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  Pre-PDC Exclusive: Windows Vista End User Features Revealed
Time: 13:54 EST/18:54 GMT | News Source: Windows IT Pro | Posted By: Andre Da Costa

An examination of Microsoft internal documentation this weekend reveals that the software giant is prepping a number of major end-user features for Windows Vista (codenamed Longhorn), many of which had not yet previously been revealed. Here's a rundown of many of the features we can expect in the various Windows Vista product editions (for more information about the editions, please refer to "Windows Vista Product Editions Revealed," URL below). As noted in that previous article, Microsoft is created 7 versions of Windows Vista for end users (9 if you count the N Editions that will target European markets). To differentiate these products, the company is carefully matching feature sets to the expected markets that will adopt each product version. Two low-end versions of Windows Vista, Starter Edition and Home Basic Edition, will not feature the much-vaunted Aero user interface that will adorn all other Vista versions. Instead, these versions will utilize a lower quality, XP-like user interface that is more appropriate for the low-end hardware that infrequent PC users and those emerging markets might utilize. Starter Edition and Home Basic Edition will also lack the rolodex, tab previews, and task bar previews features that other Vista editions will offer.

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#1 By bluvg (1860 Posts) at 9/12/2005 3:42:21 AM
I don't know, but at first glance, this looks like a mess in the making. Even with just Home and Pro, there was/is a lot of confusion over what Pro could do that Home could not. And excluding Aero from Home Basic seems like a big mistake--it will be the version of Windows no one wants. I was thinking that the OEMs are going to HATE trying to differentiate between so many versions (let alone supporting them all), but perhaps they will like Home Basic--it gives them a reason to bump customers up to a more powerful, higher margin computer. Nonetheless, this has all the makings of a disaster, like the result of an all-night, chinese-food-strewn, we're-not-leaving-until-we-come-to-a-compromise marketing meeting. Microsoft, you claimed you were going to make things easier (particularly licensing)! Will someone with some sense please save this ship and throw overboard some of the dead weight? Three versions, tops (Home, Pro, and Ultimate seems reasonable to me, if not still excessive).

#2 By Latch (3300 Posts) at 9/12/2005 1:18:36 PM
#2; I'm part of a team that produces a product that has about a dozen versions. And you know how many of those versions we end up selling? Three. The other nine are, I guess, something to keep the marketing chimps busy fussing with. None of our customers want them. And even then, it's really just one product with 12 sets of feature groups. I suspect it's our attempt to make us look like an enterprise-class company with many product editions that are, in reality, just smoke. Our experience is that the customers will buy the low-end, the high-end and one in between. All the others are just a waste of time and serve to confuse everyone, staff included.

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