Here are the editions of Vista and a quick description:

• Windows Starter                   Not available in "high income markets"
• Windows Home Basic             Comes with most retail PC's, limited features
• Windows Home Premium         Upgradeable on-line – adds multi-media features
• Windows Business                 Most robust for business use
• Windows Ultimate                 Adds enhanced media capability and data encryption
• Windows Enterprise              Only available by subscription and designed for large businesses

It seems to me that Microsoft is trying to be all things to all people to the extent that they have only muddied the waters for us when trying to make business decisions regarding what OS to implement. Microsoft claims millions in sales of Windows Vista where, in fact, most businesses are rolling the OS back to the very stable and popular Windows XP when purchasing new PC's that come with Windows Vista.

Windows XP comes in five editions of which three are for niche usage. The remaining two familiar versions are Windows XP Professional and Windows XP Home Edition.

Even Microsoft has conceded the market trend to rolling back the OS to XP from Vista. If you purchase a PC that with Windows Vista Business installed it comes with a Windows XP Pro license which allows you to roll back the OS legally. This is quite a departure from past Microsoft practices and we are glad for it.

As a throw-back to the days of DOS 2.0, I have seen all of Microsoft's publically released OS iterations. I am not yet ready to say the Vista debacle is as bad as the Windows ME debacle (remember that?) but it sure looks a lot alike.

Though I am actively using Windows Vista Ultimate, myself, I am not willing to recommend that we or our clients move to Vista any time soon.

So what is going to happen next? A recent article written by Jason Hiner said the following:

"My prognosis is that Microsoft will use smoke and mirrors to conjure up an early release of Windows 7, the next edition of the world's most widely-used operating system. Then they will quietly and unofficially allow IT departments to migrate straight from Windows XP to Windows 7."

So by the end of 2009, Microsoft will evidently be releasing another version of Windows that we could leapfrog to. For full access to the article, click on the following link:

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/hiner/?p=664

The intelligent approach may be to wait before conducting a mass migration to a new OS. If you are wondering what platform you should be taking your business to, feel free to give me a call to discuss the matter.

David E. Moss
Manager, Information Technology
717-392-8200