Microsoft Plans Six Versions of Vista

[dr911]

Hey All,

Microsoft has announced the product lineup of its upcoming Windows Vista operating system.

Scheduled for release later this year, the Microsoft Windows Vista product lineup consists of six versions, two for businesses, three for consumers, and one for emerging markets: Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Enterprise, Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista Ultimate and Windows Vista Starter.

The Vista lineup includes:

• Windows Vista Starter, a bare-bones version for developing countries.

• Windows Vista Home Basic, a basic version for cost-conscious households that do only basic tasks such as e-mailing, word processing and Internet surfing. Because it's designed for lower-cost PCs, it won't have advanced graphics features.

• Windows Vista Home Premium, the "mainstream" version for consumers, will incorporate features now sold in the standalone Windows XP Media Center and Tablet PC versions.

• Windows Vista Business, a "mainstream" version for business users, includes special features for small businesses and Tablet PC features.

• Windows Vista Enterprise, available only for companies with multiyear licensing agreements, adds security features, including the ability to encrypt a hard drive, so that data is secure even if the PC is lost or stolen. It also has built-in support for multiple languages and virtualization features that simulate older versions of Windows, so that users can run old applications.

• Windows Vista Ultimate, a new "superset" version that includes all features in all editions. It's aimed at enthusiasts, advanced users and small businesses.

All but the Starter version will be available for 32-bit or 64-bit processors.

To comply with European antitrust restrictions, Microsoft also will offer versions of Home Basic and Business in Europe that don't include Windows Media Player.

Most consumers are likely to buy the Home Premium version, Goffe said. He said it will cost about the same as the current Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005.

Goffe also explained last weekend's leak. Microsoft planned all along to announce the Vista lineup after it released a test version Wednesday, but the list came out before the company was ready to formally announce it.



More can be read :http://www.techtree.com/techtree/jsp...580&cat_id=580

More $$ for Gates !!!

[deadmoon]

And then iirc they are on 32bit and 64 bit ... so making that approx 12 if they all come out in both versions!!