Microsoft Vista Info Leaked 476
slashnutt writes to tell us Yahoo News is reporting that Microsoft accidentally released information about Windows Vista earlier than originally planned. From the article: "Microsoft disclosed information about a plan to release eight different editions of the new operating system on a company help page that was under development. The company has not made any official statements about the different versions of Windows Vista it plans to offer. The company has since taken down the Web site and declined to confirm the information and said it will offer more details about the Vista launch, targeted for the second half of 2006, in the coming weeks. Microsoft spokesman said in a statement 'This page has since been removed as it was posted prematurely and was for testing purposes only.'"
Enough Choice To Choke A Horse (Score:5, Insightful)
Windows Vista Starter (designed to combat piracy of Windows overseas; probably won't go on sale in US)
Windows Vista Home Basic
Windows Vista Home Premium
Windows Vista Business Basic
Windows Vista Business Premium
Windows Vista Corporate Basic
Windows Vista Corporate Premium
Windows Vista Ultimate
While I'd really like to believe otherwise, I cannot help but think that this will turn into a nightmare for application support. The ones that worry the most are the two at either end of the line: Starter and Ultimate. Will you need Ultimate to run top-of-the-line games or use top-of-the-line hardware? Will people with Starter not be able to use your program because they're missing certain functionality? Will you be able to burn DVDs with Home Basic, or does that functionality only come with Premium and Ultimate?
Sure, each version will be tailored to that particular end user's most likely needs. You can bet, however, that there'll be all sorts of "incentives" to bump yourself up to the next level of functionality in the form of "well, that functionality only comes with version X"...
Hey, its better than Linux (Score:1, Insightful)
I'll take eight, over eight-thousand.
Testing? (Score:5, Insightful)
Testing what, the waters?
Re:Hey, its better than Linux (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure, Linux is still strugling with the packaging since there is no standard. But it is getting better and better, everyday.
Re:Enough Choice To Choke A Horse (Score:2, Insightful)
I think part of the reason MS is doing this is so that people will feel like they have more "choices" and feel like they can get just what they need without all that "stuff only businesses need" and get the cheaper version of windows. Then they'll realize later they need to upgrade, and spend more on that than if they would've just bought the Uiltimate version to begin with.
And plenty of businesses will upgrade after MS stops supporting whatever they are running now, or when any new PCs they buy will come with OEM versions of Vista and they don't want to support multiple OSs accross the company...
Re:Old news (Score:3, Insightful)
You're just deciding on how crippled you want your OS to be. Choice would be asking the user at install "which of the following apps do you want installed?"
Re:Hey, its better than Linux (Score:1, Insightful)
here's the scenario:
Sally heads down to her local big chain computer store to purchase a new computer. She hands over a handful of money inreturn for a new box, with Windows Vista Home Basic Edition pre-installed. MS recieves a portion of her money via the MS tax.
She then heads home and proceeds to configure her new computer, but to her absolute dismay, she finds that she's unable to do everything that she was previously able to do (like burn CD's, or use DirectX applications) on her old Windowsw XP box. She calls MS support who gingerly inform her that "Oh, that functionality is only included in Windows Vista Ultimate Edition, which you can have for the low low price of $300". Sally has no choice but to pay for another copy of Windows, because the one that came with her new computer was not able to do everything she needed. Microsoft is happy because it has been able to extract 2 license fee's from Sally, without really having to do anything extra for her.
Re:This will ultimately frustrate users... (Score:2, Insightful)
Just as all of the leechers out there wanted XP Pro, they're going to want Vista Ultimate Edition. Seriously, how many pirates do you know who really wanted XP Home on their boxes?
Re:Which basically confirms... (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:What you talkin' about? (Score:3, Insightful)
And I've got a bridge you really need to look at.
Seriously, Voxel even specified "distributions". You are discussing kernel versions a completely different topic.
Jesus Fucking Christ man. Don't be such a zealot that you can't comprehend a valid point in opposition to your cherished perspective.
anon so the fan boys don't slit my karma's throat
(;-{)}
Re:Enough Choice To Choke A Horse (Score:4, Insightful)
At the risk of being labeled a troll, I have to suggest that perhaps this is because they don't actually change their OS. They just add crappy layer upon crappy layer so that the old stuff runs because every old Microsoft OS is still buried in there somewhere.
Re:Enough Choice To Choke A Horse (Score:4, Insightful)
I suppose that's intentional; that way the customer, confused about which 'version' to buy, will upsell themselves, just to be 'safe'.
Re:Old news (Score:4, Insightful)
It appears you have never heard of the paradox of choice [swarthmore.edu].
In a nutshell, too many choices often lead to a inability to decide. It is the same reason people take so long to decide on an ice-cream flavor at Baskin-Robbins or on a dish from a chinese carry-out menu: too many choices. Most people simply don't want to think too hard when making a purchase, so it's a good idea for companies to make the range of choices as few and distinct as possible.
Here is an excerpt from the book [usatoday.com].
Re:What you talkin' about? (Score:3, Insightful)
But that's besides the point. The point is that there is no company or other entity telling someone what they can and can't do with their Linux installation just because they didn't pay enough money. Unlike this case with Windows where people will have to make trade offs between how much they want to spend and what they want to do with their OS.
So complaining and comparing the many Linux distros to these 8 Windows versions is fucking retarded. I can choose any of the top 8 Linux distros and be able to do anything in the Linux world easily.
But if I choose the budget version of Windows and find that it won't let me do something, well then I'm shit out of luck.
Re:Enough Choice To Choke A Horse (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Hey, its better than Linux (Score:2, Insightful)
Well, the thing to note here is that the eight distributions of Vista cost more than all 8,000 distributions of linux. When its free to upgrade/change your OS, there is no problem. But when you have to pay $$ to upgrade, just to use that one new application, then it hurts.
