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Evidence Of Five Windows 7 Retail Versions Surprises No One

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sandmanfvrreturns
01/26/09

In reply to Evidence Of Five Windows 7 Retail Versions Surprises No One
Been said in the comments, but OS X an Linux users are laughing. Hate Linux, Mac/OS X all you want, they got it right. One version. Yes Ubuntu has different "versions" but guess what? You can download and features of every version and make a "Super Ubuntu"! I like OS X myself and hate the apple hardware, but old Steve Jobs got it right in the keynote.

XP did it right: Home and Professional. That is all you need. 5 versions? Starter and Basic? Wasn't needed in Vista and not needed now. Business and Ultimate? Again the differences are not enough to warrant this. Just stupid MS, stupid.
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Rabid Penguin
01/26/09

@sandmanfvrreturns: um. There are a ton of Linux distros, Ubuntu is just one of them.

XP also had a Starter and a Media Center Edition.
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sandmanfvrreturns
01/26/09

@Rabid Penguin: I was making a comment on the user making fun of so many Linux distros. Yes, I have tried like 15 to 20 of them. BUT for that distro, really you have only one. You can add packages from repositories and make any distro, well, anyway you want.

XP Starter wasn't available in the US and Media Center Edition was an add on. So there were two MAIN versions.
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Rabid Penguin
01/26/09

But you were saying Linux did it right. There is one version. Linux has a million different flavas. To say Microsoft's five versions is harder to follow than Linux is what's laughable.

Windows 7's Starter is also not available in the US, so that drops it to 4 versions. Media Center was a separate version available for XP. Sure it was basically just a set of extensions on top of Pro, but all the versions are the same core OS with different features enabled, or "extensions" added. The fact remains that there was a Media Center version available.

So that brings XP up to 4 (starter, home, pro, mc) and vista to 5 (starter, home, home pro, business, ultimate).

One more version. Whoopty-Do. Microsoft could add a Starter Professional version for all I care. I'd still rather use Win7 than OSX. If you find choosing a Win OS difficult, than it's probably a good thing Apple provides you with an OS for idiots.

Sorry if I come off harsh. I just think it's stupid that people are complaining about Microsoft giving them options.
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Rabid Penguin
01/26/09

In reply to Evidence Of Five Windows 7 Retail Versions Surprises No One
Windows 7 Starter

Only to be sold to "emerging markets" as a cheap alternative to stealing it. It only supporting 32-bit systems, has a 1GB memory limitation, and will probably give you the HIV.

Windows 7 Home Basic

For cheap-ass users who probably sold their kids for drugs. Can be purchased with food stamps. It lacks Aero support as well as some other features.

Windows 7 Home Premium

Sporting all the same features of Home Basic but re-branding it Home Premium -- the box is a little prettier*.

* while supplies last.

Windows 7 Business

Full support for Aero, remote desktop and other useful programs the Home users wouldn't know how the hell to use.

Windows 7 Ultimate

In addition to all the features of the Business edition, and also comes with a limited edition photo of Bill Gates, and a gift certificate to Applebees as a special thanks.
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sir_pantsalot
01/26/09

In reply to Evidence Of Five Windows 7 Retail Versions Surprises No One
If they would make a version that would stop trying to do things for me I would choose that one. Sometimes I wish there was a way to punch the software without harming the hardware.
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Geisrud
01/26/09

@sir_pantsalot: there is:

c:\format c:

Are you sure? Y
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sir_pantsalot
01/26/09

@Geisrud: Sounds great. I will let you know how it works out.
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Geisrud
01/26/09

In reply to Evidence Of Five Windows 7 Retail Versions Surprises No One
is there really that much difference between "Starter" and "Home Basic" that they felt the need to develop and market the two different versions?

Same with "Business" and "Ultimate". The feature set can't be that different, that they couldn't release just the one, and let users pare down stuff they don't need/want.
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sir_pantsalot
01/26/09

@Geisrud: The Home Basic probably comes with Firefox or Opera already installed and only cost $200 extra.
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robinandtami
01/26/09

@Geisrud: I see your point on starter and basic...... but I would hope that Ultimate would have some multimedia features that would not necessarily be needed in a business version.
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Michael Hannah
01/26/09

In reply to Evidence Of Five Windows 7 Retail Versions Surprises No One
There should be 4 versions

1. Windows 7 Netbook Edition

2. Windows 7 Home Edition

3. Windows 7 Professional Edition

4. Windows 7 Ultimate Edition

Boom Baby
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Andrew Beck
01/26/09

@Michael Hannah:

I imagine that Starter is only for developing markets so, it can be ignored.

If that's the case then Home Basic = Netbook Edition, Home Premium = Home Edition, Business = Professional Edition, Ultimate = Ultimate Edition.

