The Many Flavours Of Vista
The Many Flavours Of Vista
February 28, 2006: It may still be putting the finishing touches to the code, but Microsoft has announced that there will be six different versions of its upcoming Vista operating system.
With a view to launching in the second half of 2006, Microsoft looks to be taking the right tool for the right job approach with Vista rather than the initial two-sizes fits all philosophy it had with XP.
Vista Home Basic and Premium will be pitched at consumers while Vista Business and Enterprise edition aims at corporate customers who have more high-end needs. Microsoft will also be putting out a Vista Starter edition to be sold with new PCs and the Ultimate Edition which the company says will incorporate the best features of the corporate and consumer versions.
To improve performance on older machines and lower the purchase price, low end versions such as Starter and Home Basic will be missing Vista’s new “glass” graphical user interface (GUI), some of its searching and security features and its media centre capabilities. Vista Starter will also be limited to running three applications at a time, with three windows open each.
Vista Enterprise on the other hand, will have advanced functions such as the ability to run Unix applications, Virtual PC express and emulation software that enables older version of Windows to be run as virtual machines.
All versions run in 32 or 64 bit mode except for Starter which is limited to 32 bit only. No pricing has been announced.
Vista’s new “Aero” GUI
Is Microsoft putting too many cooks in the kitchen?Tell us what you think
Related Article: