Three rumored editions of Windows 7 replace Vista
It should come as no surprise that anyone who has been following the saga of Windows 7 is interested to know what versions of it will be available. Microsoft has been silent about this issue, but now a small tidbit of information has come to light.
ArsTechnica received some information that gives three options to upgrade from Vista to Windows 7.
Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Premium
Vista Business Edition to Windows 7 Professional
Vista Ultimate Edition to Windows 7 Ultimate
Vista Basic to Windows 7 Basic (Not expected)
The argument for no Basic edition is reasonable. Windows 7 will have lower hardware requirements than Vista or at least that’s the rumor. It will also be able to use a processor (800MHz +) to handle the interface graphics. Without that requirement just about any modern computer can handle Windows 7.
With Vista the existence of a Basic edition was only used on computers that couldn’t support the advanced features of any other version. This won’t be a problem for Windows 7 and if there is a Basic edition it will probably be relegated to the “netbook” segment.
What’s also not stated is whether or not the folks up in Redmond will offer an upgrade path from XP to Windows 7 but don’t hold out for it. Most users will probably end up moving from Vista to Windows 7 or just outright buy a new PC with Windows 7 preinstalled.
Microsoft will probably debut a public beta of Windows 7 at the upcoming CES in January. That’s not confirmed either but is more likely than not. No doubt to fight the marketing of OSX. The company has not been shy about the fact that the new taskbar in 7 was modeled off of Mac OSX.
Expect Apple to label Windows 7 as “Vista II” and the fight will continue until one company goes out of business.
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December 27th, 2008
Vista’s SP1+ Kernel is the very same as Windows 7. Microsoft itself has stated on many occasions, that Vista, Server 2008 and Windows 7 are all the same Kernel.
Calling Windows 7 something new, isn’t anything more than stating Vista 2, relabeled.
Does Windows 7 still use DRM? YES! So, what’s the point of migrating from XP to DRM? Why pay for that?
Then again, XP works, but Vista is mostly incapable and incompatible with a lot of hardware and software, just as Windows 7 will be, being it is the same foundation, same kernel as before.
Unless you have a hole in your head, there’s NO benefit of replacing XP for higher cost hardware and software, that is proving to be vaporware, in that Windows 7 (actually Vista with SP3) will be pushed upon us with another “WOW” 300 million advertising “new day”.
Microsoft isn’t going to open up and change here. It’s about reselling the same product, over and over. It’s about patching your operating system flaws which you paid for, month by month every year…
Microsoft is just a Propriety software pusher!
December 28th, 2008
You would have thought that with the widespread resistance of so many of moving from XP to Vista that an easy upgrade path would have been a priority.
I know so many people who have flatly refused to touch Vista (and who had their very recent new PCs & laptops sent to them with XP installed instead of Vista…..but I bet they still counted as a Vista sale) who are awaiting Windows 7 with a lot of interest.
It may be a triumph of hope over experience but surely they won’t make the same mistakes twice?