Microsoft explains why so many versions of Windows 7

[dangel]

http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/win...ws-7-skus.aspx

Sound reasonable?

It kinda does - especially when the basic message seems to be there's a choice of two SKUs for consumers - Premium or Pro. I like they're pushing premium for notebooks too and not starter!

[aidanjt]

I'm ok with it as well. And I agree that the vast majority of people will be looking at only home premium or professional, myself included. I don't have a centralised MS infrastructure so anything above pro will be of no benefit to me at all. Although I was rather curious as to why Microsoft chose to put 'Mobility Center' in Pro only. It has it's uses for consumer laptops as well. As does bit locker. Granted, family photos and your granny's recipe for scones isn't exactly an industrial or state secret, but other personal finance and identity data needs protection against casual identity theft.

[SammEl]

Surely this is going to get hacked within days?

So…for Windows 7, we are using a single image for all SKUs. This means the bits for all the editions are already on your computer if you are running Windows 7. With Windows Anytime Upgrade, users can unlock and upgrade to a different SKU much easier than before.

[Splash]

It's a similar deal to how Vista works - you have a single image on the installation media and the version you get depends on the license key you enter.

[Singh400]

Surely this is going to get hacked within days?

This is exactly how Vista works. You have one huge giant image file (x:\sources\install.wim) and every edition of Windows Vista is stored in there (expect Enterprise edition, because that VLK only) under a different index.

[jim]

I think Paul Thurrott was pretty much spot on, seems to make a lot more sense.

As long as Ultimate Extras die a long and extremely painful death, I don't think I really care all that much though.