Find great computer deals at StaplesWhich Windows 7 is right for you?
Windows 7 officially will be released to the public on Thursday, and judging by our poll, most CNET readers have already decided to upgrade. For those who haven't, or for those who want a bit more information on just what you're getting with your Windows 7 Starter, Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate, take a look at the chart and explanation below.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
This CNET-produced chart is based on a larger one from Wikipedia.
Windows 7 Starter is the lightweight version of the new operating system that only comes with Netbooks. It's not available for upgrade from Windows XP or Windows Vista, and it's fairly hamstrung. Sixty-four-bit isn't available, and the Backup and Restore Center won't work with network-based drives. It also lacks many of the key features that make Windows 7 appealing. Aero is disabled, as is the new theme manager.
Windows Media Center and Windows Media Player aren't included, and so it shouldn't be surprising that none of the more advanced features is baked in, either. XP Mode, which will allow Windows 7 to run XP-only programs, Remote Desktop Host, BitLocker Drive Encryption, and multitouch support are all not available in Windows 7 Starter.
So just what does Starter offer? Users can pin programs to the Taskbar, and the helpful jump lists remain active, too. Snap still functions for quickly resizing program windows, although it doesn't have its slick Aero look. The revamped Windows Search will work, and other under-the-hood improvements--such as better Wi-Fi and device management--are also fully functional. Users can use the in-place Anytime Upgrade option to buy an upgrade from Starter to Home Premium.
Windosw 7 Home Premium is the basic version that should appeal to most casual users, and retails for $119. Most of the big features that Microsoft wants you to know about are included here. Aero Peek for previewing programs and clearing the desktop, Aero Snap for resizing program windows, and the Aero skin with its translucent Taskbar and window borders are all in full effect. Aero Shake is also enabled, which is a quick way to clear the desktop by clicking and holding down on one program window and lightly shaking, hiding all the other open windows.
Theme switching and customization is activated, and the Windows Media Center and Windows Media Player will allow users to stream video directly to their desktops. Multitouch features are enabled, and Home Premium can be used to create a Home Group, which simplifies sharing music, video, and other files between computers that are all members of the same group. It's also available in 64-bit, but can only support up to 16GB of physical RAM. Home Premium can be upgraded using the Anytime Upgrade to either Professional or Ultimate.
Aero Peek is only available in Windows 7 Home Premium and above.
(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)Although it sounds full-featured, Home Premium definitely offers less than Windows 7 Pro or Windows 7 Ultimate. Location-aware printing, presentation mode, and XP Mode are not available. Neither is BitLocker, AppLocker, the remote desktop host feature, nor Aero glass via remote. AppLocker is the new feature that allows system administrators to restrict program access from the Group Policy settings. You also can't use the Windows 7 Backup and Restore feature to work with network drives, just like Windows 7 Starter. That feature doesn't come in until the Pro version.
Windosw 7 Professional is the power user edition of the new operating system, retailing for $199.99. In addition to all the features in the Home Premium edition, Pro is designed to be flexible for dual use in the home and small business. It will support up to 192GB of physical RAM in 64-bit mode, it supports legacy Windows XP productivity programs via XP Mode, it can work with two physical processors, and it can back up your data to a networked drive. It still lacks the AppLocker and BitLocker features, it can't handle the pretty but superfluous remote Aero glass support, and it lacks the multilingual interface support pack.
Windows 7 Ultimate, retailing for $219.99, supports those features plus virtual hard-disk booting and a subsystem for Unix applications. Although it's possible to conceive of some home uses for Ultimate, the features that separate it from Windows 7 Pro set it in a class that's almost exclusively for intensive international or network use. For most office or home power users, it's not really recommended.
There are several other versions of Windows 7 available. Windows 7 Home Basic is for emerging markets such as Bangladesh, China, India, and Mexico, and places itself between the Starter edition and the Home Premium edition in terms of features. Aero is partially enabled, for example. Windows 7 Enterprise is identical to the Ultimate edition, but is only available via volume licensing. The Europe-only "E" version was going to come without Internet Explorer, but that has changed to the "N" version that lacks the media player.
If you're planning on buying Windows 7, tell us in the comments below which version you're getting.
