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Windows Vista Product Editions Revealed (Microsoft Milks the market)
Arstechnica.com ^ | 9/10/2005 | Ken Fischer

Posted on 09/12/2005 8:09:27 AM PDT by BallandPowder

If you've been wondering why Windows Vista has taken a long time to reach Beta 1, we can now tell you why: there are seven separate editions of Vista headed your way. OK, that's not the reason for the delay, but how else do you introduce that many OS versions, without invoking Snow White & friends? Join me know as I romp through the various editions, many of which you'll see are just barely differentiated.

First up, there's Starter Edition, which like XP Starter Edition, is a crippled (and lame) product aimed at the two-thirds world. It will limit users to three concurrent applications, and provide only basic TCP/IP networking, and won't be suitable for most games. The next step up is Home Basic Edition, which is really the sibling to today's Windows XP Home. However, as the name suggests, there's also Home Premium Edition, and this is where we start to split features like hairs and create a gaggle of products. HPE will build on the the Basic Edition by adding, most notably, the next-generation of Media Center capabilities, including support for HDTV, DVD authoring, and even DVD ripping backed up (of course) by Windows DRM. For non-corporate types, this is probably going to be the OS that most people use. It's similar to XP Pro in power, but with all of the added bells and whistles for entertainment. Well, most of them.

Windows Vista Professional Edition won't occupy the same spot that XP Pro occupies today, because this time it's truly aimed at businesses. It won't feature the MCE functionality that Home Premium Edition has, but it begins to provide the kind of functionality you'd expect in a business environment, such as support for non-Microsoft networking protocols and Domain support. But don't expect too many businesses to necessarily turn to PE. Microsoft is also planning both a Small Business Edition and an Enterprise Edition, which build upon pro by adding (seemingly minor) features aimed at appealing to each market. SBE, for instance, includes a networked backup solution, while EE will include things like Virtual PC integration, and the ability to encrypt an entire volume of information.

Last but not least, there's Ultimate Edition. Hey, I'm just glad that they didn't call it Extreme Edition. I'll leave it to Paul Thurrott, who has all of the details, to explain (and promote) this beast:

The best operating system ever offered for a personal PC, optimized for the individual. Windows Vista Ultimate Edition is a superset of both Vista Home Premium and Vista Pro Edition, so it includes all of the features of both of those product versions, plus adds Game Performance Tweaker with integrated gaming experiences, a Podcast creation utility (under consideration, may be cut from product), and online "Club" services (exclusive access to music, movies, services and preferred customer care) and other offerings (also under consideration, may be cut from product). Microsoft is still investigating how to position its most impressive Windows release yet, and is looking into offering Ultimate Edition owners such services as extended A1 subscriptions, free music downloads, free movie downloads, Online Spotlight and entertainment software, preferred product support, and custom themes. There is nothing like Vista Ultimate Edition today. This version is aimed at high-end PC users and technology influencers, gamers, digital media enthusiasts, and students.

OK, everyone got that? There will be a quiz on Monday.

My initial reactions are reserved, because there's just not that much detail available. Pricing, for instance, would be really nice to know. Will Home Basic Edition debut below the price point of XP Home today? Place your bets. The one thing I will say is that I fear that this may cause a great deal of confusion on behalf of your average consumer. Two versions of XP were enough to cause confusion, and now Joe Blow has four choices that may fit the bill.

One final note worth mentioning is that this strategy does remove the "corporate Windows XP" option from the hands of pirates. Volume licensing for Pro, SBE, and EE may still mean that there will be copies of Windows Vista out there that don't "call home" for Windows Product Activation, but as you can see, Microsoft has removed most of the features that most pirates would want from those OSes. You won't see corporate licensing versions of Ultimate Edition.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Technical
KEYWORDS: convictedmonopoly; drainyourwallet; lowqualitycrap; microsoft; monopoly; vista
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To: rahbert
You're ignoring the industries current conundrum. Games are indeed a leading driver of computer performance, but as a percentage of the overall PC sales the gamers market is relatively small. Most surveys put gamers at 5% of the overall PC sales market, and even the most optomistic estimates rarely exceed 15% (and count Solitaire players as "gamers"), but one thing they all agree on is that the numbers are actually falling.

Vista may drive the computer processor speeds even higher, but it does nothing to benefit the 90+% of the market who see their current PC as "good enough". The speeds of the current generation of PC's is already so fast that it's uncommon to have to wait for ANYTHING, and people don't mind the occasional brief delays they experience today. The stagnant hardware market over the past five years bears that out.

