vista Starter Edition (they’re both only available in emerging markets, for example). And Windows 7 Starter Edition – the netbook version – isn’t even close to Vista Starter Edition. I have no idea why they kept the names but completely revamped the contents.

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