Seth peers into the deep, dark corners of software so that you don't have to. He has yet to suffer a single nightmare about OS/2. You can follow him on Twitter.
that to average customer !!
Home Premium seems spot on for me (and most people). I'd like to have XP mode, but I can live without it.
There is FAR too much red on this table on the other ones for me to even consider them.
Of course, I'm not an early adopter of operating systems either.
I'll definitely be getting the Home Premium package, though, once I finally make the jump up.
For now...my combination of having a Mac and a Vista is working fine for me.
When I look at that list many of the features should be available for on all systems. For example, given m$'s terrible security record you'd think that having an encrypted file system would be desirable in all versions.
Enjoy the OS that has no REAL programs for it just littered with freeware ****.
By the way, there's plenty of full featured linux distros made specially for netbooks to even consider the crippled windows 7 netbook version. And they're free.
You linux users are irrelevent... who gives a damn if you've chosen to relegate yourselves to the ass end of technology... you guys make the iPhone users look advanced
And as for the guy complaining about Linux being all freeware and the other guy saying that linux is the ass end of technology I mean it's not like VLC or Totem offer more varied support for Codecs than Windows Media Player or that abiword or openoffice have any features anyone would ever want that Word has. And it's not like anyone would want something like I don't know a 64bit version of google chrome. And people definitely don't want to customize the look and feel of their os. and who would ever want to change how lightweight their operating system is, and god forbid that I would ever want to be able to choose between a dock or a taskbar or both if I want it. And what is the world coming to when people want a powerful terminal. And who wants options that are not just how many features do I want but more like how customized do I want my system to be how simple do I want it to be do I want natively compiled apps or prebuilt binaries. And it's not like people want to be able to upgrade their os for free. Gosh Linux really is so out of date and out of touch with what people want. Why do they even bother making it? Why doesn't everyone just use WIndows so Microsoft doesn't have to worry about competition and can do as little innovating (not that they do much of that anyways) as possible. I mean it's not like when they became pretty much the only browser in town for awhile they didn't keep updating their browser and instead just let it stagnate and get slow and decrepit. No they would never do that. /sarcasm
Compared to Snow leopard's $40 Australian upgrade pricing, Windows 7 is far far too expensive.
No worries. In time our crappy fiscal policy will have Austrailin money worth more than ours.
Try that before you say that it is Vista that is having problems with your wireless adapter.
Funny thing, Linux tends not to have driver issues like that. If something works, it will keep working until the hardware breaks. If something doesn't work, it will soon.
I used to use XP. Installed a wireless card to my PC then had to install the software for it, had to make sure the driver was up to date and still had problems keeping a good signal. Got so bad I just went out and bought an extra long ethernet cable to connect directly to the router.
When I switched to Ubuntu, I let it update itself, it found the driver, installed it for me, I unplugged the cable and voila, working wireless. I even had better connections, though I kept the cable, just in case.
Name some.
Anything by slysoft.
It would be rather simple to offer just one version with all features enabled, and say "buy it or not." But simplicity is not in Microsoft's ballpark... the computers must be complicated for them to think things are OK I guess.
Your backwards. Marketing is about making money. Multiple versions of windows is about making more money from consumers. Ironicly OS X having one version is all about the same thing.
comparing the one version of OS X to Win7 is pathetic..
how in the world do you think that apple can have more than one version when they hardly have 3% of the market share ? and what profit are the going to make if they divide their OS into 3 versions ??
and you think its bad that Win7 has 3 or 4 versions ? well.. its actually great , why w'd i pay the price of win7 ultimate when it's not for me.. ?
if i got a netbook i'll need the starter version, why paying 299 for ultimate when i only need the starter for 29$ ..
just use your brain befor you make a joke of yourself .
To interval1066..... you can do a heck of a lot more with Windows 7 than with Linux, period and done with. More software, easier software installation, etc. etc. etc.
That's why I will stick with Windows software for the next 20 years, unless Linux cans the 'command-line only' bull and goes more user-friendly. Yes, I have tried Linux IN THE PAST MONTH, Ubuntu's latest version, in fact...... so I know I am right when I say "STILL TOO COMMAND-LINE ONLY!"
