Microsoft confirmed the 6 SKUs of Windows 7 today – Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate. At first glance, this seems pretty bad, even worse than Vista’s nightmare melange of SKUS (as this seems to have 2 more SKUs than the previous OS). However, if one takes a closer peek, it becomes clear that this is actually much better than Vista (while simultaneously still being pretty bad).
Let me explain a bit. Windows XP basically had two SKUs, Home and Professional. There were other versions too (Media Center, x64, etc), but it basically boiled down to Home and Professional. This is pretty self-explanatory, and in my opinion this is really as complicated as it has to get. Average users can use Home just fine, while people who need more features for work or ‘enthusiast’ use can get Professional. This is simple enough, not quite as simple as OS X’s single one-size-fits-all edition, but it works (and in some ways, is better than the single blanket edition, until you need to use a feature from Pro edition that simply isn’t available in Home no matter what you do…)
Windows Vista complicated things pretty horribly. The Vista SKUs (as most people know them) were Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate. In addition to these, Vista Starter and Vista Enterprise also exist, but are not purchasable by most consumers. Home Basic ws an extremely crippled version of Vista, lacking almost all of the new features of the OS, and not really worth anybody’s time or money. Home Premium added most of Vista’s features, and was suitable for most people’s use (the XP Home of Vista). Business added business-centric features, but removed many of the home-use features (such as Windows Media Center), and Ultimate simply includes everything. If this is confusing to you, don’t worry, it is confusing to most people. Vista didn’t sell that well, and it’s not much of a surprise.
Now, Windows 7 has the same SKUs as Vista, at least in name. As with Vista, most people don’t need to worry about Starter or Enterprise, as these are only available in developing countries and to big businesses, respectively. For Windows 7, Home Premium is still suitable for most people’s use, as it includes basically all of Windows 7’s main features. Business adds to these features, but it includes all the features of Home Premium. Ultimate adds a few more features, being the most complete edition, however it seems like Ultimate is a bit unnecessary, as Business edition includes practically all of the features as well. Accordingly, Microsoft is going to be reducing the shelf presence of Ultimate edition by a lot for Windows 7, pushing customers towards Home Premium or Business.
Now, what about Home Basic? Home Basic wasn’t useful for anybody in Windows Vista, and Home Premium is being set up to become the default Windows 7 SKU, so what is the point of Home Basic? This is one of the reasons I’m still very disappointed in Microsoft. In Windows 7, Home Basic and Ultimate editions are not going to be seen by most people, and don’t even really have a purpose anymore, so they are just complicating things unnecessarily. The two of them should be dropped entirely, and Home Premium should become simply ‘Home’. Personally, if I go into a store and I see ‘Home Premium’, I’m going to be confused if there isn’t a ‘Home Basic’ somewhere around, it just makes no sense to have only a Premium edition.