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There’s going to be a whole bunch of Windows 10 versions

Most of them make sense, too.

by Peter Bright - May 13, 2015 6:48 pm UTC

Every time Microsoft develops a new version of Windows, people hope that there will be fewer variants and sub-versions than before. Every time, those hopes are dashed.

Windows 10 isn't going to change any of that.

Microsoft has just announced the set of Windows 10 SKUs, and there are seven of them, plus some others not mentioned.

The first few editions are straightforward. Windows 10 Home, Windows 10 Pro, and Windows 10 Enterprise will fill the same roles as their Windows 8.1 namesakes. Home will be the mainstream consumer version. Pro will add most of the management features (such as domain joining) that Home lacks. Enterprise will add further management capabilities and will only be available through volume licensing agreements.

Small businesses and BYOD users will probably stick with Pro. Both Pro and Enterprise will support Windows Update for Business. Enterprise will additionally support the Long Term Servicing option for mission critical systems.

Windows 10 Mobile will be the successor to Windows Phone and Windows 8 for small screen tablets, confirming once more that the deservedly maligned Windows Mobile branding is back. It will be used on phones and sub-8-inch tablets. It won't include the traditional Windows desktop, but it will include the Project Astoria Android subsystem that will offer some compatibility with Android apps.

Windows 10 IoT Core will be an ultra stripped-down version of Windows 10 for small, cheap embedded devices.

The next couple of editions, however, are less obvious.

Windows 10 Education will be similar to Windows 10 Enterprise—only available through academic volume licenses—and it will be available as an upgrade to Windows 10 Home and Pro for students and schools, but how it differs from Windows 10 Enterprise is currently unknown and not at all clear.

Windows 10 Mobile Enterprise will similarly be a volume licensed upgrade for Windows 10 Mobile that adds, in Microsoft's words, "flexible ways for businesses to manage updates." Regular security and mobile device management tasks won't need this version; normal Windows 10 Mobile supports those tasks.

Not mentioned, because they're not available standalone, are the Xbox operating system and the HoloLens operating system. They're going to be Windows 10 more or less. It is One Windows, after all. How their functionality and restrictions will compare to the other Windows SKUs still isn't entirely clear.

In a similar vein, Windows 10 Enterprise and Windows 10 Mobile Enterprise will both have embedded/embeddable variants for bundling with appliance-like hardware such as ATMs and point-of-sale systems.

As ever, the question is "why so many SKUs?" Why not just make one version of Windows and be done with it?

The high level answer is "consumer surplus." Because enterprise buyers are willing to spend more on Windows than home buyers, Microsoft wants to charge them more. The company could not get away with literally charging them for the same software (the enterprises would just buy the cheap version and reap the savings), so instead, it creates a range of minimally differentiated versions. Features that are essentially irrelevant to home users but desirable to enterprises are removed from the home version and restricted to the Pro or Enterprise SKU. Enterprises that want those features therefore have to shell out the extra money for the more expensive SKUs.

But at a lower level, the range of options continues to perplex. The Education and Mobile Enterprise versions in particular seem hard to understand. The abundance of BYOD means that Windows 10 Mobile must contain almost all of the "enterprise" management functionality that Mobile Enterprise will have; the ability to have slightly finer control over updating does not immediately feel like a significant benefit.

It's also not clear what Education will do that an academic volume licensed version of Enterprise would not do. Academic volume licenses are already priced differently than non-academic ones, and one feels that this should be sufficient.

As for the distinction between Home and Pro, this will no doubt cause confusion among those crying that Windows 10 is supposed to be free. It isn't. Windows 10 upgrades (from Windows 7, 8, and 8.1) will be free. Windows 10 will also receive a lifetime of feature updates, and those will be free as well.

But new installs of Windows 10 on new systems will continue to cost money, with the system builder (be it an OEM or a self-built machine consumer) having to fork out for a Windows license. And those licenses will come at two price points: Home and Pro, with Pro being more expensive. Microsoft's free upgrade offer is merely eliminating the paid major version upgrade—not making Windows free.

The story for most PC buyers will be more or less the same as it is today; the only time they might ever have to "pick" a Windows version will be on desktops and laptops that offer both Home and Pro. Microsoft hasn't announced pricing, but we'd expect the current price difference, typically about $50, to continue.

Peter Bright / Peter is Technology Editor at Ars. He covers Microsoft, programming and software development, Web technology and browsers, and security. He is based in Brooklyn, NY.

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