BTW every major distro is GUI based..sorry you`re stupid
Im sorry but your wrong. So many things are a total pain in the ass to install and require compiling and use of the terminal. Drivers are a mess, and there is an over saturation of ****** alternatives. Linux is nothing more then a huge stressful pain in the ass.
Funny, I'm using Linux right now and I'd swear I've been using a GUI to do everything, haven't compiled any software, haven't used the terminal in the longest time and, in fact, still don't have a pain in my ass from Linux after having used it for close to a full 8 months.
Can you say the same about Windows? I used to use it, I switched and haven't regretted doing so.
Oh, and Lerianis3, if you've used the latest version of Ubuntu, could you give us what name it goes by along with the number?
I bought a new laptop (Studio XPS 16) and decided that I'd dual boot windows 7 with Ubuntu 9.04, but, after many failed attempts, couldn't get compiz to work (always told me it failed to change), I tried to reboot back into Window 7, but Ubuntu had corrupted the partition. I used Gparted to get it to actually start, but then it said the partition had errors in it. I wiped my hard drive clean and loaded up my backup from right before the partition.
After a couple weeks, I installed Virtual Box with 9.04, but couldn't get compiz to work. I also realized that Blu-Ray was not supported and that I really did REALLY like Windows 7. I mean, my friend has a Vaio (running Vista) with practically the same specs, and my computer does everything faster. Even when I did do some things on Ubuntu (openoffice, surf the web, install Wine to play Starcraft, which doesn't work) 7 seems faster.
So when I don't have to search for drivers to get all my hardware working, maybe I'll run Ubuntu in a virtual box. But to be honest, it's too much of a pain in the ass, when an upgrade is only going to cost me $30.
One of the main reason I stick with Windows is because I can stream content to my Xbox/PS3 (I'd like to be able to do both). Is there a program equivalent to tversity that would allow me to do this?
THANKS!
Both VMWARE Server and Virtualbox are free and run any OS from Win 7 to Win 3.11.
With virtualization the hardware never becomes obsolete and the machine can ruin multiple operating systems at the same time for ever.
God help us all...
1) Red box indicating "no xp upgrades" for all skus. This is important because the majority of Windows upgrades have Windows XP.
2) Tell me which SKUs support easy online Upgrading to a higher level SKU. This allows me to buy a new machine with a lower entry point SKU and later upgrade to a more advanced version.
3) Which Windows 7 feature requires new hardware. For example, XP mode doesn't run on most Sony laptops. Does Location Aware Printing require a GPS sensor? And does Media Center requires a TV Tuner?
Personally, this feels too complex and I'll simply wait for Microsoft to reduce Home Premium to a $29 upgrade price. It's only fitting. Microsoft Executives regularly admit Vista was a bad product and it seems like they owe Vista users a $29 upgrade price for either Home Premium or Ultimate.
Yep, paying Apple for service packs is pretty normal.
We get those free with Windows
That's not it. Vista was broken. Systems that were "Vista Ready" and had the HP to run it right still didn't have Vista working like it should. I learned that MS tech support (never had to use it ever on any thing eles) has a built in limit. Pass that limit and they refuse to help you solve THEIR problem. That support experience is one reason I have no use for MicroSoft.
they're huge, big downloads but they come out regularly without cost. so if you are going to say something, check it first.
i just think a lot of people are going to get caught out trying to upgrade from XP to 7. it shouldn't be as hard as they've made it. there is no way i'm going back up my settings and reformat the drive, reinstall all the software and them load my files. not going to happen. besides, who can find all they software keys they've accumulated over the years? it was hard enough trying to reinstall Corel Paintshop Pro X back onto a PC after the drive failed. they must be overloaded today with people trying to get new keys... and how happy will they be?
the XP to 7 path should gracefully upgrade to Vista then to 7 keeping everything intact. it might take longer but it's the only way to keep previous users happy (even if it takes a bit longer to perform the upgrade).
Oh and they'd have to lose the ridiculous licensing for different "versions". What a load of horse sh*t. I cannot believe otherwise intelligent people look at all those different versions and see it as acceptable.
Sorry - it's not "OK". You're getting ripped off. AGAIN. oh and don't forget to pay your tax, er, keep your AV up to date.
