Windows Vista SKU Web Page Up! | The Coffeehouse

Andre Da Costa
Created with PhotoDraw 2000 V2

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/help/c0680472-bb5f-4a9c-9480-b16ab3eeb8f51033.mspx
The listed SKUs are

Windows Starter 2007
Windows Vista Home Basic
Windows Vista Home Premium
Windows Vista Business
Windows Vista Enterprise
Windows Vista Ultimate
Windows Vista Home Basic N
Windows Vista Business N

There may be a few things we haven't seen yet!

CannotResolveSymbol
{insert caption here}

<speculation>
Does an online help and support page mean that a public CTP is coming soon?
</speculation>

Stephen

CannotResolveSymbol wrote:
<speculation>
Does an online help and support page mean that a public CTP is coming soon?
</speculation>

February 21 is the rumour on Microsoft-Watch

rjdohnert
You will never know success until you know failure

8 SKU's .... ridiculous

How many SKU's of OS X are there?

Of all the commercial vendors of Linux how many different SKU's do they have 2 at the most.

I can understand having TabletPC version and Media Center edition because they cover special hardware configurations. I think having so many different SKU's will eventually lead to confusion.

Steve411

This is my favorite page: http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/help/be291fc2-eb09-4f43-b6ba-6b782427fa401033.mspx

Simple steps, eh? , hhee.

- Steve

jamie

oh boy! 500 pages with no graphics (*seriously-no screens) describing the most obvious way of doing things! hooray!

man - if you could KILL - SHOOT - STAB a website it would be msdn

(minus channel9 of course)

everytime i go there it tells me EVERYTHING i ever needed to know ABOUT something - but offers NOTHING in working samples to DO it!

(..and when it actually tries too - it breaks them up in code peices..bah!)

..calm down...calm down...

this is why google has better results - cause its some guy who made it work instead of some clerk typing garbage!

*puts head in bucket of cold water* ttsssssssssssss.......

Jason Cox
Longtime C9 Lurker

rjdohnert wrote:
8 SKU's .... ridiculous

Well you're only ever going to see two or three SKUs on the shelf or on most OEM machines, which would be about the same as what Dell offers now (XP Home, XP Pro and MCE).

PaoloM
Hypermediocrity

rjdohnert wrote:
8 SKU's .... ridiculous

1. Windows XP Starter
2. Windows XP Home
3. Windows XP Pro
4. Windows XP Tablet PC
5. Windows XP Media Center
6. Windows XP N (are there two SKUs here, for Home and Pro?)
7. Windows XP Pro 64bit

So, if you'd have a version that includes all MCE and Tablet functionality added to this list, we would be at 8 (or 9), just like Vista.

rjdohnert wrote:
How many SKU's of OS X are there?

It depends on how you count them. Do different revisions count as different SKUs?

In any case we have:

1. OSX
2. OSX for Intel
3. OSX Server
4. OSX Server for Intel

And no tablet or media center functionality whatsoever.

rjdohnert wrote:
I can understand having TabletPC version and Media Center edition because they cover special hardware configurations. I think having so many different SKU's will eventually lead to confusion.

Well, there's a lot of people that need just a bit of functionality from the "up" version but not the total package. For example, let's say you put the MCE functions in a Professional SKU. Now, as a home user, I'd like the MCE, but I couldn't care less about joining domains. Similarly, as a business user, I need domain joins, but MCE would be useless.

The big problem here is not the stratification of the offering, that's great, it will be communication and consumer awareness. You guys (MSFT) must come to a point where someone walks into Office Depot and picks one of the versions without thinking twice, because they already know what they want.

Rowan
Look, no errors.

Windows Vista Home Basic
Windows Vista Home Premium

If I buy Home Basic, will it remove some of the functionality from the Premium version, or does the Premium version just have some extra applications?

I don't want to buy Basic just to find that it doesn't support something I might need. It would be great if one could buy Basic and then purchase some of the extra features that the Premium version offers, just so people don't have to worry about whether or not they will miss out on something.

Where can we find detailed descriptions of the differences between each version? The help and support page doesn't explain much in terms of differences, as a few packages seem to offer exactly the same things.

p.s. Does anyone else find the Vista home page extremely slow on the rollover images with IE? It's a good thing I don't use IE.

blowdart
Peek-a-boo

Rowan wrote:
If I buy Home Basic, will it remove some of the functionality from the Premium version, or does the Premium version just have some extra applications?

Thurott has a break down; how accurate it is though is anyone's guess, lord knows his opinion pieces can be complete crap Smiley

W3bbo
The Master of Baiters

My predication:

Dell and Sony and a few other "high end" (but still capable of receiving derision) OEMs will stock Home Premium, whereas the "el cheapo" OEMs (Time, Tiny, etc) will stock Home Basic.

This won't last, customers will be expecting the functionality of Home Premium on Home Basic, the same thing will happen with the business edition. The PHBs will get "Business Edition" thinking it was being a "cheaper version of" Enterprise Edition, even though it'll probably be inappropriate for the company.

And what about "Ultimate Editon"? I can't really see any use for this OS SKU, plus the name sounds somewhat dodgy.

blowdart
Peek-a-boo

W3bbo wrote:

And what about "Ultimate Editon"? I can't really see any use for this OS SKU, plus the name sounds somewhat dodgy.

It'll be pirated off bit torrent my students until the next server OS comes out, which will then replace their endless willy waving contests.

Cynical, me?

W3bbo
The Master of Baiters

blowdart wrote:
W3bbo wrote:

And what about "Ultimate Editon"? I can't really see any use for this OS SKU, plus the name sounds somewhat dodgy.

