Why has everyone been campaigning for Microsoft to reduce the number of Windows versions ? To avoid confusion of course.
The news is no worse than Vista, but I think it bucks the trend of the rest of the Windows 7, which is generally a positive movement in the right direction. This really could have been a positive announcement had they rationalised, yet they’ve decided to continue with a large variety of Windows versions.
The complete list of Windows 7 versions:
I still struggle to understand why more than 2 versions are needed. Whilst any Windows version needs to appeal to a billion + people, these fundamentally fall into 2 main categories. Those who use it in the workplace (Business version) and those that use it at home (Home version).
My main problem with the versions, despite there numbers is actually with the Starter Edition. It’s already been proven that the Windows 7 beta runs great on low-powered machines like netbooks. It looks like Microsoft is planning on pushing a cheap, limited Windows 7 to Netbooks.
Over time they will naturally evolve to be more powerful, yet be handicapped by a software restriction in Windows Starter Edition that prevents them from running more than 3 applications simultaneously. What does this include exactly ? Does your virus scanning software count as one ? Then you’ve got your IM client, that’s 2. Then your browser, that’s 3. So if you want to play music, your out of luck. This is ridiculous!!
It looks like Windows Ultimate Extras has been killed off.
The official press release is available here, although I much prefer Mary Jo Foley’s explanation over at ZDnet.
