Professional Plus is probably Enterprise only, like the Enterprise edition of Win 7. So remove that from the list, remove starter, since it's not worth considering, and you've got 4. You only really need 3 though; Ultimate editions are underutilized by most of the people who have them installed. They're just a way for Microsoft to make a bit more money off of the people who mindlessly 'buy the best'.

Home Edition
Home Premium
Professional.

OR

Windows 8
Windows 8 Premium
Windows 8 Professional

That's all that's needed.

newtekie1It is funny you say that, if I didn't get Windows 7 for free, I'd still be using Vista. There is nothing wrong with Vista really, and at this point after all the patches Vista is a very good OS. And if it wasn't for getting Win8 for free, I'd definitely stick with Win7/Vista.

For me vista was one head ache after another. Constantly cashed drivers sucked. Yeah after the second patch it was finally okay then the 3rd patch came and all hell broke loose once again. This is why I said it. I love windows 7 if 8 gives me some thing more that what I get now then yeah it would be worth considering.

the only way i will buy win 8, or even ever install it for that matter, would be if i can "disable" metro and boot straight to my desktop and NEVER have to see that hideous cellphone overlay. I really just want some of what Microsoft is smoking over there to be honest though, it's gotta be some sweet sh!t... i mean if i had that stuff i'd never get off it.

Well, Microsoft did announce that they would be supporting Win 7 for up to 10 years, from launch date.
'Mainstream' support until 1/13/2015
'Extended' support until 1/14/2020

Source

So, there ya go.

Oh good grief. Why the Hell do you need all these versions? I don't see why you can't just have Home, Professional and Ultamate. (and of course the versions for countries that require it ).

I do not know what Microsoft is thinking any more, 6 different flavors of one OS? What are they trying to do really? What is next 7-8-9 maybe 10? Good grief!

DepthStarter is for an extremely cheap alternative targeted for developing nations. Think schools in Africa and the likes. If you find that disgusting you need to take a good look at your life.

Bullshit. It exists only to annoy the user into paying for better versions, which he won't, he would just pirate Ultimate instead. What, you think people in developing countries give a damn about copyright? Still, one more pirate Windows user is one less free OS user, Microsoft knows that very well.

Also, it's commonly pre-installed on netbooks.

yea lol starter is not for developing countries.... windows xp is... starter is more of a "demo" of win8 to give the user enough function it works but if they want anything else they have to buy up. i mean for the love of god its impossible to properly change the desktop background, wuts up with that?

freaksaviorYay another variation of windows added. I think we only need 3 of them.

Home Premium
Professional
Ultimate

I think we only need two: Windows 8 and Windows 8 Professional--like Windows 2000. One for the home environment and one for the work environment.

All i want is Win 8 gaming OS version with ever bit of crap that is not required for gaming\benchmarking ripped the fuck out of it... :P..

whatt
the more versions they offer the more hard to choose (or the easierway to spend your cash)