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.
But he did give money to planned parenthood, the UN, and John Kerry.. He is an oportunist, nothing more..
I wish I knew that before getting involved. Well that's the dues a newbee has to pay...
That has never happenned in this country. Nobody has ever suffered such a fate.
THANK YOU!....for telling me about Clear Type.
Really helps on this laptop.
It's that "hardware" issue, along with software, that keeps me inslaved to the Evil Empire (MS).
Shoot, I can go to Wal-Mart, buy an nVidia video card, slap it in my Dell 4550 (which already has an AGP video card in the slot) and away we go. Can I do that with a Linux box? Probably not. Apple? No freakin' way.
If I ever get around to playing Warcraft 3, again I just go out to Wal-Mart, buy the software, put the CD-ROM in the drive, and away I go....no muss, no fuss. Just like with the other 50 games I've installed before it.
Samething with my Kodak digitial camera....the first step in using the camera is loading the software onto your computer!!! Then you connect the docking port to a USB 2.0 port, and then you are digital photo GOD. The software Kodak gives you comes with FREE upgrades too! It's great software for the simple thinks I like to do with 90% of my photos....for the other 10% I have PhotoShop and Fireworks. Do they those for Linux yet?
Concerning Apple's iToons: I just started playing with those a few months ago...downloaded 25 songs at a buck a bop, and they played fine on my Dell PC. Idiot that I am, I thought it would be nice to upload them to my PocketPC PDA....which I can do, as long as I don't want to listen to them. Seems as if no one makes a player to play iToon songs on a PocketPC, not even Apple. I guess they figured a PDA might be accidently confused for something useful, unlike a goofey iPod. A computer that only plays songs from one particular vendor is not worth my money. So no more iToons for Ronzo.
Just so you know, the Ronzo household has a Dell that runs XP-Home, a Dell that runs Windows98SE, and a HP that runs Windows98SE. With few exceptions, I can run anything that I run on my XP machine on the other two, with the exception of modern, graphic intensive games. Amazingly, outside of games, there's almost no speed difference (that's noticable) in the typical productivity software: wood, excel, outlook, etc.
Your second paragraph is worth my commenting... Excusing your assertion that Vista won't be successful by trotting out the "businesses won't accept it" is not worth the mathmatically calculated pixels they represnt...
A business that has no profit increasing motive to take on a new version of an O/S, SHOULD'NT. Arguing that Windows latest version is unworthy because businesses don't flock to it is reaching. Most businesses would be 'hella' smart waiting for the product to mature... just like many did w/XP. So let's be realistic and just discuss home/power users since I'm sure that you will agree corporate desktops will not be Vista's success story.
Why would anyone want to move to Vista? At this time, it's only mainstream benefit will be any percievable security strengthening (given the current media exposure of lax security). Graphics, speed, and ease of use are not top concerns in the x86 PC market at this time (unless you are a power/game user). Ridding our systems of the worry of virii, spam, etc is what will be the end-user-mind-grabber for the coming few years.
Vista is taking this perception head on...
Thanks for the help JoJo. That's what I love about these tech threads, lots of helpful people!
As for my digital camera, I never use RAW, just jpg's.
What's the gaming scene like for LINUX? Any cool games out there?
I like being able to purchase songs from iTunes because I don't generally buy whole CDs. I'm willing to live with the DRM limitations since I can buy just the songs I want for 99 cents each. Yes I have been concerned about what happens if my hard drive becomes unrecoverable, but I don't have enough invested in downloaded songs that I even bother to back them up to CD/DVD.
You're welcome ..... clear type does more for laptops and LCD monitors to make the text sharp. More than for the conventional CRT monitor
Microsoft would do well to incorporate anti-spam controls and anti virus/anti malware/anti adware into Vista Windows. If I were MS I would offer all Vista buyers a power pack of the above for $25 that would seamlessly mesh with the OS. That would be a no brainer to deploy, same as the recent Apple operating systems.
Digikam will pick up your Kodak camera under Linux with no problem. I've had a DX4530 & docking port for over a year and have never put the Kodak CD into the cupholder.
Samsung has very good correction electronics in it's LCDs. To make the analog almost as good as the digital DVI. Other major manufacturers might also do as good a job these days. But in the past the analog LCD monitors often sucked compared to the LCDs with a digital connection via DVI and before that DFP
Now it's around 30%. While the price of everything related to computers has come down significantly since 1990, the price of a Microsoft operating system is just about the same today as it was then.
But monopolies don't skew the market or anything.
Microsoft offers discounts to the large manufacturers such as Dell, Gateway and HP. A common retail price for XP home is $80. I'll bet the ones above pay half that, partly because the XP home you get is not a full version but exists half on the "restore disk" and half on the hard drive. So it will only work on one computer, cannot be used on another if that computer bites the dust
And that was also true in 1990. At least then you got an entire operating system that you could use on any computer you owned.
I remember buying Win 3.11 and DOS 5 for about $150 retail, for a computer that cost me about $2000. Today, WinXP (an uncrippled version) costs about $150 retail for a computer that costs me about $500. Of course, there are price breaks for volume purchases, then and now.
Around the same time, I bought a copy of Wordperfect for Windows. It cost me about $500. Today, the most recent copy of Word costs less than half that.
Perhaps somebody with an economics background can explain why the cost of everything, software and hardware, has plummeted due to economies of scale, yet Microsoft operating systems are at about the same price as they've always been.
They'd have to go a long way around the barn to make such an explanation without talking about monopoly pricing.
How much in dollars do you think Windows adds to the price of a new computer?
No MS would do better to incorporate *fewer* things into windows thats their problem, too many things built in with too much room to do damage.
If you build your own you will pay the retail price:
XP Home $80
XP Professional $160
Today's prices at NewEgg.com
Microsoft Windows XP HOME Edition With Service Pack 2 - OEM $91.95
Microsoft Windows XP Professional With Service Pack 2 - OEM $140.95
My guess is large computer manufacturers pay:
XP Home $40
XP Pro $100
XP Home seems to be on most mass market computers until you get up to $1000. Though the option is usually there to get XP Pro for another $70
You mentioned Warcraft 3--It is supoprted under Linux. I play Diablo II (still) under Linux. Quake can be played under Linux. There are some (Windows) puzzle games that I play under Linux. Check out Trangaming Technologies for more information. They support hundreds of Windows games under Linux.
I think $40 is about right. There's no way of knowing for sure, because such contracts are top secret.
The average business computer costs over a thousand dollars when you add in software like Office. Windows itself is a trivial part of this. And this total is often small compared to the total cost of custom software and the cost of maintaining an IT department.
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