Microsoft Vista Info Leaked

slashnutt writes to tell us Yahoo News is reporting that Microsoft accidentally released information about Windows Vista earlier than originally planned. From the article: "Microsoft disclosed information about a plan to release eight different editions of the new operating system on a company help page that was under development. The company has not made any official statements about the different versions of Windows Vista it plans to offer. The company has since taken down the Web site and declined to confirm the information and said it will offer more details about the Vista launch, targeted for the second half of 2006, in the coming weeks. Microsoft spokesman said in a statement 'This page has since been removed as it was posted prematurely and was for testing purposes only.'"

Comments

Re:What you talkin' about?

[hwangeruk]

Its not so retarded. Imagine you are a decision maker. Do you roll your own distribution? Or choose one off the shelf? If so which one? The guys argument may not have been delicately articulated, but its still a valid point. "Linux advocates" can hardly make negative comment about MS product range when in the Linux world the choice is even broader. Whether more choice is bad, or product ranges having missing features is a discussion on value which Linux may well win in terms of price/features (I mean how do you beat free? if not for total cost of onwership) is another matter. But he is right. I too would rather for general office automation at work choose an XP flavour from 8, than a Linux distribution from many many more (even if there are only a handful of serious choices)

Re:It won't be that confusing to retail buyers

[MojoStan]

Don't forget about the people who d/l it from kazaa or bittorrent?

Ars Technica actually has an interesting take on this (Enterprise Edition, Business Edition, and pirated versions).

Most Slashdot readers probably know about a pirated "corporate" version of Windows XP Pro that's widely available on peer-to-peer networks. This version's volume licensing (and no activation requirement) is what makes this pirated version easy to use by illegal downloaders.

For Vista, the only versions availabe through volume licensing (Business Edition and Enterprise Edition) are missing features that most pirates want (Media Center features and other goodies). The versions that pirates want (Home Premium and Ultimate) will require activation, so illegally downloaded copies of these versions will be a pain in the ass to use (in theory). Doesn't MS block "cracked" versions from downloading updates?