The Windows 7 startup screen.

Microsoft released Windows 7, its newest baby, to the wide wild world of retail sales on October 22 of this year. Long before that, though, various builds had been floating around the Internet, starting with the very first leak of the Beta in December of 2008.

A newer Beta build was officially released to the public on January 9, but expired on August 1. Next up was the release candidate (RC), which has been available since April 30 and will be expiring on June 1, 2010. Then came the release to manufacturing (RTM) build on July 22, the last of the RTM builds for Windows 7.

Your writer has been busily testing out this final RTM build since September. Now that the retail version is out in markets (and yes, I’m saving up to buy one), let’s take a look at how the experience has been so far.

PRE-WIN7

If you’ve got a tech buff in the family or circle of friends, now might be a good time to get an opinion with regards to hardware upgrades, or the thorny question of “Should I simply buy an all-new system that’s already optimized for Windows 7?”

If you own a desktop, this can be a serious/pricey question depending on how old your machine’s hardware is. In particular, you’ll want to check (or have checked) your processor and motherboard, to see if they can safely take on more memory.

If you own a laptop or a netbook, the question is even MORE serious. A host of Win7-enabled portable computing solutions went on sale alongside Microsoft’s baby, specifically so that they would ship with Windows 7 already loaded. So the discussion becomes, do I attempt to upgrade this machine to the new OS (which it might not be able to support), or do I buy a new machine?

If these questions can be answered, then the user has to make a choice with regard to the Windows 7 edition to be purchased. Here are the six editions, in order of ascending functionality, i.e., the last items have the most features.

Windows 7 Starter – A very basic 32-bit variant that lacks the Windows Aero theme.

Windows 7 Home Basic – One of the versions available here in the Philippines, it contains Aero, but not all of its abilities.

Windows 7 Home Premium – The first of the three major retail editions. Includes a complete Windows Aero installation, plus Windows Media Center and touch-screen controls.

Windows 7 Professional – The second of the three major retail editions. Has all the features of Win7 Home Premium, plus enthusiast features and Windows XP Mode.

Windows 7 Enterprise – This edition is available through volume licensing for tech companies, and cannot be purchased through standard retail channels. It can support Multilingual User Interface packages and selected UNIX applications.

Windows 7 Ultimate – Essentially the same as Win7 Enterprise, but this can be sold to home users and is thus the third of the three major retail editions.