That's right! Not only is Vista taking over the world with in excess of 60 million licenses shipped to date, but the operating system itself is multiplying! The latest Windows Vista head count reveals that there are no less than 13 editions of the latest operating system from Microsoft. Just more fuel for Apple zealots to beat the old drum of the customer confusion Microsoft is dealing with its luxuriant Vista offerings. The image on the left includes the four main Windows Vista editions as well as the Windows Vista Anytime Upgrade Packs sold separately from the operating system's installation media. As you will be able to see, the total count is eight. So what about the remaining five editions?

Well, in addition to Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Ultimate, Microsoft is also offering a few variants of the operating system designed for marketing purposes, for certain markets worldwide or for a specific group of users. Windows Vista Enterprise for example falls in the last category. Enterprise is only available to Microsoft's Software Assurance customers via volume license. But Enterprise is also the sole edition of Windows Vista end users can download for free from Microsoft.

The Redmond company is offering a virtual hard disk of Vista Enterprise, designed to be integrated with a hypervisor. The virtual machine image is time bombed, but still it offers users the possibility to test drive the Enterprise edition of the operating system for free for a total of 30 days.

There are three versions of Vista available on selected markets around the world. The main example is Windows Vista Starter. The Starter edition of Vista follows on the footsteps of Windows XP and will be delivered on no less than 139 emerging markets. Additionally, due to the antitrust policies of the European Union, Microsoft was forced to offer Windows Vista Home Basic N and Windows Vista Business N for all the countries over the pond. The last Vista I was referring to when I said marketing stunt, was the Windows Vista Ultimate Bill Gates edition, only a small number of which went on sale back in January 2007.

Taking into consideration that most of these Vista editions also come in 32-bit and 64-bit versions, Apple users might be on to something. Still, you do have to give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt. The fact of the matter is that the Windows Vista installation media contains almost all the editions of the operating system. My Vista Business DVD for example, comes with Start, Home Basic, Home Basic N, Home Premium, Business and Ultimate. Moreover, the DVD also bears the inscription "Includes Windows Anytime Upgrade" which means that it shipped by default with the Windows Vista Anytime Upgrade Packs. Simple isn't it...?