Honeyball on Microsoft's Windows 7 climbdown

 

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By Jon Honeyball

Posted on 3 Feb 2009 at 18:12

So Microsoft has climbed down - sort of. The tragically incompetent mess that was the Vista packaging model is going to be replaced by a slightly simpler system where there are two main versions - Home Premium and Professional. Sounds like XP Home and XP Professional to you too? Yes, and to me.

Full report - Windows 7 to come in six flavours

Naturally, Microsoft couldn't do a full-blown climb down - there will be a Windows 7 Starter edition which will allow Microsoft to sell it for peanuts on to the burgeoning Netbooks marketplace.

Windows Home Basic is for "emerging markets", which means a cheap cut-down priced at whatever level is necessary to keep Linux off the table in third-world countries.

Enterprise will be available to those on corporate rolling licence programs. And Ultimate will have everything, available for geeks everywhere.

Is this a good move? Yes, because it takes us back to a simpler Home/Professional model. And although that would have been enough in the past, it isn't enough today - Microsoft needs Windows 7 to compete in the netbooks marketplace, which is one area where XP seems very reluctant to die.

Maybe there are a few more surprises up its sleeve - a "Home Premium Family Pack" for a few tens of pounds more per box would be a good idea to steal from Apple. And this is especially relevant for the upgrade market, where Microsoft wants to try to drag as many XP users into Windows 7 as possible. The price will have to be seriously low to get any traction at all.

Maybe Microsoft will offer such a thing for the first six months? I know I would.