Windows 7: Windows 7 Professional vs. Home Premium

You pay the price for going ultimate and the majority of new users wont need it.

Yeah, just waste my money on features I will never need. . .

No, thanks.

If I was paying for the software, I'd get home premium because I don't need any of the other features OR, I could always add 3rd party applications (mostly free) like TrueCrypt to get those features I might need in the future, or anytime upgrade if necessary in the future.

If you really need or like RDT, then go for Pro, although there are 3rd party apps for that feature as well, although I've never tried them.

In my case, I'm getting Ultimate because I will shortly have a TechNet subscription so I don't have to pay separately for it, but if I was paying for it, I'd get HP for sure. And I'd get an upgrade version rather than full. There is always going to be some fairly easy way to install it. There is no general performance difference between the versions unless you are planning on adding a lot of ram. The higher versions support more ram. But HP supports more than enough ram for 99.9% of people.

But some people can't be bothered to think think things through for themselves and just buy Ultimate. MS loves you.

You got that right my friend!
MS loves your money!
Most people don't know exactly the differences between the versions but they go Ultimate for nothing.

For me HP is good enough, I dualboot with XP and I don't need MS virtual piece of s... and the other feature from Ultimate.

Remote Desktop can be done by free softwares like Teamviewer. Just open the Quick Start Customer client and write down the ID and Password and take it with you, then you can connect from anywhere to your home PC and take "all control".

About the only thing I see in Ultimate that might be of interest to the average home user ..
would be the ability to backup your operating system.
But, You can Get Acronis to do this for a lot less .. and use it on any of your computers.

I have Home Premium on order .. In case I'm forced to discard XP

Actually all versions of Windows 7 will allow you to backup your operating system...including the ability to create a "system image". The only thing that you can do with Ultimate, Professional or Enterprise that cannot be done with other versions is backup to a network location. With any version of Windows 7, you can backup to DVD, hard drive or external drive.

RDP is easily replaceable with a handful of free options...including VNC. Security does vary..but for most internal network home use...it's not much of a concern.

I went with Ultimate for my new computer because I am a systems admin and do have an active directory domain controller running at home and I wanted the ability to join the domain. Therefore, I picked the Vista 64-bit OEM from NewEgg with free upgrade to Windows 7. Think it was about $185 if I remember correctly.

True, but his will be bigger than yours ...

Actually I'm an old power user but HP works for me - I have no need for domains or Bitlocker and such.

Yeah, when I bought Vista, I bought Home Premium. If I hadn't been given Ultimate, I would never have upgraded. With Windows 7, if I didn't have Technet, I would get Home Premium as well. BitLocker, language packs and XP Mode would not be enough for me to upgrade.

try ultimate man. you will see the PERFORMANCE compared to s**king of these 'home premium'

Oh, dang! I'd forgotten all about those "Ultimate Accelerators" ! If I'm lucky somebody here will have a hack so I can use them in my Home Premium without having to pay extra ...

Edit: I just realized that's why my Home Premium 7600 install is running so much slower than all my previous Ultimate installations!