In the mid 80's, I upgraded my 8088 to a 286 because it cut my boot time from nearly 10 minutes, to only 5. I upgraded to a 386 because it cut my boot time to 2 minutes and allowed me to run Windows. I upgraded my 486 to a Pentium because it slashed my WordPerfect load time from better than a minute, to under 20 seconds. These were real, palpable productivity gains that justified their expense. By comparison: If I click the MS Word icon on my 1.7 Ghz XP PC, it takes 1.2 seconds to open. If I upgraded to 4Ghz, it would take .8 seconds. If I open Outlook to send an email, it takes 3 seconds to load. If I upgrade, I can get that down to 2 seconds. Very, very few people are willing to go thousands of dollars into debt to shave a few seconds off their applications load times. If performance is the ONLY selling point to Vista, you should sell all of your MS stock today.
101 posted on 09/12/2005 10:34:38 AM PDT by Arthalion
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To: adam_az; Sloth; ExitPurgamentum
There are plenty of old time FReepers who are morons, and plenty of newbies with good things to say.

Disagree with the persons arguments, but keep in mind that there is no caste system here except in your mind.

Let's just say, then, that he's awfully new to be throwing insults around before being insulted first.

Today is my one-year anniversary here, and I still try to stay respectful to others , as long as they are respectful to me.

102 posted on 09/12/2005 10:35:32 AM PDT by SlowBoat407 (My tagline has been looted.)
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To: JoJo Gunn

That's you image of anyone interested in mathematics?

Pathetic.

Now why don't you say something sensical, like, "I was wrong, Game Theory is a respected field in mathematics, not some kind of social science used by so-called intellectuals?"


103 posted on 09/12/2005 10:35:40 AM PDT by adam_az (It's the border, stupid!)
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To: js1138

Not only that, but look at his name... JoJo Gunn.

Sounds like some kinda gay pornstar, to me.


104 posted on 09/12/2005 10:37:06 AM PDT by adam_az (It's the border, stupid!)
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To: BallandPowder
. It won't feature the MCE functionality that Home Premium Edition

Stupid. Why not have the Multimedia functions in the professional edition? The Home edition does not support VPN's.

105 posted on 09/12/2005 10:37:33 AM PDT by Paleo Conservative (France is an example of retrograde chordate evolution.)
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To: PAR35

Wake me when Microsoft comes out with Longhorn or Blackcomb. Hasta La Vista, sista.


106 posted on 09/12/2005 10:39:20 AM PDT by MilleniumBug
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To: mikegi

That card has got to be slow... No wonder I missed the announcement...


107 posted on 09/12/2005 10:39:24 AM PDT by RedWing9 (No tag here... Just want to stay vague...)
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To: dcam

it's only absurd because you can't understand the reality behind expanded fair use copyright law. you either own what you purchased or you don't.

you stated
"If the company is selling me rights to view/listen/copy a product on a particular device, then that is their right."

if a company can tell which CD player in MY house that i can play the CD that I PURCHASED, it will be no different then them telling me who i can vote for and what i can eat for lunch. no fine print should be able to do that. nor should people support any twisting of the copyright laws to do that. is just plain BS.




108 posted on 09/12/2005 10:39:52 AM PDT by postaldave (dont ask me, i'm just a simple post birth, tissue mass.)
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To: adam_az

"What's pathetic is in how someone wears their ignorance like a badge."

Ignorance is a fractal, discuss amongst yourselves? LOL


109 posted on 09/12/2005 10:40:12 AM PDT by Smartaleck
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To: JoJo Gunn

Powder..Patch..Ball FIRE!

t's not like the rest of us care to notice, but pretentious "intellectuals" and MS shills who appear on almost every tech thread seem to make a habit of making their rear end the most prominent speaking part.


LOLOLOLOLOLLOL!!!!!


110 posted on 09/12/2005 10:41:09 AM PDT by BallandPowder
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To: BallandPowder
Wasn't this OS going to be called after this smart feller?


111 posted on 09/12/2005 10:44:01 AM PDT by Revolting cat! ("In the end, nothing explains anything!")
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To: Arthalion

You are correct in that they won't pay for the incremental improvement. But they will pay to preserve the ability to run the current tools (which they have considerable investment in). Is corporate america going to drop Outlook
and Visual Studio and Visio? Of course not. Linux long
ago lost the war for the desktop, since then, MS has
hooked us on productivity tools we cannot do buisness without. Thus, however much we b$tch and gripe, we will
alas pony up when forced to by XP end of life. For me it
was simply in order to be able to program OpenGL 2.0, write shaders, and the mobos of 5 years ago don't support the GPUs
of today (at least not to my satisfaction).


