Whether they price it differently is unknown right now but for regular consumers only 3 versions are presently being presented for Windows 8.

If they make that more expensive, corporations will pay more money and the average consumer wont be paying for any of the features they cant use anyway. (Since they lack an actual domain to connect to)

Just my 2cents

Though people have already figured out how to put it back on the consumer preview and it’s likely we’ll see 3rd party solutions with the final release if such clear problems persist through the beta stages.

MS has though started providing Windows 7 like start menu search and other tools that may provide enough usability to satisfy both tablet and laptop/desktop users but I agree MS needs to start a tutorial series to deal with any confusion and learning curve involved.

I think they were wrong to remove the start button though. Non Techies will be very confused by this. They will have to have some sort of tutorial on first install, kind of like how android does the walkthrough on a new phone.

But like I said in another post, most of us who know MS know not to expect too much until the SP release before considering it really final.

MS can take time to fix its issues but they eventually get to them.  Like Windows 7 is basically just the fixed version of Vista, there was no major changes other than fixing what was wrong.

So it’s just a question of whether the final release version of Windows 8 will require a major re-working or just a SP release to get all the bugs ironed out, but right now we can’t know because we haven’t even seen the beta release of Windows 8 yet.  The Consumer Preview was little more than a Alpha release just to give us a idea of what they are working on.  Though we may get that better view of it in just another month or two.

Even Android took over a year to start properly adapting when they first optimized for tablet use with Honeycomb.  These things don’t just happen over night and you can’t assume a preview is how it’s always going to be, especially when most of that is just a matter of developing the apps.

The versions have been reduced to just 4 now…

1) Windows 8 for standard that will replace Windows 7 Home Premium

2) Windows 8 Pro for the expanded range of features.

3) Windows 8 Enterprise for the Enterprise market.

4) Windows RT (Runtime) which is just the version of Windows 8 that will run on ARM.

And that’s it, aside from different language versions.

This is significantly shorter than the previously leaked rumored list that had 9 different versions.

While only the first three will matter to most of us as RT will only be offered pre-installed, and of course they will price each differently to reflect what is being offered.

Really, we should be glad they are finally getting rid of Basic and Starter Edition, along with the minor different variants.

But that isn’t unusual for MS and besides, most of us expect to wait till the eventual SP release before considering it the final version…

Come Windows 8 and tablets will have a desktop OS like traditional PC’s.  Add that MS has a patent they filed back in 2010 that’s for seamlessly switching between CPU’s when docking a device.  Something Windows 8 can take advantage of with both its Metro and desktop user interfaces.  So a tablet could literally become a laptop or even desktop when docked.

Even Android is pushing webtop solutions in which the UI will adapt to a docked device and that means it too will start supporting both tablet and traditional PC usages.

While Ultrabooks are beginning to integrate many features we normally associate with mobile devices like touch screens and motion sensors.  Along with features like MS Kinect, and other enhancements that are going to be coming out over the next year or two.

So rather we’re going to see a merger over time.

Really, tablets can in no way fully replace traditional PC’s the way they are now.  They can’t provide the performance and they’re main advantage is only when being mobile as otherwise the traditional PC is more efficient and actually designed for being productive rather than just consuming content as Tablets primarily are intended.

So let’s not confuse hype with what’s really practical and where the market will ultimately head towards.

There should be a Windows 8 and a Windows 8 Enterprise, period.

Someone buys a standard notebook (that always wil come with the cheapest version of Windows) and sometime later may need to join a real network. Doesn’t work, upgrade needed. The “upgrade” probably equals the cost of buying Win 8 Pro system builder. And it’s a mess as well and time consuming.

Microsoft could play those differentiation games quite well in the past. Not sure whether it is a good idea these days.

Microsoftis always somehow complicated, that’s the message the consumer gets.
Why not go to Apple and leave that behind you.

I also do not expect any attractive upgrade prices from W7 Ultimate to W8 Pro. Again, buying a system builder version will probably be the same price

We’re not supposed to think PC anymore.  It’s tablets.  That’s the market.  That’s where the money is, the future OS’s will cater to those first, with the primary input device being your middle finger. 

Fortunately MS got it right with Windows 7, and with decent hardware/software I’m good for years to come.  I am hopeful to ride out the obvious (and most likely expensive) transition of being a designer/video editor when tablets eventually kill the PC market, forcing me to completely retool due to a lack of legacy support.  It will be interesting to see how a tablet can handle what I do without overheating.