Will there be a "low end" Windows 7?

[lpbk2713]

I'll be replacing my old laptop soon but I don't want to run out and buy one Oct 22 with a version of Win 7 that is comparable to Vista Home Basic in that it just has the fundamentals and not much more. The advertising I have seen doesn't say anything about how it might be set up.

And BTW, if anyone is interested, the Office Depot advertising circular that came with today's Sunday paper has what looks like a good deal on a HP laptop for $449, Win 7 already installed and available Thursday.

Thanks in advance.

[DainBramaged]

1. Yes, it will be available early next year, you won't need all of the bloat

My two Vista systems I built are Vista basic, and they are fine. Initially it will be Home Premium upgrade, @ $119 list.


http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/compare

[Statistical]

2. Win7 Basic is limited to 3rd world countries and can't legally be installed in US.

There are technically 6 versions of Windows but most are unavailable to end users.

Windows Starter - only sold to OEM for use on netbooks (32 bit only, limited to single core, and has no aero).
Windows Basic - only sold to emerging market countries (China, India, etc)
Windows Home Premium - 99.9999% of home users will use this
Windows Professional - business & power users
Windows Ultimate - people who like wasting money
Windows Enterprise - large volume license business users

So Starter, Basic, and Enterprise are not available in retail and never will be.

That leaves:
Home Premium
Professional
Ultimate

To the OP:
I have Home Premium running on a netbook (with very weak Intel Atom processor) w/ 2 GB of ram and it works fine. It was kinda slugish with just 1GB and ram is so cheap I would recommend upgrading any machine to 2GB.

[lpbk2713]

3. OK, thanks for the info.

I didn't want to buy a laptop with just the basics for an OS. Now I know I should be OK.


:thumbsup: :hi: :thumbsup:

[Statistical]

4. Yeah Microsoft certainly tries to make it difficult.

I am not sure what is so hard about.

Home & Pro.

This 6 flavors nonesense doesn't do anyone any good. The good news is virtually all systems sold to home users will be home premium and likely that is all anyone needs in non business domain environment.

[Statistical]

6. Ok. Maybe I was misinformed. Dell is selling laptops with Windows 7 - Basic.

If you buy the OS in retail box just gets "Windows 7 Premium" if you buy a computer with Windows 7 already installed just make sure it says "Windows 7 Premium".

Looks like some OEM are using Windows 7 Basic.

[hunter]

5. I think it's called Ubuntu. And it's free.

:P

Seriously, it could be done, something similar to Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Fundamentals_for_Legacy_PCs

But that's not the game Microsoft is playing. I quit that game at 98SE.