Windows Vista has brought out six editions in totality. Out of the six, five will be available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions, barring one edition, which is the Windows Vista Starter. Vista Ultimate has talked about each of the six versions in detail.

So, lets go ahead and see what these editions have to offer. We will first talk about the four versions that are available through retail and OEM channels:

Windows Vista Home Basic Edition: This edition has been particularly designed for budget users who do not require support of advanced media and has many similarities with Windows XP Home. Vista Ultimate states, “The Windows Aero UI with translucent effects is not included with this edition. The 64-bit Home Basic will support up to 8GB of physical memory”.

Windows Vista Home Premium Edition: Along with the features of Home Basic, this edition has such additional features as, HDTV support and DVD authoring. Also included are extra games, mobile and tablet PC, network projector, touchscreen and auxiliary display (via Windows SideShow) support, and a utility to schedule backups. These features will specially cater to the multimedia requirements of the home market segment. Vista Ultimate states, “Home Premium supports 10 simultaneous peer network connections (compared to 5 in Home Basic). The included Meeting Space will also allow for interaction (in Home Basic, you may only view meetings), but Remote Desktop sessions may only be received, not controlled. ”

Windows Vista Business Edition: This edition has been primarily designed for the business market segment and can be compared with the Windows XP Professional and XP Tablet PC Edition. This edition is loaded with all Home Premium features, the exceptions being Windows Media Center, Parental Controls and Windows DVD and Movie Maker HD. The additional features as stated by Vista Ultimate are, “The additional features in Windows Vista Business is an IIS web server, fax support, Rights Management Services (RMS) Client, file encryption, dual processor (two sockets) support, system backup and recovery, offline file support, a full version of Remote Desktop, ad-hoc P2P collaboration capabilities, Previous Versions (Windows ShadowCopy), and several other business features not in Home Premium”.

Windows Vista Ultimate Edition: This edition is a dream come true for all PC enthusiasts, gamers and power users. Windows Vista Ultimate, as the name suggests, is at its powerful best. Talking about this edition’s powerful features, Vista ultimate says, “This edition combines all the features of Home Premium and Enterprise, and includes a game performance tweaker (WinSAT), special customer support services and exclusive downloads dubbed Ultimate Extras. The 64-bit version will support up to 128GB of physical memory.”

Let’s now turn our focus towards the two remaining editions, which most of us in the ‘First World’ would not essentially resort to. These include:

Windows Vista Starter Edition: This edition, like the Windows XP Starter, will cater to markets only in India, Colombia, Thailand, and Indonesia. This edition has been brought out by Windows Vista as an attempt to cure the epidemic of widespread software piracy in these nations. Highlighting the limitations of this edition, Vista Ultimate states, “This edition has significant limitations, e.g. 32-bit only, allows the user to work on only 3 applications at a time, does not accept incoming network connections and a physical memory limit of 256MB. In addition, only AMD’s Duron, Sempron and Geode processors, and Intel’s Celeron and Pentium III CPUs are supported”.

Windows Vista Enterprise Edition: A superset of Windows Vista Business, this edition targets the enterprise segment. Vista Ultimate talks about this editions added attractions, saying, “Additional features include a multi-lingual UI, BitLocker Drive Encryption, and UNIX application support. Windows Vista Enterprise will not be available through retail or OEM channels, but only through Microsoft Software Assurance. Since this edition is a benefit of Software Assurance (SA), it will include several SA-only benefits, e.g. license allowing multiple virtual machines to run, access to Virtual PC Express, and activation via VLK. The 64-bit version will support up to 128GB of physical memory”.

Trying to assist confused Windows Vista users upon their choice of the edition that will be best suited to their needs, Vista Ultimate remarks, “Now lets answer the million dollar question of which edition you should buy. For starters, we think Home Basic should be totally ignored and business users should get the Business edition (duh!). The choice between Home Premium and Ultimate is trickier, i.e. you are paying between $100 to $150 more for yet-to-be-known Ultimate Extras - the main benefit of Windows Vista Ultimate. So unless you have a fetish for videos on your desktop or the option to get the OEM version of Ultimate, Home Premium seems to give the best bang for the buck for home users”.

Go ahead. Take your pick!