For example in my house:
My Grandparents = Starter, they only check email, check news, and go on Word, they lack the skill/understanding to do anything besides that
Sister, Mom, Brother = Home Premium, they need NOTHING else in the Professional/Ultimate.
My Dad = Professional, he NEEDS Windows XP mode, Remote Desktop Host, Presentation mode, and NTFS encryption
Me = Ultimate, I use VHD booting, BitLocker Drive Encryption (esp portable), and Arabic Language pack is a big plus.
See everyone in my family is happy with this setup. My Sister, Mom, Brother have no clue what Windows XP mode is, drive encryption, etc. But they use WMC and Areo Effects daily.
Giving choice is always a good thing.
Finally, someone that sees the light as to why Microsoft is doing these things.
If MS only made one version and charged the price of the lesser versions, would your grandparents, mom, brother or sister complain that they had extra features? Would your dad complain that he paid less for it? Would you?
I'm using Ubuntu right now, it's perfect for checking e-mail or news, working with word documents (or any other format). Compiz is an amazing replacement for aero, gives more options, including the "aero peak" so many people seem so fond of. WINE is great for many Windows apps and otherwise, VirtualBox allows you to run a VM seamlessly in your current OS, just like XP mode is doing, except you'd have more choices of operating systems to use. Ubuntu even includes built in encryption support and you can get it in Arabic or simply have support for the language.
Oh, also, it has remote desktop hosting, you can do presentations just as easily.
Also, it doesn't need defragging, the apps will always be up to date (all of them), it has a built in firewall that literally just has to be set up one time and it runs in the background permanently and even has a built in A/V, though there aren't any current viruses in the wild I can think of.
Pretty sure your grandparents, mom, sister, brother and father would be just as, if not more, happy with a setup involving Ubuntu.
Lets look at that list again.
Grandparents: Ultmate would do the job.
Sister/Mom/Bro: Ultimate would do the job.
Dad: Ultimate (or better still a legacy machine) would do the job.
You: Ultimate would do the job.
Seems like everone could do the job with exactly one version of the software. That there are different versions is nothing more than a method of marketing. Apples only provies OS X in one vesion and that version is equivilent to Ultimate. They chose a different path. it works well enough.
Apple makes its money off the hardware. That is why they don't allow clones, and why you pay so much more for so much less.
If folks start putting OSX commonly on non-Apple hardware, you can kiss that goodbye.
Yes Ultimate does everything, but it costs more. Why charge for something they will NEVER need. MS is giving consumers a choice so they can save money. When XP launched it was as expensive as 7 Ultimate. MS is giving a choice so in the end consumers save.
@ tm_anon
My Sister and Brother both had Linux and both were extremely unhappy after a few months. I too had many issues with it. There is always something wrong. Its a total pain to install certain files provided by companies (requires going into terminal). On windows things just work. Iv spent hours upon hours trying to fix various Distros including ubuntu, kbuntu and opensuse.
Not to mention they are ALL slower then Windows 7. There is no reason to use ubuntu when I can get Home Premium on 3 pc's for 150, everything works out of the box and looks great out of the box.
I took two things away from your posting.
1. A single version (Ultimate) could fit everyone's needs just fine.
2. You must have a really, REALLY big HOUSE.
You have to remember the code is already written and the distribution DVD doesn't cost any more for one vs. another. They actually have to spend more time and development to split out the editions like they have. That means we all pay more for all versions of windows than we need to because of how they chose to go.
It's not like AC in a car where you paid for it's development with the car but the install and materials (and profit) can be added or not as needed.
Last keep in mind that the high price is also a marketing decision. They could charge 50 bucks for all versions and sell a heck of a lot more. Especially since 7 works better on older machines. They chose to make it expensive.
...Ultimate? Really? Microsoft sounds like a second grader choosing a team name for basketball: "I know! Let's be Team Awesome! No wait, how about Team Super? No, no, no! I know! Team Ultimate!"
I love these crazy rants (a.k.a stream-of-thought writing)
-Preformance is equal on all versions, and why would you buy the version without everything you need. If you need more buy the better one DURRR.
"or an expensive one that has more than you could ever use"
-Then buy the f***king one that has the things you need.
