Looking through the listing at what is and isn’t supported between the editions lead to some interesting results.
None of the home editions support SMP. They do support dual-core though.
The 64 bit editions of the home versions are restricted to 8-16 gigabytes. Not that home users are likely to max this out within the next year or so, but it’s still an interesting choice where this OS may last for 6 years like XP has.
“Windows Anytime Upgrade” isn’t available on their two most expensive offerings. I’m wondering if this is anything like automatic updates or if it’s a “you can buy a more expensive version at a discount” sort of deal.
Making DVDs and movies is not allowed on the two business editions, but some functionality is available even on the lowest home edition. I can see several instances where making a DVD would be useful to a business. Instructional videos, for example.
They can’t make the excuse that this is to prevent employees from wasting time at work, because the two business editions include the games explorer function, and “updated games”. They also have Premium games, but it’s listed as optional.
You home users want to be able to send a fax to a friend, or the government, etc? TOO BAD! Faxing isn’t allowed for you plebes anymore.
You want to access your home system from work to get documents and such? TOO BAD! Only the business and ultimate editions have remote desktop hosting support. All you home users will have to use VNC… (Which probably won’t work properly with the Aero interface they’ve added. ;)
You have to get the Ultimate edition (or be part of an enterprise big enough to get the enterprise edition) if you want to do anything with Unix. The Unix tools are U/E only.
Amusing choices made in the document. I really want to see the price list though so I can put a price on each of the features that is there or missing.