inquisity

Just when will they learn?

When Windows XP came out, Microsoft offered it in two versions: Home and Professional. The Home version generally was viewed as less stable and efficient, and most people who had problems with XP had problems with Home, not Professional. I thought they had learned their lesson. You can imagine my surprise when I say the new lineup of options for Windows Vista:

Windows Vista Starter (”emerging” markets only)
Windows Vista Home Basic
Windows Vista Home Premium
Windows Vista Business
Windows Vista Enterprise
Windows Vista Ultimate

You read correctly: not two, not three, but six versions of Vista? I’ll have to dedicated at least an hour researching which one is “for me.”

Apple has done a great job of amplifying the confusion around these versions and giving users a simple alternative:

I suppose I could begin to understand Microsoft’s reasoning for two versions: people do different tasks on their work computers than home computers (or they should anyway; you know who you are…) I guess if one version was optimized for higher security and better performance of “work” applications like Excel, that could be beneficial.

Yet Apple has one version that does it all, so why not Microsoft?