Vista Business or Ultimate?

I'm going to order a new laptop in a couple weeks and it will have either Vista Business or Vista Ultimate. This will be my first Vista machine.

I've searched here and I've read Microsoft's version comparison chart / page. I don't really care about Media Center (but I've never had it); I have a Tivo and that does what I need. I wouldn't use BitLocker, MovieMaker, or the Dreamscenes movie desktop backgrounds.

Is there anything else I'm not aware of that I'd be missing out on by choosing Vista Business instead of Vista Ultimate?

 

Nope, stay with business

 

Why not just get Home Premium? Or if you're in school, check if your school has the program with MS where you can get a free copy of XP and/or Vista (XP pro/Vista Business for my university).

 

Yeah, I second getting vista home premium, unless you need to join a domain, you'll have almost all the features.

 

will you use windows media center-get ultimate then
if not get business
also wats your degree?

 

Thanks all. Quick answers:

I've never used Media Center - never had it, don't expect I'd use it.

This is related to school, I'm starting an MBA program. I will not be living on campus. Vista Business is the minimum required level, probably due to AD.

I'm going to order the system with whatever my final OS choice is; the cost savings from messing around isn't worth my time at this point.

Sounds like the consensus though is that since I have no need for MediaCenter there's no point in going with Ultimate. Thanks.

 

besides business is really good

 

You can get a student discount price on Vista at your learning institution. Business edition has more security features since it emphasizes 'business' use and more communications tweaking. You can find the Vista differences on the Microsoft web site. Home versions are more geared to entertainment.. videos, music, pictures. Vista Ultimate is good too since it incorporates all the features from other versions. In the future you might use MediaCenter.

 

Here's a question, what is the price difference? If its an OEM machine, in many cases, the difference in cost between Business and Ultimate is small enough that just getting Ultimate would be worth it, if later you decide to sell your computer. I know that Dell's price difference was 20$, but it varies quite a bit. Let us know.

 

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/compare-editions/default.aspx

This explain all diffrenance between product ultimia has few add on like dreamscene and bit locker stuff like that is has all feature of vista home premuim and vista buiness in one

 

I was running 32 bit Vista Business for a while. and i noticed it didn't come with the cool Poker game.

And when i installed 64 bit Vista Ultimate it came with that Poker game stock.

 

Texas hold 'em was an optional download for the Ultimates. There are other options for download with Ultimate like Dreamscenes. I have Ultimate x64 on my desktop with 8gb RAM and Ultimate x86 on my laptop. Vista Ultimate x64 is gaining ground on compatibility but it's not 'there' yet such as Adobe's Flash Player. Good thing Vista Ultimate x64 has both x64 and x86 version of IE.

 

? Flash works fine in Vista x64. You mean it doesn't work in 64-bit IE, which is not surprising as Flash Player is not a 64-bit plugin. Note that Adobe has not made a 64-bit Flash Player for *ANY* platform, ie. there's no way to play Flash in 64-bit Firefox for Linux, and the Flash in OS X is 32-bit also.

64-bit IE is more of an interesting thing to tinker with briefly than something to make into a regular use browser. The same goes for 64-bit Firefox for Windows, which does exist and is current. Nothing works with that either.

You can't use Flash Player as grounds to determine Vista x64's compatibility.

 

Thanks to Vash for pointing out the poker game.

Relativity makes a good point -- price delta between Vista and Ultimate is $45-$70 depending on the avenue through which I order the laptop. I've narrowed down to a specific model but that detail is not relevant. Resale is moot though, as after two years service in my hands it will go to one of the kids for an additional two to three years, at which point the version of Vista is moot.

My question is answered, thanks to those who read and contributed