Home Basic: Home Basic is intended for budget users not requiring advanced media support for home use. The Windows Aero theme with translucent effects will not be included with this edition. Home Basic will support up to 8 GB of physical memory. Price: 200$, upgrade: 100$

Home Premium: Containing all features from Home Basic, this edition will additionally support more advanced features aimed for the home market segment, such as HDTV support and DVD authoring. Extra games, mobile and tablet computer support, file system encryption, and a photo management application are also included. This edition is comparable to Windows XP Media Center Edition and Tablet PC Edition. Home Premium will support up to 16 GB of physical memory. Price: 240$, upgrade: 160$

Business: Comparable to Windows XP Professional, and aimed at the business market. Does not include the Media Center features of Home Premium, but does include the IIS web server, fax support, offline files, dual (physical) processor support, Remote Desktop, ad-hoc P2P collaboration capabilities, Previous Versions, and support for 128 GB of memory. Price: 300$, upgrade: 200$

Ultimate: This edition combines all the features of the Home Premium and Enterprise editions, and additionally comes with podcast creation support, a game performance tweaker (WinSAT), DVD ripping capabilities, and special online services for downloadable media, as well as additional customer service options. The Ultimate edition is aimed at high-end PC users, gamers, multimedia professionals, and PC enthusiasts. Price: 400$, upgrade: 260$

Also note the other releases will be:

Starter: Much like Windows XP Starter Edition, this edition will be limited to emerging markets such as India,Russia, Mexico, Brazil, Thailand, and Indonesia, mainly to offer a legal alternative to using unauthorized copies. It will not be available in the United States or Europe.

Enterprise: This edition is aimed at the enterprise segment of the market, and is a superset of the Business edition. Additional features include multilingual user interface support, BitLocker Drive Encryption, and UNIX application support. This edition will not be available through retail or OEM channels, but through Microsoft Software Assurance.

I have the luck of my University offering the Ultimate edition free to certain majors, one of which, I am. So i don't need to drop the hefty 400$ pricetag for it.

I'll be getting ultimate as well with my new computer.

Buut, I'll give it a couple of months before I upgrade to Vista.

I'm getting Ultimate. My reason for getting Vista would primarily be to learn about it, and as Ultimate is the only edition with everything in it, it is the only way to meet that goal. I'd also be getting it as soon as possible, as though I'm not expecting anything spectacular with regards to stability, I can't envision it actually damaging my hardware, and I'll have XP available on another machine. Waiting around for Service Pack 1 would bother me since I wouldn't know anything about the newest version of Windows during that time, and once the SP came out, I'd have no idea what new features it added, and probably could never know.

Isn't Vista coming out on Jan 30th? I thought the November 30th deadline was for OEMs.

Already have my order for Windows Vista Ultimate. I have 4 copies on the way for mid-december (yes, they are through OEM)

And didn't you say you were gifting me a copy of Vista? Time to own up to your promise ;)

And didn't you say you were gifting me a copy of Vista? Time to own up to your promise ;)

Yeaaa.....we all know about that large bonus you got. :mrgreen:

Large bonus? I didn't know about that! Blud...you owe us a party for this...

>.> I wish

But in all seriousness, those 4 copies are for machines that I own, sorry no spares here :P

Already have my order for Windows Vista Ultimate. I have 4 copies on the way for mid-december (yes, they are through OEM)

Is this what you're getting me for the holidays? I'm determined to figure it out even if it kills me :)

No, your gift has already been shipped out (so it's not vista)

Hmmm...have heard that some generous and kind person who goes by the name of Blud is giving out free copies of Vista.

Hey there buddy, how are you, hope you are doing fine...nowwww, where is my copy of Vista ;)

I guess the only way to get him to give us Vista would be to praise him like hell. HEY...BLUD'S THE GREATEST, KINDEST, MOST GENEROUS SOUL IN THE WHOLE WORLD......


whoops...did I say that out loud?

whoops...did I say that out loud?

Grr...yes you did ;)

*sigh* looks like will have to think of some way to make him cough up his precious Vista copy...

dont get it here in the uk for ages
ours are like 70% more expenisve for yours

BTW when XP home support ends what the hell are we all gonna do if we need to reinstall it and the product activation server no longer exists?

That is part of the 'End Of Life', it essentially means that you have to upgrade. But don't worry, XP will be supported for another 4-6 years according to microsoft spokesperson :)

yeah but thats not for everyone (e.g NT 3.51 was supported until XP Pro came out)

I guess I will have to hit up the Ultimate version as well for my nice computer and just use XP on all my other machines.

grrrr when vista comes out im not upgrading (only got 1 copy of XP :))
most of my house still runs Windows versions 3.11/3.51/4
maybe ill eventually upgrade them to w2000 lol, just 7 years too late

does any one know when it comes out in Australia Vista

Business edition for me. And that will only be to give it a good look over. Windows XP is finally stable after 5 years, and is what I have to support at work. The Business edition comes with everything short of Media Center, which I have no use for. I watch tv and movies on my tv, not my computer lol.

Ultimate but when it is more stable ie service pack 1 at least
freind who is code developer says to wait until then

Ultimate edition! Nothing else is good enough. If you give it a name like "ultimate" you would expect all the best people to buy it. ;)

Yep and that's exactly what MS is counting on so they can make more money. By calling it "Ultimate" then know that those who feel they have to have the greatest latest best there is will automatically go for that version instead of evaluating their needs and purchasing the right operating system for the right job. As I stated earlier, I have no need of the Media Center software or video authoring. I do need the security features, ability to connect to a domain, and I get Aero all with Vista Business edition.

Exactly, I have to have the latest and best thing! There is no doubt in my mind about that. lol

so expensive!

ukltimate full edition is £379.99!

Yeah I know but atleast i can get the upgrade. That knocks over 100 off. Hopefully if we wait couple of months it will come down in price a fair bit.

i could upgrade
but i only have a recovery partition

so i dont want to upgrade then find vista wiped the mbr, meaning i cant reinstall XP and thus cant install vista

I want to use it on my home entertainment PC, so I think I will go with Home Premium Edition.

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