112 posted on 09/12/2005 10:44:52 AM PDT by rahbert
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To: Arthalion
Very, very few people are going to have the horsepower needed to run this thing in their current PC's, so from their perspective it will be a big boost to the entire industry.

Reminds me when W95 came out, and upgrading to 16 or 32 mb of RAM was a big deal to alot of people. In any case, at least there is the additional excuse to get Vista in that alot of people who bought Athlon 64's could then get their bang for the buck out of them.

113 posted on 09/12/2005 10:45:25 AM PDT by Citizen of the Savage Nation
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To: postaldave
you either own what you purchased or you don't.

Not true. You do not own the song(s), the artist (or some other entity) owns the song(s). You own the CD which is just a hunk of plastic used as a delivery mechanism. You have purchased the right to listen to the song(s) from the CD. If the owner of the song(s) chooses to permit you to listen to the song(s) on an MP3 player, then great. If they choose to charge you to listen to them on an MP3 player, then that is their right, though I contend that this is a poor business practice.

114 posted on 09/12/2005 10:46:54 AM PDT by rivercat (Welcome to California. Now go home.)
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To: SlowBoat407; adam_az
Today is my one-year anniversary here, and I still try to stay respectful to others , as long as they are respectful to me.

So do, and should do I, regardless of how long I've been or will be FR.

The man quotes from my post,"Coordination in economics and game theory???" and replies:
Yet another psychobabbling shill signs on to the Freep.

Up to that point it was about substance. It is this poster that changes the issue to attacking a "newbee."

So, my friend SlowBoat40, you are not against insults: you appear to granting rights to insult after a certain unspecified period of "paying one's dues" here on FR.

Adam_Az, thank you for upholding principles. My involvement in this thread can no longer be constructive, so I'll stop for now.

Best regards, EP

115 posted on 09/12/2005 10:48:47 AM PDT by ExitPurgamentum
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To: dcam
Not true. You do not own the song(s)

Yes, I do. More specifically, I own the copy of the song. What I do not own is the *copyright*, so I can't do, like make copies and give them to my friends. Copyright is a specific monopoly on the right to copy and redistribute, not unlimited control over use. At least, that was the idea before ridiculously unbalanced laws like the DMCA came around.

116 posted on 09/12/2005 10:52:33 AM PDT by ThinkDifferent (That's great. What?)
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To: ThinkDifferent
Yes, I do. More specifically, I own the copy of the song.

Well yes, you own a copy of that song to be played from the delivery mechanism (the CD) in which you purchased it. It does not give you the right to copy it to another delivery mechanism, such as an MP3 player, unless the copyright owner allows that. Hence the word copyright (right to copy).

117 posted on 09/12/2005 11:01:03 AM PDT by rivercat (Welcome to California. Now go home.)
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To: ExitPurgamentum
Up to that point it was about substance.

Oh no, Little Precious. You ain't about to hang it on me that you were "provoked". Just why do you think you were fired on?

Allow me to give you a couple of clues: posts 32 and 34.

118 posted on 09/12/2005 11:02:27 AM PDT by JoJo Gunn (Help control the Leftist population. Have them spayed or neutered. ©)
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To: ExitPurgamentum

You should not have been insulted that way, but you should develop a thicker skin if you're going to spend any time here. Getting a few lobbed over your fence is part of the initiation.

And by the way, what you call "coordination", I call milking. They're taking advantage of people who want the higher end whether they need it or not, hence their naming conventions. I'm not saying it shouldn't be done. I'm just saying the market will "explain" things to them.


119 posted on 09/12/2005 11:04:30 AM PDT by SlowBoat407 (My tagline has been looted.)
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To: RedWing9
That card has got to be slow... No wonder I missed the announcement...

Not really when it comes to regular computer usage. All Intel Integrated Graphics systems use system memory, even for the framebuffer. ATI and Nvidia offer higher perf by putting the framebuffer on the card (Nvidia calls it "TurboCache"). I write Direct3D-based scientific apps and they perform good enough on system-memory based chips that my users are happy. High-end games with complex shaders and multitexturing will choke on the limited bandwidth. My main concern with a GPU-rendered UI is text. TrueType fonts are handtuned for smaller pixel sizes (the ones commonly used). How the GDI team at msft will manage this on a GPU will be interesting.

120 posted on 09/12/2005 11:05:15 AM PDT by mikegi
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