If that's the case, they've done what you want.
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Serolf Divad
01/26/09

@Andrew Beck:

My money's on Starter being the netbook edition.
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Jrsy Devil's Advocate®
01/26/09

In reply to Evidence Of Five Windows 7 Retail Versions Surprises No One
So Home is no longer the base option and we have Starter instead? What the hell is that, Windows: just barely? How more basic does it need to get?
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combat chuck
01/26/09

@Jrsy Devil's Advocate: There's a rumor that a version below Starter will be released, which is nothing but a screenshot of the 7 desktop that loads after you log in. It'll be called Windows 7 Sucka, and retail for $79 Upgrade/$99 Full.
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Jrsy Devil's Advocate®
01/26/09

@combat chuck: I figured it would start up with a bunch of tutorials....

My First OS
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sdowney83
01/26/09

@Jrsy Devil's Advocate:

Starter is only for developing countries. Like cheapo pc's in impoverished parts of the world.
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Jrsy Devil's Advocate®
01/26/09

@sdowney83: Well they can just keep XP around for that..
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daftrok
01/26/09

In reply to Evidence Of Five Windows 7 Retail Versions Surprises No One
ONE SHOULD BE ENOUGH! DAMMIT I thought after 360 they'd learn by now: CONSUMERS DON'T WANT MULTIPLE SKU
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Jason Chen
01/26/09

@daftrok: I think their sales numbers say that consumers DO want multiple SKU, or they wouldn't be doing it. People actually buy the Arcade/Gimped version.
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robinandtami
01/26/09

@daftrok: Way to turn this into a 360 bash! So which PS3 sku do you own? The one with BC or one of the skus without? The one that plays SACD or one of the skus that don't? The one with the memory card slot? Or one of the sku's without?
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Kaiser-Machead
01/26/09

In reply to Evidence Of Five Windows 7 Retail Versions Surprises No One
This is one of those things that makes me like OS X just a wee bit more. Why even bother with so many different versions? Why not just have two versions: one for servers/business, and the other with all of the media goodies for consumer systems? I suppose it's no big deal, and no different from Vista, but I just don't see the point of having so many different varieties of the same OS.
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Hello Mister Walrus
01/26/09

@Kaiser-Machead Beyond Thunderdome: It's price discrimination - some consumers are willing to pay more, so sell them the full-featured version. Other consumers are cheap, so make a cheaper version for them. This sort of strategy is important for near-monopolies.
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Jrsy Devil's Advocate®
01/26/09

@Kaiser-Machead Beyond Thunderdome: While I do see your point, I have to say (and if you'll excuse the analogy), this is like comparing Apples to Oranges. With OS X you can't just buy the OS and install it on whatever you want. You need to buy their hardware with it. MS is stuck with having to cover their asses by supporting a wider range or hardware and with that a tiered pricing structure to match makes sense. Having said that though I am not really in favor of this. I think five versions is a bit overkill.

As Matthew Harding pointed out earlier three versions, Home, Business & Ultimate should be enough cover this and as a byproduct would hopefully reduce the amount of crappy PC's dumped on the market..
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Arturo Braña Garcia
01/26/09

In reply to Evidence Of Five Windows 7 Retail Versions Surprises No One
lol, thats what people who use a dumb operative system get, cant believe microsoft is stupid enough to still do this bull of having 5 different versions...

theres just nothing like Os X, it always works, theres no virus for it yet (troyan´s are not virus), and theres just 1 version, it just cant get any simpler
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Kaiser-Machead
01/26/09

@Arturo Braña Garcia: That "dumb" operating system is still the bulk of the computing base around the world, while the likes of OS X are confined largely to their own proprietary wares, and Linux is an obscure ecosystem that has yet to take any real foothold in the market.

As for OS X always working, I spent a few months with wonkified WiFi on account of Leopard's wireless glitch, graphics management issues and the like. Overall my experience has been great and I wouldn't turn back, but c'mon, shit hits the fan a reasonable amount on that end.
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vladdybear
01/26/09

@Arturo Braña Garcia:

well people are dumb enough to buy PCs, they dumb enough to pay 5 times the OS cost.
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William Gu
01/26/09

@vladdybear: Can't it be said though, that Ultimate won't work on some PC's so those looking to upgrade need to buy the lower-end version? Since OS X is controlled by hardware Apple approves, there's no need to put out five versions of OS X. I see what MS is doing and what Apple does.

That being said, I do think it says something when OS X is priced so much less than M$.
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kernel panic
01/26/09

@Arturo Braña Garcia: @Arturo Braña Garcia: um, isn't OS X built around a modified Linux kernal?
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Rabid Penguin
01/26/09

@kurupt: BSD
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BeautifulAgony
01/26/09

@William Gu: OSX can be priced less because part of the cost of the software development is "bundled" into the prices of the required hardware, which, surprise surprise, only Apple sells.
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Rabid Penguin
01/26/09

In reply to Evidence Of Five Windows 7 Retail Versions Surprises No One
Shouldn't that say "Sad, but not unexpected" or "Sad, but expected?"
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Platypus Man
01/26/09

@Rabid Penguin: "expected" means that you actually anticipated the thing happening and "not unexpected" means that you may or may not have been expecting it, but you were more neutral on the issue. If it had been unexpected, then you would be surprised at it, but this is not unexpected, so they're not surprised.
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