Choosing Windows Vista...

Windows Vista has been around for a while and while many users tend to avoid it at all cost because of its resource hog, Microsoft step-by-step has "forced" users to switch to windows vista platform by announcing end-of-life of windows xp. Except the famous aero GUI, Microsoft has less to argue with customer about the new features in Windows Vista. Most users commonly will show any hesitations to switch to new platform, include me of course :P. Vista, being outperform by windows xp, makes many end users who still use old hardware decide to stick with windows xp.

But we cannot neglect the fact that windows vista has its advantages too, for example, better memory management and better multitasking support. Maybe in two or three years, in the advent of eight core, the performance advantage of windows vista will take into effects. But for right now, the wisest choice is to stay away from windows vista unless you own a very state-of-the-art hardware which has taken any single penny from your wallet :).

So for candidate windows vista users, you will face 5 editions of windows vista to choose, i.e :

1. Windows Vista Starter Edition
2. Windows Vista Home Basic
3. Windows Vista Home Premium
4. Windows Vista Business
5. Windows Vista Ultimate

Actually there are other windows vistas like windows vista entreprise, but it's for different market segment and end users are not advised to use them :).

Let's begin with windows vista starter edition. Again, just like windows xp starter edition, windows vista starter edition shares the same fate as its predecessor. Windows vista starter edition is purposedly built and marketed for poor countries like Indonesia (sigh-my country), India, Russia, etc.

But even with its price tag ($45) which Microsoft says it's really affordable, most of Indonesian people still hesitate to grab it. The wealthy one will tend to purchase windows vista ultimate or windows vista business since they have spent their almighty dollars for their dream machine. While the poor with poor hardware will drop any idea to use windows vista starter edition because their hardware simply cannot fulfill the requirement.

Of course for all of us, we use computer for making our work easier. So it's essentially very important to have computer system which won't become bottleneck itself. That's why although windows vista starter edition has been around for a while, the fuzz is not so popular here. I think Linux has better fame than windows vista starter edition in Indonesia ;).

For average home users, you simply have to choose of whether to grab windows vista home basic or home premium. If you don't want DVD playback capability bundled into the operating system and want to save more penny to buy third party movie playback software, then you can choose windows vista home basic. But if you like media center idea be integrated into your operating system, then you can go and buy windows vista home premium.

And yet, there are two editions left, windows vista business and windows vista ultimate. As we can read from its name, windows vista business is marketed for business user. So the feature integrated there are mostly for ensuring data integrity. Microsoft has decided to remove some entertainment capability exists on windows vista home premium from windows vista business. So in short, windows vista business is only meant for business user. Simply like that!

The others who are business users but also want some extra entertainment capability from windows vista home premium, can spend extra cash and buy windows vista ultimate. Just like its name, windows vista ultimate is the highest edition in windows vista, means it has the highest number of features integrated and bundled with the highest price that will suck up any hard-earned money you have from your wallet. Enough said..;)