It'll be pirated off bit torrent my students until the next server OS comes out, which will then replace their endless willy waving contests.

Cynical, me?

Pfft, if I was going to warez Windows Vista I'd go for Enterprise, from the description it sounds like Windows Messenger compared to Ultimate Edition's MSN Messenger 7.5

Sven Groot
My name has 9 letters. Coincidence? I think not...

Damnit, if there's no Professional SKU, then how am I supposed to make Vista Pro jokes?

rjdohnert
You will never know success until you know failure

Nope they do not count. the versions for Intel are for specific hardware configurations, like the TabletPC or MCE. They are necessary. Unlike with Microsoft, Microsoft limits functionality in their SKU's of Windows Vista and then trys to pass em off as necessary.

PaoloM wrote:

It depends on how you count them. Do different revisions count as different SKUs?

In any case we have:

1. OSX
2. OSX for Intel
3. OSX Server
4. OSX Server for Intel

.

rjdohnert
You will never know success until you know failure

Every SKU but ultimate Edition is a joke. Start making em up.

Sven Groot wrote:
Damnit, if there's no Professional SKU, then how am I supposed to make Vista Pro jokes?

AndyC

rjdohnert wrote:

How many SKU's of OS X are there?

Of all the commercial vendors of Linux how many different SKU's do they have 2 at the most.

Apple don't have anything near the market share to make it worth differentiating between versions of OS X, Linux is free so differentiation is pointless other than to offer higher levels of support.

Windows is on a whole different playing field. Most people here are probably looking at the Ultimate version, my parents probably won't need anything above Home Basic, many others fall somewhere in the middle. The best way to serve those markets is by providing different SKUs.

The only issue is how upgrades can be dealt with. My understanding is that all Vista disks will be the same, so hopefully an upgrade can be easily purchased over the net, if you find the SKU you have to be too restrictive.

Sven Groot
My name has 9 letters. Coincidence? I think not...

AndyC wrote:
all Vista disks will be the same

Indeed, if 5270 is any indication. Although we currently don't have any SKUs to test besides Ultimate, the 5270 DVD will install either Vista or Longhorn Server depending on which product key was given.

Andre Da Costa
Created with PhotoDraw 2000 V2

Sven Groot wrote:

AndyC wrote: all Vista disks will be the same

Indeed, if 5270 is any indication. Although we currently don't have any SKUs to test besides Ultimate, the 5270 DVD will install either Vista or Longhorn Server depending on which product key was given.

Thats because Vista and Longhorn Server currently share the same code base. When Vista RTMs, Longhorn Server will be forked and headed on a different development path.

W3bbo
The Master of Baiters

Sven Groot wrote:
AndyC wrote:all Vista disks will be the same

Indeed, if 5270 is any indication. Although we currently don't have any SKUs to test besides Ultimate, the 5270 DVD will install either Vista or Longhorn Server depending on which product key was given.

I heard on Slashdot that the Vista installation DVD for all SKUs/distros is the same, the installer just elects to install different bits depending on the entered CD-key.

I also heard that Microsoft will make it possible to users to "unlock"/update SKUs by paying the difference and receiving an updated CD-key. This is certainly a boon for consumers, since they don't need to pay for the whole SKU again, but I smell system-abusage.

DCMonkey
Monkey see, monkey do, monkey will destroy you!

W3bbo wrote:

I heard on Slashdot blah blah blah ...

When will you learn? Wink

PS: Yeah I've heard that. I've also heard from more reliable sources that it wont be the case, though you will still be able to upgrade from one SKU to the next.

dotnetjunkie

The links do not work anymore? Sad

Stephen

Manip wrote:

Multi-CPU Support (1 MAX)

That should be fine for home users IMHO.

I think you will find that it is for a limit of 1 Physical CPU. You could theoretically have a quad-core 64 bit 'uber' CPU and you would be fine.

otech
digital voice recording systems

yep, those links arent working for me now...

I agree with manip, 7 is by no means an overkill when broken down into their user groups.

Its still a damn site easier for a beginner to figure out which one they want vs which linux distro, and just by looking at the name you can get a rough idea.

From what I remember when they released XP, Home was a CHEAPER alternative to Pro for users that didnt want all those extra features and felt ripped-off paying for them.

I guess if you dont like those Home Basic/Premium etc then just pay full price and get Ultimate - which is what we would have if there was no choice right?

Choice is good, and will save millions of people money. And of course, if you can get Vista Home cheap, why bother fiddling around with a dodgy copy on that computer you only use a little?

More legal users that get only what they want.

Imagine if 90% of the world all drove around in a truck because nobody bothered to offer a smaller cheaper car!

Manip

If this article is to be believed then...

Home Premium doesn't include:

Remote Desktop
Windows Web Server (IIS?)
Domain join support
Offline folders with client-side caching
Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications
Multi-Language User Interface (MUI)
Multi-CPU Support (1 MAX)
Shadow copy client
Windows Fax client

In other words it is worse than XP Pro but better than XP Home. Thus:

XP Starter == Vista Starter
XP Home > Vista Home
XP Pro > Vista Premium
XP Pro < Vista Ultimate

I wish idiots would stop shouting about all the versions being released (and YES you are idiots)... Considering the size and diversity of the userbase having 7 isn't too bad at all... Particularly if you break that large number down into its users:

Business (Small / Mid / Large / Corp.)
Vista Small Business (1-150)
Vista Business (151-1000)
Vista Enterprise (1001+)

*Home
Vista Home Basic
Vista Home Premium
Vista Home Ultimate

3rd World
Vista Home Starter
[See other categories for upgrades]

N' Editions (Not Including Media Player) are also available == legal requirement in Europe.