741

You must really value BitLocker and boot-from-VHD to say "just Professional" unless you mean you'd only fake a student ID to get a server OS. 

The similar deal in the UK is for £30. Yet more £=$ pricing, but still a very good deal even if it's not as good as the US version.

It's funny how the FAQ about the offer suggests that people get Home unless they really need Professional for domain-join, when the cost is the same and there's no reason not to get Professional (since it only adds features/value and takes nothing away). OTOH it's cool that the price is the same for both editions.

There aren't any features in Windows 7 Home which aren't in Windows 7 Professional. Each version of Windows 7 only adds features; never takes them away (unlike Vista's SKUs).

Windows 7 Pro has Media Center.

(Windows Vista Pro didn't have Media Center but that silliness is a thing of the past. With Windows 7 you don't have to buy Ultimate if you want to combine Media Center (etc.) with Remote Desktop / Previous Versions / Permissions / Proper Control Panels (etc.); you can just buy Windows 7 Pro instead, unless you need a couple of really niche features which are only in Windows 7 Ultimate aka Windows 7 Enterprise.)

All the free remote desktop things seem to suck, though. The VNC-based ones, at least, are completely awful if you're used to remote desktop.

(Of course, I'm talking about connecting in to the machine, not out of it. Every version of Windows has the Remote Desktop client; only Pro and above have the server.)

I also find myself missing Previous Versions (shadow copy) every so often, and it's frustrating not being able to use all of the control panels and MMC snap-ins.

(Example: I created an account for a visiting friend on my Vista Home laptop. After she left I didn't want to delete the account/profile in case it had files or she came back a few days later; so I wanted to disable the account. Can't do that with Home, though. The proper Users control panel is blocked from running against Home machines and the cut-down Users control panel doesn't let you disable accounts.)

Another example: Proper file sharing. (And proper file permissioning, maybe? I forget.)

One good difference is that Win7 gives the disk-image backup tool to all versions, as I remember. I missed having that on my Vista Home laptop.

In fact, after all the little frustrations of Vista Home, I'm not sure why I ordered Windows 7 Home for my laptop. May upgrade it...

It's a reference to http://www.win741.com/ where the student offer is hosted.