Microsoft Windows 7 SKU Lineup Nightmare

It is us, or does it get worse and worse with each generation of Windows? Windows 3.1 was fine with Windows 3.11 for Workgroups as an option, while Windows 95 and 98 were pretty much happy flying solo. Come Windows XP, we have Home and Professional in addition to 64-bit versions, and Windows Vista created a whole mess with plenty of different SKUs to choose from. Windows 7 won’t be bucking this trend though, as the Windows 7 SKU lineup shows a wide range of different editions that cater for specific market requirements. In fact, each SKU is a superset of the previous SKU, meaning the higher edition SKU will contain everything in the lower edition SKUs and more. The two primary editions will be something more familiar, and they are Windows 7 Home Premium and Windows 7 Professional. The complete lineup will include Windows 7 Starter, Windows 7 Home Basic (in Emerging Markets only), Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Enterprise and Windows 7 Ultimate. Good luck figuring out which one you need!