Well today Microsoft informed the world about its planned release SKUs (versions) for Windows 7. There are no major surprises really other than the so called Business Edition now becomes Windows 7 Professional. In a similar line up to Vista, Windows 7 will also feature versions for the home and business user. A lot of folks ask me why on earth do they have so many versions. My answer is simple, choice! You have to remember that each SKU comes with specific features that although may be useful to a business user will be of no interest to the gamer at home.

Although there is plenty of choice, the guy’s (and gals) in Redmond will be primarily focussing on two editions, the Home Premium and the Professional editions (to keep those XP Pro folks happy). It is felt that these two editions will probably have the widest reach. While on the lower end of the scale you have the Windows 7 Starter edition for the price sensitive amongst us. This is of course ideally targeted at user of low cost notebooks, you know the Asus Eee etc. Whilst on the other hand the upper business editions such as the Professional edition for small business users and Enterprise for the big boys with software assurance. It’s also good to know that each upper edition will contain all the features of the lesser, i.e. Enterprise will contain all the features of Professional and so on. Top of the tree though will be the Ultimate edition which is what most beta testers are getting a flavour of at the moment. Similar to Vista Ultimate it contains every feature from all versions. The choice as they say is yours!