Toolkit

Story: Vista's six versions finalised

Posted by: David Wright (Monday 27 February 2006, 12:07 PM)

6 versions is definitely too many, even with the 2-3 "standard" versions of XP (home, pro and MCE), the problem wasn't the choice of which OS you wanted, it was the basic fact that you had no choice, the manufacturer bundled one (usually home because it was cheaper) and if you wanted Pro or MCE, you still had to buy the Home version, chuck it in the bin and go out and buy the version you really wanted...

Home for example, wasn't suitbable for use in my home network, because the home network is controlled by an AD server and Home couldn't be added to my home domain...

If MS/the manufacturers can overcome this - i.e. I can choose exactly which version of the OS I want, it won't be a problem, but I can see them just sticking in Home Basic or Home Premium in the majority of their machines and not offering any other choice, purely because that is the cheapest way for them to chuck the boxes out the door...

As it is, I've started building my own boxes and buying SBE versions of Windows, if the machine will use WIndows at all... I at least get the specification I want with the OS I want without having superflous licenses kicking around, I think I currently have 3 unused Home licenses kicking around...