Windows 8 to cut SKU's from 11 to 6

[James]

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Win...l#xtor=RSS-181

Microsoft Windows 8 32 Edition
Microsoft Windows 8 64 Edition
Microsoft Windows 8 Enterprise 32 Edition
Microsoft Windows 8 Enterprise 64 Edition
Microsoft Windows 8 Professional 32 Edition
Microsoft Windows 8 Professional 64 Edition

Why? Why still offer 32-bit SKU's?

Even if most businesses are on a 5-yr upgrade cycle, we are long since past CPU's that are 32-bit only.

Here's an idea, drop it to 3 SKU's. Win8, Win8Pro, Win8Ent. Drop 32-bit, completely.

[ua549]

32 bits are for portable devices.

[James]

The extra bits don't weigh that much. It isn't worth it.

Seriously though, Via, Intel, AMD, all are 64-bit.

Next generation of ARM is going to be 64-bit for pete's sake! lol

[Timman_24]

This is going to be great. The arbitrary feature differences between the Win 7 packages were very confusing to customers. Starter was the worst though, couldn't even change the background.

[Wurm]

Still a crapload of business software that isn't 64bit.

[Nick_B]

Still a crapload of business software that isn't 64bit.

And even if it runs seemingly without problems, frequently vendors will use 64 bit OS versions as a reason to deny support.

[Geforce255]

Still a crapload of business software that isn't 64bit.

I have no problem running 32 bit software on a 64 bit OS - none at all.

[Nick_B]

I have no problem running 32 bit software on a 64 bit OS - none at all.

For business software (at least in many industries), it doesn't matter if something runs if you can't get vendor support for it.

[ImaNihilist]

Whoever is making this decision is obviously an MBA or economics graduate who refuses to let go of price discrimination for software.
Price discrimination for physical goods = profit maximization.
Price discrimination for digital goods = piracy.

Release a single consumer version for $99 and be done with it. Keep enterprise and sever versions separate and don't even make their existence known to the desktop market.

[Timman_24]

Whoever is making this decision is obviously an MBA or economics graduate who refuses to let go of price discrimination for software.
Price discrimination for physical goods = profit maximization.
Price discrimination for digital goods = piracy.

Release a single consumer version for $99 and be done with it. Keep enterprise and sever versions separate and don't even make their existence known to the desktop market.

I assume that is what they are doing. Enterprise is most likely for businesses and Professional is going to be for MSDNAA, schools, and tech net. Everyone else will have the normal edition.

If they could get their stuff together, they would be moving to an app store and letting Windows 8 be free to the consumer. They really dropped the ball not getting a hold of the gaming market with Vista. They had the chance when they started talking about Live support, but Windows Marketplace was a joke.

The amount of money people spend on the OS versus how much they spend in the OS environment is not even comparable. They should have been targeting that potential revenue stream.

[ImaNihilist]

I assume that is what they are doing. Enterprise is most likely for businesses and Professional is going to be for MSDNAA, schools, and tech net. Everyone else will have the normal edition.

If they could get their stuff together, they would be moving to an app store and letting Windows 8 be free to the consumer. They really dropped the ball not getting a hold of the gaming market with Vista. They had the chance when they started talking about Live support, but Windows Marketplace was a joke.

The amount of money people spend on the OS versus how much they spend in the OS environment is not even comparable. They should have been targeting that potential revenue stream.

If the Windows app store actually takes off I'll switch back. There are really only 4 or 5 apps I want to see on Windows that dont exist yet.

[kpxgq]

i would just do regular and enterprise 64bit

isnt there some sort of built in virtualization tech in windows7 that lets you run 32bit code natively on 64bit windows? just add that tech to windows8

[James]

i would just do regular and enterprise 64bit

isnt there some sort of built in virtualization tech in windows7 that lets you run 32bit code natively on 64bit windows? just add that tech to windows8

Yeah, it's called WOW64. It's been in all 64-bit versions of Windows since XP Pro x64. Which is honestly my complaint. There is no reason software/hardware/etc. vendors shouldn't have made the transition by now. It's been coming since 2003. 9 Years is a lot of time to work on a 64-bit native version.

[vertices]

Looks like it's back up to 9
http://windows8beta.com/2012/03/excl...nsumer-preview

Fail.

[Timman_24]

Looks like it's back up to 9
http://windows8beta.com/2012/03/excl...nsumer-preview

Fail.

Wow. ARM edition? That's BS, it should just read during the install and appropriate the right drivers. The differences between these are probably trivial, but it is too confusing, even for enthusiasts. I hate to see the return of the worthless starter edition.

To be fair though, these are from registry scans of the prerelease distro. Things are subject to change and I believe there hasn't been an official announcement yet.