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Windows 8 registry reveals many versions of Microsoft's new OS

by Alistair Lowe on 5 March 2012, 10:58

Tags: Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Windows 8

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It seems that despite suggestions around the web that Microsoft will be looking to reduce the number of variations in its upcoming Windows 8 OS, the Windows 8 Consumer Preview registry tells us a different story and has unveiled seven separate iterations of the OS for the PC alone, followed by an eighth iteration for ARM devices.

 

  • Windows 8 Enterprise Edition
  • Windows 8 Enterprise Evaluation Edition
  • Windows 8 Home Basic
  • Windows 8 Home Premium
  • Windows 8 Prerelease ARM Edition
  • Windows 8 Prerelease Edition
  • Windows 8 Professional Edition
  • Windows 8 Professional Plus Edition
  • Windows 8 Starter Edition
  • Windows 8 Ultimate Edition
We're, of course, not counting the pre-release and evaluation entries. In response to the find, Microsoft said not to read too much into the matter: "We have not yet determined the editions or SKUs we will have for Windows 8, during the testing process, we routinely listen to customer feedback in finalising our offerings, to ensure they are competitive in the marketplace and offer a compelling value proposition to our customers," said a Microsoft spokesman.

Whilst we can fully understand the need to cater to a large user base at competitive price-points for individual needs, offerings such as Home Basic took away a large part of what made Windows 7 so decent.


If Microsoft does indeed listen to consumer feedback, we strongly recommend that those who have downloaded the Windows 8 Consumer Preview consider leaving a message on one of Microsoft's blogs, else we may yet again face a confusing onslaught of varying Windows editions.

 

HEXUS Forums :: 23 Comments

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Posted by crossy - Mon 05 Mar 2012 11:13
I think that's too many distinct versions, I'd stick with:
  • Starter - for netbooks only, (and I'm not 100% convinced that this is needed);
  • Home - what Win7 calls “Home Premium” - which'd obviously be the most popular pack;
  • Professional - for SoHo type customers and small businesses;
  • Enterprise - obviously for the 1,000s-of-seats brigades.
Plus ARM versions (where appropriate). “Ultimate” always struck me as another spin for “Enterprise” customers, (or people who wanted to boast about what they'd got), so perhaps unecessary.

I realise that there might be convincing reasons why ARM needs to be a distinct product - perhaps with reduced footprint for example - but given it's likely to be pre-installed on devices I can't see why it'd be bad to just have “Windows 8 Professional (for ARM)” instead. If they did need ARM as a distinct product then if it was me I'd drop “Starter” and slip “Windows 8 ARM edition” in there instead.

More versions = more confusion in my book. After all, even Ubuntu seems to be able to manage on a few variants! ;)
Posted by TheVoice - Mon 05 Mar 2012 12:23
So after slimming down the various versions with Windows 7, they're going back to their old ways again?

Although in fairness, for the majority of people there'll only be two versions they'll ever see - Home and Pro.
Posted by aidanjt - Mon 05 Mar 2012 12:37
crossy
I think that's too many distinct versions, I'd stick with:
  • Starter - for netbooks only, (and I'm not 100% convinced that this is needed);
  • Home - what Win7 calls “Home Premium” - which'd obviously be the most popular pack;
  • Professional - for SoHo type customers and small businesses;
  • Enterprise - obviously for the 1,000s-of-seats brigades.

Or just save some steps and:
  • Home - For regular users.
  • Professional - For business users.
Worked just fine for XP. But they could just roll it up into:
  • Windows 8
And not be bothering consumers and their maintenance folks with multiple SKUs at all. If home users aren't going to make use of enterprise network stuff, they wont. If they do, why shouldn't they? It's no big deal.
Posted by doyll49 - Mon 05 Mar 2012 13:24
Agree with both crossy and aidanjt.
Maybe a “Lite” version for iPad/phone
Posted by Hicks12 - Mon 05 Mar 2012 13:30
i agree it should be alot smaller Crossy pretty much has said what i would have said as that structure is a solid one.

An alternative though is to simply have one version, Windows 8 and then strip it down to its core and simply let users pay for the extras individually, e.g. Purchase and install windows 8 for £10, oh the user needs bitlocker, £5 please.

stuff like that :P.

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