Posted on 05/14/2015 10:52:01 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Microsoft's upcoming operating system Windows 10 will ship in three consumer editions and three Enterprise and education editions.
The three consumer editions Home, Mobile and Pro are designed for the demands of end-users, professionals and small businesses.
Windows 10 Home is the equivalent of the Windows 8 edition, a basic edition of Windows 10 that will most likely ship with the majority of devices the operating system comes pre-installed on.
Microsoft notes that the edition will ship with Microsoft Edge, the new web browser, Cortana, the personal assistant, Continuum, a tablet-friendly mode for touch-devices, Windows Hello, a biometric authentication service and universal applications.
Windows 10 Pro, the second desktop version ships with all the features that Windows 10 Home ships with and extra features designed for professional use.
For instance, it supports Windows Update for Business, which supports peer to peer delivery of updates, maintenance windows, distribution rings to prioritize deployments and integration with existing tools like System Center.
Windows 10 Mobile finally is the mobile version of the operating system that smartphones and small tablets will ship with.
Microsoft has not yet announced the free upgrade paths but it is likely that they look like the following:
1. Windows 7 Home editions --> Windows 10 Home
2. Windows 7 Pro and Ultimate editions --> Windows 10 Pro
3. Windows 8 --> Windows 10 Home
4. Windows 8 Pro --> Windows 10 Pro
Again, the company has not confirmed those upgrade paths yet, only that the upgrade to Windows 10 will be free for genuine Windows 7 or 8 systems. We will update the article when new information become available.
Windows 10 Enterprise, Windows 10 Education and Windows 10 Mobile Enterprise are the three Enterprise editions that Microsoft will release.
Windows 10 Enterprise builds on Windows 10 Pro adding features to the operating system that medium and large sized organizations require.
It provides advanced capabilities to help protect against the ever-growing range of modern security threats targeted at devices, identities, applications and sensitive company information. Windows 10 Enterprise also supports the broadest range of options for operating system deployment and comprehensive device and app management
The edition will be available to volume licensing customers.
The difference between the Enterprise and Education edition of Windows 10 is that the Education edition has been designed for schools and universities. It will be available through academic volume licensing only.
In addition to that, Microsoft will make available special versions of Windows 10 Enterprise and Windows 10 Mobile Enterprise for industry devices that require small footprints.
Closing Words
Home users have the choice between the two editions Home and Pro. If Windows 8 is anything to go by, the Home edition may lack features such as Group Policy, Encrypting File System or Virtual Hard Disk Booting.
Microsoft has not published a feature matrix yet which highlights differences between all versions of the upcoming operating system.
Now You: Do you plan to upgrade your existing system to Windows 10?
We will wait to “upgrade” until after others have tried it out for awhile. I am not really that fond of “cloud computing” other than for sharing pictures and videos. If curiosity gets the best of me... I will try it on a cloned drive and keep the original safe and secure... so all I will have to do is swap the drive back in.
AS far as the several flavors... I am not sure why people would expect anything different.
A full 10 versions into their flagship product and they still can't stop with all the 31 flavors nonsense.
Issuing an OS with full functionality regardless of intended use or platform costs them absolutely nothing once the R&D and code are finished.
These aren't models of cars or guitars - their insistence on consumer-bewildering levels of prestige remains a mystery, unless it's because MS reps and other IT types make a buck out of doing the usual rounds of PowerPoint presentations to explain them - along with MS' longstanding obsession with testing MCITP types on the minutiae of differences between versions - such questions are disproportionately represented in their exams which is a tip-off that the marketing tail is wagging the technical dog.
I've worked with, for and next to Microsoft but they are so far behind the curve on some things e.g. web browser it can only be corporate ego that compels them to issue new versions that will be ignored at worst or viewed as me-too-ism at best.
In sum, they cannot seem to shake a certain mindset and it's frustrating because they have the cash and the brainpower to wipe the slate clean stop repeating the same mistakes.
“A full 10 versions into their flagship product and they still can’t stop with all the 31 flavors nonsense. Issuing an OS with full functionality regardless of intended use or platform costs them absolutely nothing once the R&D and code are finished.”
Will the full blown Windows Enterprise run on an ARM processor?
My experience is that the "Pro" version of Windows has just been a way to make people pay a bunch more money if they want native Virtual Private Networking ability.
Well, you know what they say, never buy a version of windows that ends in point zero. Wait for the first service pack.
I agree. In the Linux world, you can download different "spins" which are package groups aimed at different uses, like desktop or web server or scientific usage, but any of them can be transformed into the other by the appropriate selection and download of packages.
I can understand a major enterprise vs. non-industrial-server differentiation, but not much else, and certainly not seven levels of differential product crippling.
I wonder if all these versions will still have the key logger ?
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/391114/microsoft-admits-windows-10-preview-has-a-keylogger
Actually, there’s a reason why we have Home and Professional editions of Windows 10: Windows 10 Professional contains features designed specifically for large-scale corporate and governmental network environments and are not needed for home or home network users. For most users, Windows 10 Home is easily sufficient for their needs.
Except that the pro and enterprise levels contain stuff 90% of home users will never use or care about.
And why should you even care if they release three or thirty different versions? It is their business not yours. If it works great if not so what, on to the next.
Your second paragraph is both contradictory and nonsensical...a rare combnation.
Assuming you bothered to read my entire post, I have sent many years wading through the Windows versions on behalf of clients. The gold leaf distinctions Microsoft believes are deadly important are met with resounding indifference and confusion in the marketplace. I care - with your grudging indulgence - because it affects them and me.
To say that any product - be it coffee, hamburgers or software - is merely ‘the business’ of the vendor is to ignore fully half the transaction. Afraid not.
In Windows 7 Home has 2 glaring limitations that punish users arbitrarily. You need to upgrade to pro to use more then 16GB of RAM or to use 2 CPUs.
Yes, but most home users won’t use any program that needs more than 8 GB of RAM, unless they’re running something that really taxes the CPU like an image-processing program. Indeed, most games assume your system maxes out at 8 GB of RAM (adding more RAM won’t really speed up the game).
This desktop looks a little more familiar, than Windows 8 which I always found confusing. So far I am content to keep Windows 7 for a while until the bugs get worked out of Windows 10. If MS offers a free upgrade to Windows 10 I might be more inclined to make the switch. My biggest concern is what type of computing power might be needed. To move from Windows XP it took a new motherboard and processor, plus lots of RAM. Fortunately I have a custom built desktop and can make these changes easily
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