Here's what's really happening with the various product editions Microsoft is making available for Windows 7.

The cynical may disagree, but I am thrilled to reveal some good news for a change. Would the software giant simply replicate its Vista strategy and spam the market with a confusing mix of product editions? Would it have the gall to actually add more product editions to the mix and, as rumored, even ship a version specifically designed for netbooks? Or would it actually do the right thing, adhere to the publicly stated simplicity and clarity mantra of Windows 7 and release fewer Windows 7 product editions? I was sharply critical of this decision because I felt it made upgrades too difficult for consumers: It was hard to figure out which version to buy and then the higher-end Vista versions were simply too expensive.Īs Microsoft began touting prerelease versions of Windows 7, there was a lot of speculation about which product editions Microsoft would offer in this Windows version. Efforts like the Mojave Project, the Seinfeld/Gates advertisements, and the 'I'm a PC' ad campaign did a lot to overturn Vista's bad PR, and it now appears that Windows 7 will finally put all that nonsense to rest for good.īut if there was one criticism of Windows Vista that was valid all along, it was that Microsoft over-reached in its desire to milk its core OS for all it was worth: Vista shipped in a shocking 6 product editions (compared to 2 when XP was first released, and four by the end of its mainstream retail life).

Indeed, for the first year of that OS's existence, Microsoft was largely mum, and it wasn't until the software giant fixed the few real problems with Vista in Service Pack 1 ( see my review) that the company finally turned its attention to marketing the fact that, yes, Windows Vista was actually quite good, thank you very much. Over the past few years, I've felt like the lone voice in the wilderness trying to communicate that Windows Vista wasn't as horrible as people had heard.

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