"Not to mention the stupid names"
-Cry Moar
Anyway, $5 says Windows 7 (Plus that new Xbox Dash update) will allow improved Windows 7<->Xbox 360 MC extender support.
Macs break down even more than Dell.
I use whatever works for me for any given situation. As for the microsoft troll talking about no REAL programs on Linux, you don't know what your talking about. Really, give it up.
I use Ubuntu Studio for recording bands, excellent collection of software that is JACK aware and works just as good, and even better in some instances then the commercial equivalents. I also use Ubuntu on my Dell Mini 9, just because it boots fast, and thats what I want on a netbook. I'm able to browse the web, do video chat with skype, get into my e-mail, and use minicom to connect to cisco routers, switches and firewalls at work... Those are all REAL programs doing REAL work.
Windows... Use it all the time, and I got an early copy of the full release of Windows 7 because we have an enterprise agreement with Microsoft. I so far will say, this has been hands down the best release Microsoft has put forth. I won't say the best operating system, because XP was pretty good after a Microsoft fixed it from the initial release. But Windows 7 looks promising, and I use it on my desktop at work, and as well on a Gaming PC at home.
Mac OS X.. I'll never knock it. It's solid, and built to run fast and smooth. I really don't get exposed much to it, and probably because people just don't call in with problems for it. We use it at work for Video editing, and some users have it as part of a grant.
Hell, we even have Novell Netware running on a couple servers. Best file and print server ever... Too bad they decided to make it hard for developers to... well... develop for it.
My suggestion, if you have something that works for you stick with it, and don't listen to what the trolls say. I just happen to work in this field, and get exposed to it all. Everything has it's place.. Trust me, if Ubuntu and other Linux distributions as well as Mac OSX, Windows 7 would be a pipe dream, and people would be paying through the nose for what would be equivalent to service pack releases for whatever flavor of Windows was out there.
I showed them all the list of features, and they all chose their respective catagory. I even offered to pay for my grandparnts Home Premium, but they said that the Areo thing was too confusing and they just wanted an easy way to check email and type on Word.
By the way, when you can get every single "advantage" Windows claims to have without spending money on a new OS without even needing to purchase new hardware and yet you choose to keep shelling out cash for it anyway, it proves just how deeply entrenched in the Windows way of life you are.
If you're a gamer, great. Either get Linux for day to day use and switch into Windows just for those games, get Windows and shut up already or use your head and realize there's a massive amount of games available in Linux for free and a huge variety of paid games will currently play in Linux as is.
If you have a proprietary app that absolutely will not run in Linux, you have the same choices as above except you can also try and run it in a VM if you'd rather not use Windows except when absolutely necessary.
@thydavidcome
Your grandparents could be using Ubuntu right now, checking e-mail, opening/working on documents, having not spent anything at all to do so. Your sister, mom and brother could be using Ubuntu with Compiz Fusion enabled, checking out wobbly windows and show mouse, having fun with the desktop cube with 3D windows, peaking at windows in the background. They could otherwise do everything else on Ubuntu they need except they would have more money in their pockets.
Your dad could be using Ubuntu right now, able to encrypt files, able to encrypt his entire /Home folder, enabled on installation and available with a simple right click on the file/folder he wants to encrypt. All for no charge.
Maybe if you'd given them the choice and also given them all the available facts, they'd have chosen to keep their money and still get all the goodies.
Too bad you didn't.
I did, they were miserable with Linux. I had tons of issues with Linux. It feels like what it is. A trashy freeware OS. The lack of standardization is also a big issue. OpenSUSE programs wont work on Ubuntu and vise versa.
Apple didn't remove consumer choice here, they gave them more options. At least with OS X. Apple does things differently in iPhone land.
-
by casanegro
October 20, 2009 6:50 PM PDT
- Windoze no matter what edition sux compared to OS X.
-
Like this
Reply to this comment
-
-
-
by sythara
October 20, 2009 9:56 PM PDT
- Thank you for the wonderful insight.
-
Like this
-
-
by ckh1272
October 21, 2009 2:40 AM PDT
- @casanegro ---"windoze". How original (note sarcasm).
-
Like this
-
Showing 1 of 4 pages (157 Comments)