Monday, February 27, 2006

With Vista you get Six

Six versions that is. Instead of just Home, Pro and Server, like previous operating systems, Vista actually has 6 different versions. There was a rumor that there would be 8 versions for a while.

What does this mean for a software developers? Most operating system tests to determine what OS you are running on and what resources are available to your application. For your reference here are the versions:

  • Vista Starter -- Streamlined version meant for low-powered PCs in developing nations.
  • Vista Home Basic -- For those content to browse the web, use email, and create and edit basic documents from their PC. Includes desktop search and security tools.
  • Vista Home Premium -- Includes everything in Basic but also includes the Aero graphical interface, Media Center functionality, and ability to connect to xBox 360. The version most of us will own at home.
  • Vista Business -- The basic version for companies of all sizes with tools to help organizations manage their PCs.
  • Vista Enterprise -- Includes everything in the basic business version with improved encryption and BitLocker system to keep data from being read on a stolen computer.
  • Vista Ultimate -- All the features of Home and Business in one.
Most likely you will only run into the Starter edition if your application is used internationally. I noticed that like XP there is no server edition. Does this mean we will have a Windows 2006(or 2007) server in the same way XP was complimented by Windows 2003 Server? I suspect Ultimate will be really common among power-users and gamers. Frankly it is nice that Microsoft provides such an edition. They have been notorious for having different editions where none of them include everything. With Team System they did provide Team Suite, which includes everything, but the price tag is astronomical. Hopefully Ultimate will not be that expensive.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

With Windows XP you get at least six as well. Along with Home and Professional editions, there's Media Center Edition, Tablet PC Edition, and x64 Edition. There's also "XP N" sans Media Player for Europe, and a Starter Edition pilot mainly for Asia and India.

I haven't seen problems with developers dealing with these different flavors of XP, have you?

There is no "XP Server"... that's Server 2003, which also has several editions (Web, Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, plus 64-bit stuff). There will be a "Longhorn Server" release post-Vista; right now it's slated for sometime in 2007.

Useless trivia: Vista is actually based on the Server 2003 codebase, not XP's.

10:37 AM
unused said...

I thought there were more then 6 editions of XP, but I wasn't sure. Thanks for the clarification.

11:36 AM

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