Microsoft planning multiple versions of Windows 7

It seems easy to foresee that many netbook and low-end PC buyers will end up with the Starter or, in emerging countries, Home Basic versions of Windows 7, and that many of them will become disappointed once they figure out that what they have doesn't include all of the fancy Windows 7 features in the Home Premium and Professional editions. Easy to foresee, that is, unless you're Microsoft, apparently.

Thus the Vista Incapable consumer lawsuit might conceivably be replayed for Windows 7.

The Vole has indicated it expects that most consumers will opt to buy the Home Premium edition, while most business users will either choose the Professional version or, in large corporations, the Enterprise version. Rather strangely, it seems to regard the potential market for the Ultimate edition as a limited niche constituency of technical power users.

Maybe that's because it plans on charging an arm and a leg for the Ultimate version, or perhaps it reckons that most technically-adept power users have already moved to Linux.

Windows XP and Vista users who want to upgrade to Windows 7 will have to back up all their data and run full installs, then reload their data. That might prove problematic for many users, unless the Vole provides a click-and-drool type software tool to help users to get through those tasks, supporting the learned helplessness it has fostered in them over the years. It's likely that some people will lose all their saved data in the upgrade process.

The Windows 7 beta released last month reportedly includes all of the features that will be included in all final versions. That can't help but aggravate some users who are testing the beta release, once they finally realise that they'll have to shell out for the most expensive Ultimate edition to get all the features they will have been learning about and playing with for months. Some might keep the beta release, only to be locked out of security updates.

There will be more than six versions of Windows 7, as well. Since all editions except the Starter version will be offered in both 32-bit and 64-bit flavours, there will be at least 11 distinct versions. That'll be fun for the PC OEMs and consumers to cope with, certainly.

In the EU, which has already required Microsoft to offer its Windows OS without Media Player (MP) bundled, there will be 22 versions. And if the EU further requires Microsoft to unbundle Internet Exploder (IE), as is beginning to look likely, the number of EU versions will jump to 44 - 11 versions with both MP and IE, 11 versions without MP but with IE, 11 versions with MP but without IE, and 11 versions without either MP or IE. That'll be even more fun.

Microsoft hasn't yet released projected prices for its many planned versions of Windows 7, but it's already starting to look a lot like the Vole can bungle this OS release much like it did with Vista.