Microsoft Pri0
Welcome to Microsoft Pri0: That's Microspeak for top priority, and that's the news and observations you'll find here from Seattle Times reporter Sharon Chan.
February 3, 2009 10:11 AM
Windows 7 to come in six flavors, but Microsoft will emphasize only two
Posted by Benjamin J. Romano
Microsoft is making public its Windows 7 lineup. It will offer six SKUs (stock keeping units) of Windows 7, according to Mary Jo Foley, who spoke with a top Windows exec, Bill Veghte.
Veghte told her that the company has to offer this many flavors of its flagship product, Windows, because it's used by so many customers with different needs.
The planned Windows 7 SKUs, with the two Microsoft plans to emphasize in bold:
- Starter Edition, emerging markets and netbooks (pre-installed by OEMs only)
- Home Basic, emerging markets only
- Home Premium, a main SKU with Media Center
- Professional, business features for non-enterprise licensees, i.e., home users
- Enterprise, volume licensees
- Ultimate, business features for consumers
Foley also reports that people who want to skip Vista and go directly from Windows XP to Windows 7 will be offered unspecified upgrade pricing. Doing this will require a clean installation.
Update, 10:54 a.m.: Microsoft is releasing more details, attributed to Mike Ybarra, a Windows general manager:
Editions of Windows 7 are meant to be a superset of one another. "... [A]s customers upgrade from one version to the next, they keep all features and functionality from the previous edition. As an example, some business customers using Windows Vista Business wanted the Media Center functionality that is in Windows Vista Home Premium but didn't receive it in Business edition."
Microsoft expects the Home Premium and Professional SKUs to "meet most customers' needs." Veghte told Foley Microsoft expects more than 80 percent of people to use those SKUs.
Update, 11:56 a.m.: Added a link and rearrange the order the SKUs are listed so the "superset" model makes more sense. (Previously had Home Basic after Home Premium.)

nwjobs

Post a comment

Michelle Goodman blogs about work/life balance.
How to tell your office you're gravely ill
Post a comment
nwautos

Choosing a new sedan? Weigh the impact of your choice on your wallet and on the planet.
Post a comment

- 'The Road' takes Viggo Mortensen to Mount St. Helens and Astoria, Ore.
- Craigslist adoption ad: A plea by young mother-to-be? A scam?
- Italian lead prosecutor argues Knox motive was hatred
- Italian prosecutors request life sentence for UW student
- Tugboat sinks on Seattle's waterfront
- Child-support error costs nearly $21,000
- Man shot in chest on E. Union Street in Capitol Hill
- Washington state wines make annual best-of list
- Chase shrugs off loss of CD investors
- Mariners Blog | A Mariners-Tigers swap makes a whole lot of sense for both teams
- Senate vote clears hurdle
235 - Tight Senate vote launches health care over hurdle
119 - Child-support error costs nearly $21,000
117 - Palin excitement builds in Tri-Cities
115 - Vikings easily beat the Seahawks
114 - Prosecutor requests life in prison for Amanda Knox
87 - Cutting through breast-cancer confusion
86 - Game thread
70 - New York terror trials will restore faith in rule of law
52 - Chase shrugs off loss of CD investors
46
- Washington state wines make annual best-of list
- Nonprofits get creative using Twitter and Facebook to make donation easier
- It's possible to recover a life lost to hoarding
- Lynnwood is reinventing itself — again
- Great places to cross-country ski for free (or almost) in the Methow
- 'The Road' takes Viggo Mortensen to Mount St. Helens and Astoria, Ore.
- Child-support error costs nearly $21,000
- Recipes: Sesame Pork Roast, Sour Cream Mashed Potatoes, Gingerbread with Lemon Sauce and more
- Banff: powder, peaks & purity
- 175 foster kids in Washington get 'forever families'

May
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
| 1 | 2 | |||||
| 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
| 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| 31 |







