Windows 8 will have three versions. What are the differences?

Microsoft says it will introduce three Windows 8 editions, including Windows RT, an version optimized for ARM tablets and PCs. 

|
Reuters
Microsoft Windows 8 will ship in a variety of flavors, Microsoft reps announced today. Here, the interior of a Microsoft retail store in San Diego.

Windows 8, the next-generation Microsoft OS expected to debut later this year, will ship in three distinct "flavors": Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro, and Windows RT. So says Microsoft communications manager Brandon LeBlanc, who took to the Windows blog this week to tout the "flexibility" of the new Microsoft ecosystem. 

"We have talked about Windows 8 as Windows reimagined, from the chipset to the user experience," LeBlanc wrote in a post on Blogging Windows. "This also applies to the editions available – we have worked to make it easier for customers to know what edition will work best for them when they purchase a new Windows 8 PC or upgrade their existing PC." 

So which edition will you be picking up? Well, it depends on what kind of machine you own. Windows RT is "the newest member of the Windows family," LeBlanc writes – an OS optimized for ARM tablets and PCs. In practice, that means "touch-optimized" desktop versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote, as well as a stripped-down interface and improved battery life. Windows RT is what you'll run on your new tablet. 

Windows 8 – plain old Windows 8 – is what you'll run on your desktop. This is the real successor to Windows 7: A workhorse OS with all the niceties, including access to the new Windows Store and Internet Explorer 10. And then there's Windows 8 Pro, which is geared toward business users or "enthusiasts" (read: Windows geeks). 

Windows 8 Pro, LaBlanc writes, "includes all the features in Windows 8 plus features for encryption, virtualization, PC management and domain connectivity. Windows Media Center will be available as an economical 'media pack' add-on to Windows 8 Pro."

Unlike past versions of Windows, Windows 8 is designed to mix the traditional elements of desktop operating systems with elements from the world of tablets and smartphones – the tiles, the apps, the touch-controlled interface. Microsoft has not specified an exact release date, but smart money is on this fall – just in time for the holiday shopping rush.

For more tech news, follow us on Twitter @venturenaut. And don’t forget to sign up for the weekly BizTech newsletter.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Windows 8 will have three versions. What are the differences?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/Horizons/2012/0417/Windows-8-will-have-three-versions.-What-are-the-differences
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe