Windows 7 SKUs have been officially announced by Microsoft. Lo and behold, they have learned from the lessons of Vista and released... what the heck, 6 SKUs? It's not as bad as it seems though.
We first heard there might be multiple versions of Windows 7 out there, such as a LE for netbooks, a couple weeks ago. At that time we shrugged, rolled our eyes, and said "it'll still be an improvement over Vista as long as they keep the number of versions below 4". Well, there are 6 versions expected to be released now. Epic fail Microsoft. Epic. Fail.

The versions are as follows:
Windows 7 Starter (limited to three apps concurrently)
Windows 7 Home Basic (for emerging markets)
Windows 7 Home Premium (adds Aero, Touch, Media Center)
Windows 7 Professional (Remote Desktop host, Mobility Center, Presentation mode)
Windows 7 Enterprise (volume license only, boot from virtual drive, BitLocker)
Windows 7 Ultimate (limited availability, includes everything)


The reason why this is not as bad as it looks is that most people shopping for computers in retail aren't going to see any of these besides Home Premium and Professional, which is more like things were for XP when it came out. And since we all know XP has managed to become the ultimate benchmark for something from Microsoft working well, that's good news.

Source: http://www.laptopical.com/-windows-7-skus-announced-consumers-confused-cant-count-total-on-one-hand.html