This is not news anybody wants, but it’s also maybe the least surprising news you’ll hear all day: it looks like there will be at least 5 retail packages for Windows 7.
This screengrab, which purports to be from a fresh Win 7 beta build number 7025, shows Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Business and Ultimate choices. We all know that the current beta is already labeled Windows 7 Ultimate, so unless MS is going nuts with the superlatives, Ultimate does imply the availability of something “less-than-Ultimate.”
And, since Microsoft hasn’t said anything to make us believe they’d be changing their repackaging fetish we’ve seen with XP and Vista, this doesn’t seem at all surprising. Sad, but not unexpected. [PC Beta – Thanks, Pete]
