Windows Blogger Paul Thurrott has released a list of the various versions in which Windows 7 will be shipped. There are quite a few versions, but contrary to the Vista confusion, there will only be two highly-marketed versions: Windows 7 Home Premium, and Windows 7 Professional. That's right, we're back to the good ol' XP days!
One of the largest criticisms Vista faced was the overwhelming amount of product editions to choose from. You either had to sacrifice some features or pay the Ultimate price (ha).
In total, six versions of 7 will be shipped. Most of them however, will be offered only for small niches or emerging markets. Here's a short breakdown of the versions we can expect:
Windows 7 Starter - Expected to be installed on many netbooks; it can only run 3 apps simultaneously, cannot create HomeGroups, and does not feature the Aero Glass UI. It does however, feature the enhanced taskbar.
Windows 7 Home Premium - Will be broadly marketed in new computers, and as a retail product; features the most widely-used features such as HomeGroups, Aero Glass, the new taskbar, and multi-touch.
Windows 7 Professional - Will be broadly marketed in new computers, and as a retail product; this version builds on the Home Premium version by adding features such as location-aware printing, advanced backups, and offline folders.
Windows 7 Enterprise - This version will only be available as a VLK (Volume Licence); this buils upon the Professional version, adding sought-after features such as Direct Access, Branch Cache, and BitLocker (and BitLocker To-Go).
Windows 7 Ultimate - This version will only be marketed at a very low scale, such as during special promotions, or with very high-end computers; it features all the same features as the Enterprise version, but without the VLK capability.
The 6th version is the "Home Basic" version, but it will only be offered to emerging markets; it will not be available as a retail product and thus it will mostly be ignored by the general public.
Unlike Vista, Windows 7's editions will all be true supersets of each other. This means that Home Premium will include all of Home Basic's features, and Professional will include all of Home Premium's features (so on, so forth). It is a clear and straightforward upgrade from edition to edition. No more confusing sets of overlapping features to choose between.
Although the product line hasn't shrunk at all, the the bulk of consumer knowledge and interest will be with the two most prominent versions. It should be a lot easier for people to decide between the versions now. It seems Microsoft has thought long and hard about it, and come up with a decent plan.
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Full Detailed article
http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/win7_skus.asp