People, people, people... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Hey, its better than Linux (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Hey, its better than Linux (Score:4, Insightful)
-- Your comment has too few characters per line (currently 8.2).
It won't be that confusing to retail buyers (Score:5, Insightful)
The 'N' versions of Windows (Europe-only) will be simply ignored by the vast majority of buyers and retailers. Some retailers (maybe most) will not even stock the 'N' versions. Source:
Vista Enterprise Edition will only be available through volume licensing, so retail buyers won't see this version either. The IT folks who can buy Enterprise Edition are knowledgable enough not to be confused.So far, that leaves:
Since Vista Ultimate Edition is probably only for the uber-geek, most retail buyers will probably only need to choose from three versions: (1) Home Basic, (2) Home Premium, and (3) Business. For buyers of Windows PCs, that choice is similar today: XP Home, XP Media Center Edition, and XP Pro.Re:What you talkin' about? (Score:4, Insightful)
But really, saying that there's too many Linux distros isn't what gets zealots like me all in a knot. What is really irritating about these Windows versions is that capability was taken out of some versions on purpose. Instead of making the product better, some "developers" have been paid to actaully make the product worse. Such insanity would never happen in the open source world. If I pick the 'wrong' distro at least it's functionality isn't being limited on purpose.
Re:What you talkin' about? (Score:2, Insightful)
What does that mean? It's true that code compiled on one distro may not run on another distro--but then again it might (though certainly not between architectures). I've often found it does. But it depends on things like the relevant libs being the same or similar (or there at all), things being in places where the compiled code expects to find them, etc. It certainly is a crapshoot.
But one of the things I like about a (typical) Linux-based OS is that if all else fails, one can just grab a tarball of the source and compile away. The tools are already there, if not easily available. That is true for pretty much any standard "distro". I rather doubt that will be true of most, if any, of the various flavors of Vista, assuming that's how it is released.
It is true that to compile for one distro or another, one might need to pass a couple flags to ./configure or make a change or to to the makefile or something similar. These aren't things any newbie rolling off the turnip truck is going to know, but in most cases that doesn't matter, since most major distros have plenty of ready-made, packaged apps for their fan^Wuser base. It's very nice to have the additional capability (without jumping through major hoops), though. And IMO the ready availability of source is one of the really nice effects of the whole Open Source/Free Software thing.
Re:What you talkin' about? (Score:5, Insightful)
There are always trade-offs.
Red Hat dropped out of the consumer market. Linspire is anchored there.
The uber-Geek might be able to bend any randomly chosen Linux distro to his will. The reality is that most of us have to make choices.
Choices in hardware. Choices in software. Choices in technical support.
Time and money.
Re:This will ultimately frustrate users... (Score:2, Insightful)
My prediction: (Score:3, Insightful)
Low-cost Market Analysis (Score:3, Insightful)
Quite clever.
Re:Enough Choice To Choke A Horse (Score:2, Insightful)
Granted, in their defense, it's nice to be able to play those Win95 games on XP, and cheaper than running two systems, but my fear is that Microsoft is always trying to appease the buisnesses who insist on using Word Perfect version 2. Backwards compatability is a great thing in many ways, but the question is always "How far backwards?" In my opinion, and I'm sure I'm not alone in this opinion, Microsoft always decides to go to far backward.
Most people dont choose windows (Score:2, Insightful)
So if Dell chooses to go with Home Premium, or whatever its called, then thats what ~70% of the people who buy Dell will use. Chances are, with no questions asked.
Re:Hey, its better than Linux (Score:2, Insightful)
It's mostly about LICENSING and EULAs on Windows, not just included apps.
Re:What you talkin' about? (Score:2, Insightful)
Yes, you are right. But what about distros like Mepis? or Lindows (R.I.P)?
Mepis comes with hundreds of apps and games and utilities, ready to run.
The point here is also marketing. Microsoft are good at that. Its imaginable that Apple's OS is heading towards competing with Windows. There are also a few distros of that too.
Historically, Microsoft have been against piracy from the start. They have cleverly engineered old VLMs out of the registration-activation-update processes, they support FULL DRM and will in the future pursue technologies to defeat piracy.
I for one, welcome the 8 versions of Vista!
There are so many 'users' out there that find computers complicated, that a simple operating system is all they want, visually, minimum options, easy to navigate, install and run apps.
The first OS that can do that will be very popular with many people, including Linnux GUI, Apple OS for Intel etc.
Re:Enough Choice To Choke A Horse (Score:5, Insightful)
Premium, of course. Who the hell wants to be Basic? They might as well call it "Windows Vista for Dumb People Too Dumb and Uncool for Premium" or "Windows Vista for People Picked Last for Kickball in the Fifth Grade". Nobody will willingly buy Basic, and that's the reason it exists.
This is common pricing tactic, and it works amazingly well. Our estimation of value works differently looking up the scale than it does looking down. If something costs half as much but is only half as good, that's not seen as a good deal, where something that costs twice as much only needs to be 50% better to be worth consideration. Adjust this to your products and you can always find a point where people will pay a lot more for very little difference. People will focus on the differences, often fixating on some non-essential feature that they *might* want, and base the final decison on that alone.
Some people seem offended by these kinds of pricing tricks, but I find them incredibly interesting in a "they're hacking my brain" kind of way.
Re:Hey, its better than Linux (Score:3, Insightful)
Windows is an operating system, including a kernel and userland.
I don't know about you, but when every single person I know says "Linux", they're using it as a short-cut for "Linux distribution" - ie the kernel, userland tools, everything. Similarly, when people say "NT" they mean "Windows NT", not the NT kernel and subsystems (which techincally is all that NT is - Windows runs on top of NT).