Windows 8 Editions
Mostly sensible...
ArchiveMicrosoft have announced the various flavours that Windows 8 will ship in, and we’ve found it far easier to follow then previous years, but can’t help but feel they are padding the features a little (e.g, they all come with Windows Update!). You can take a look for yourself on the Windows Blog site found here. To summarise, Windows 8 for the masses, Windows 8 Pro for tech enthusiasts and business, and Windows RT for all ARM based devices. The obvious new edition is Windows RT (which likely stands for Windows Runtime, hardly catchy!) - it’s basically embedded Windows, for tablets, kiosks, and anything else that can fit an ARM processor.
The rest of us x86\64 people get the good old Windows\Pro. Curiously, RT includes a basic Office suite, Word, Excel, Powerpoint and OneNote. What RT doesn’t include is Windows Media Player - what’s going on there? I look forward to seeing Windows on a tablet, as everyone knows they are generally only good for YouTube and music, so let’s hope there’s a RT player too.
One last sneaky change - it seems Windows Pro will be required if you wish to continue running Windows Media Center, as MS explain - “Windows Media Center will be available as an economical “media pack” add-on to Windows 8 Pro”. Let’s just hope they’ve got their act together with WMC and are on the path to total Xbox, Zune and Windows Phone 7 integration.