Don't waste your money on Ultimate

[Kari]

My fellow geeks, I think this kind of argument is not only healthy, but also needed in this and other user forums. I also think we should accept this difference in opinions whenever we nerds and geeks argue.

OP told his opinion and arguments which in his opinion support it. This time I have a different opinion and I am not so willing to revalue or change it, but it has happened that I've had for years a strong opinion and I've been forced to change it after arguing here with somebody.

That said, I want to say this once more: Every individual user is entitled to decide which OS and which version he / she wants. Sometimes this decision is not so easy. This topic should therefore be more discussed, to help those who have difficulties to make a decision by telling our personal experiences and opinions.

For me, +1 for Ultimate.

Kari

 

[pparks1]

My fellow geeks, I think this kind of argument is not only healthy, but also needed in this and other user forums.

I wholeheartedly agree and it's the reason that I like this place so much...people can differ on opinions but nobody personally attacks or flames others.

 

[24c]

I use Ultimate for the same reason I got the 3rd seat option in the Tahoe......it is there if I need it.

The fact I have never used all of Ultimate, or the 3rd seat doesn't matter.

I have them, that is all that matters.

 

[pparks1]

I use Ultimate for the same reason I got the 3rd seat option in the Tahoe......it is there if I need it.

That's all that matters...as long as you got your monies worth...that is what matters.

 

[swarfega]

I went for Professional, I think thats enough for me.

 

[24c]

That's all that matters...as long as you got your monies worth...that is what matters.

@swarfega - I went for Professional on D:\ drive.

I'm happy - THAT is what REALLY matters

 

[Mystere]

I'm not aware of any student discounts on server OS's from Microsoft. I could be wrong because their licensing is pretty complicated...but I've never seen server OS's in the list. Nor am I a qualified student anymore either.

Microsoft DreamSpark

https://www.dreamspark.com/default.aspx

 

[pparks1]

Microsoft DreamSpark

https://www.dreamspark.com/default.aspx

Well, it's just too bad that I am not a student anymore and thus not qualified for any of this stuff. Thanks for the link. I've read a bunch of the FAQ stuff...seems like a pretty cool program. However, I think lots will have trouble with the single install, single activation limitation.

 

[DataMan47]

The only feature in Ultimate that looks interesting to me it the MUI.

But here's my beef with the MUI: why the hell is it limited to only Ultimate and Enterprise? Let's say you are a family living in Quebec. Some users of your family prefer English, some prefer French. Right now, the only sensible thing to do is to buy an English version and a French version, and have one computer set up for English and another set up for French. But what if there is a common shared computer on which you want both languages? Sorry, you gotta be an Ultimate/Enterprise user for that!

Okay, to be fair to Microsoft, this is better than how it was in 2K/XP, where MUIs were available only to volume licensing customers (and to MSDN). The idea back then was that MUIs made it possible for companies to support multiple languages in a more uniform way: deploy a standard base English version to all machines, and then on certain machines, install the MUI (plus, this ensure that every machine had the base language on it, so that the IT staff would still be able to navigate a machine that was given to a Spanish-speaking employee). But MUIs are pretty useful outside of corporate mass deployments, for multi-lingual immigrant families, for example.

Anyway, for me, the reason I care about MUIs is that they are necessary for testing software in different locales (especially in RTL locales like Hebrew or Arabic where the rules of layout can get really funky). But I have a MSDN subscription, so this isn't a problem for me personally (but even though I have access to free Ultimate licenses, I still use Professional and use Ultimate only on my test/debug systems, simply because I don't need the other features in Ultimate).

I really wish Microsoft would just kill the Ultimate SKU, make MUIs a universal feature (most immigrant families that would benefit from MUIs are not going to be able to afford Ultimate), and fold the other handful of rare and exotic Ultimate features into Professional. Remember back in the good old days when Professional was the top SKU? And then they could kill the Starter SKU, too. They can keep Home Basic as an emerging market product, but would it really kill them to make Home Premium the bottom item? HP is already the lowest that you can get at retail, so why the heck have an even lower Starter edition that--get this--doesn't even let you change your wallpaper?

PS: There's a bit of Vista history here: in Vista, the editions were not supersets, and Vista Business did not have Media Center and a few other "home" features found in Home Premium. So back in the Vista days, if you wanted both "home" features like Media Center and business features like Remote Desktop, you must use Ultimate. But with Professional being a superset of HP, Ultimate makes much less sense now for Win7 than it did for Vista.

 

[Brand]

I'll definitely waste some money on Ultimate, as my workstation deserves the name. However I don't need to buy a lot of them thanks to subscription, so for me it's just 319 bucks pending for waste.

 

[KiwiTT]

I'll be getting Ultimate so I have all the same features an enterprise edition has. I want to make sure I can test all the functions.

"Bitlocker to Go" is cool to.

 

[johngalt]

Feh - don't waste my time trying to tell me what I should and should not buy. *I* make my own decisions, and if you think Ultimate is a waste of time, I think you're crazier than a loon, especially seeing as you can still buy a TechNet subscription for 261.75 (25% off), which is less than the price of 2 Ultimate purchases, and get more than 2 licenses for each version of W7 that you can download, plus XP, Vista, Office 2007, Office 2003, Windows Home Server, Server 2003 & R2, Server 2008 and R2 (as of this Friday) and so many more products it is ridiculous.

IOW- don't buy W7 at all - get the damn Technet subscription instead. It also gives you 2 free professional support calls Just In Case....

 

[pparks1]

Technet is fine if you are "evaluating" software. Call Microsoft and ask them if the program is designed to be used for installing multiple copies of Windows 7 on home machines without paying for a Windows 7 license. I guarantee they won't tell you to save your money and buy Technet instead because it's cheaper. People use Technet as a loophole since it's pretty much impossible for MS to tell that you are using it long term rather than simply for evaluation.

 

[DataMan47]

IOW- don't buy W7 at all - get the damn Technet subscription instead. It also gives you 2 free professional support calls Just In Case....

But you'll be in violation of the license agreement since it's for evaluation and evaluation only--not for business use, not for personal use, not for use on any live system. But since MSFT doesn't bother to enforce this, many people don't care. But there are people who like to be on the up and up, and they'd be wary of that advice.

 

[Antman]

TechNet, MSDN, Retail, OEM - occupy desktops - saturate marketshare. A bit like magazine distribution. Dozens of different prices, one result. Part of Bill's original goal - a MS OS on every desktop in the world.

Honor thy EULA.

 

[abuttino]

Ultimate allows 4 tuners of each kind in Media Center, I don't think Professional does that.

There are VERY SUBTLE differences like that that may have people wishing they bought Ultimate.