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Introducing Windows 10 Editions

blogs.windows.com

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Re: Introducing Windows 10 Editions

#21

Post by sp332 »

ghshephard wrote: post #2

I realize Microsoft has to price segment, which requires they call out an "Enterprise" category for Mobile and Laptop/Desktop, but sometimes I wonder if they really need all of these categories. For example, do they really get significant financial value from having a Windows 10 Home, Windows 10 Education, Windows 10 Pro? particularly as they are offering it as a free upgrade to Windows 7/8 users. Notice they don't h…

It's only free as an upgrade, and even that is time-limited. New copies will still cost money.

Re: Introducing Windows 10 Editions

#23

Post by Spooky23 »

bskap wrote: post #6
ghshephard wrote: post #2

I realize Microsoft has to price segment, which requires they call out an "Enterprise" category for Mobile and Laptop/Desktop, but sometimes I wonder if they really need all of these categories. For example, do they really get significant financial value from having a Windows 10 Home, Windows 10 Education, Windows 10 Pro? particularly as they are offering it as a free upgrade to Windows 7/8 users. Notice they don't h…

"Pro" is for people that don't have volume licenses but want the business-specific features like domain joining. Remember, Windows 10 may be a free upgrade, but it's not free and I imagine they still make quite a bit of extra money from businesses buying Pro. "Education" looks like it's a discounted volume license available to schools. Not sure what extra features it's going to have but it's not something that anyone…

Education exists because Microsoft provides cheaper licensing to schools as a marketing exercise. They also let you buy the license entitlement through volume licensing, so smart schools will buy PCs with FreeDOS or Linux and BYO Windows.

This creates a problem, because the Federal government requires that it receives the lowest possible price for a particular product. So they carve out the education market as a separate SKU.

Re: Introducing Windows 10 Editions

#24

Post by wvenable »

stephengillie wrote: post #14
wvenable wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An upgrade; the underlying technology in Windows hasn't changed significantly since Vista.

It reminds me of the Model Year - We're still on Windows Model Year 2008.

Windows 10 was version 6.4 internally but it sounds like they're going to go make it 10.0 on release.

(Windows 8.1 is 6.3 and Windows 7 is 6.1 and Vista is 6.0)

Re: Introducing Windows 10 Editions

#25

Post by grandalf »

ghshephard wrote: post #2

I realize Microsoft has to price segment, which requires they call out an "Enterprise" category for Mobile and Laptop/Desktop, but sometimes I wonder if they really need all of these categories. For example, do they really get significant financial value from having a Windows 10 Home, Windows 10 Education, Windows 10 Pro? particularly as they are offering it as a free upgrade to Windows 7/8 users. Notice they don't h…

> My suspicion is they would have managed to avoid customer confusion, and captured pretty much all the same economic value, with a simple list of:

You are probably right, but doing so would have cost MS a significant amount of money. This is an entrenched company trying to avoid killing so many cash cows.

Likely the biggest motivation for this segmentation/pricing strategy is profit extraction from existing, business customers.

Re: Introducing Windows 10 Editions

#26

Post by wernercd »

sonnyz wrote: post #7
ghshephard wrote: post #2

I realize Microsoft has to price segment, which requires they call out an "Enterprise" category for Mobile and Laptop/Desktop, but sometimes I wonder if they really need all of these categories. For example, do they really get significant financial value from having a Windows 10 Home, Windows 10 Education, Windows 10 Pro? particularly as they are offering it as a free upgrade to Windows 7/8 users. Notice they don't h…

I agree. A simple "Windows 10" with no subtitle would really make things easier for the consumer. Appending 'Home' on what is really a feature reduced version of Windows 10 doesn't seem to be in the best interest of the customer.

Define "Feature Reduced"? Lack of Domain? HyperV? Remote Desktop options?

What features are people "losing" with Home that 95% of "Home" users "need"?

Sure... You and I can't live without half of those things, but home users generally won't notice - or care - if HyperV is missing.

You pay more for Pro/Enterprise because it has added features that Power Users/Businesses need.

Glass Half Empty/Full... Potato/Patato... Home isn't feature reduced... Pro is feature added. Enterprise is feature complete.

If you want feature reduced... look into versions like Starter Edition - http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-w...

Re: Introducing Windows 10 Editions

#27

Post by scott_karana »

jeswin wrote: post #20
cp9 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why would you take your home computer and connect it to the workplace?

You should Google up and see how common this problem really is. My example, I am a consultant. But I do have domain accounts in companies I consult. The OS that came with the machine (windows 7 home) had to be written over since it won't let me log in. The point being, it's such an artificial restriction. Most PCs are laptops, and this really restricts mobility.

For clarity, are you talking about joining your laptop to the domain, or merely logging into domain accounts using a non-domain-joined laptop?

Re: Introducing Windows 10 Editions

#28

Post by ikeboy »

sp332 wrote: post #21
ghshephard wrote: post #2

I realize Microsoft has to price segment, which requires they call out an "Enterprise" category for Mobile and Laptop/Desktop, but sometimes I wonder if they really need all of these categories. For example, do they really get significant financial value from having a Windows 10 Home, Windows 10 Education, Windows 10 Pro? particularly as they are offering it as a free upgrade to Windows 7/8 users. Notice they don't h…

It's only free as an upgrade, and even that is time-limited. New copies will still cost money.

What seems to be new in this announcement is that if you do upgrade for free, you get that for life. Before it wasn't clear if you'd need to pay subscription fees afterwards.

Plus, you can still get retail Win7 DVDs at under $100, then upgrade for free to Win10 Pro.

Re: Introducing Windows 10 Editions

#29

Post by dm2 »

sizzzzlerz wrote: post #8

One thing I haven't discovered yet is whether the installation of 10 is going to be a brand new install rather than an upgrade. In other words, will it be necessary to reinstall all my applications after moving to 10?

Necessary? Probably not.

But you should anyways.

Re: Introducing Windows 10 Editions

#30

Post by kej »

sizzzzlerz wrote: post #8

One thing I haven't discovered yet is whether the installation of 10 is going to be a brand new install rather than an upgrade. In other words, will it be necessary to reinstall all my applications after moving to 10?

The technical previews have offered an upgrade option, but that's not guarantee it will be included in the final version. Either way, it's almost always better to do a full reinstall for a major version like this.
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