Vista version for developers?

[Zcumbag]

Hi,

I was just wondering what version of VIsta i should use on my development computer. Is "ultimate" the one needed? I obviously need to be able to handle rights and such so I assume that the "home" versions are not for me... but what about the buisness versions?

thanks!

[Brad Jones]

The Vista versions are more about features and cost than about development. There is a Vista SDK that is more important for development.

I'd skip the Home Basic Edition. It doesn't support Aero and is lower on the features list. If you can aford it all, then you might as well go with Ultimate. Otherwise, it is a matter of what features you want:

Home Premium:
- has Media Center
- has DVD authoring and burning program (WIndows DVD Maker)
- WIndows Movie Maker HD
- does -not- have fax and scan
- has parental controls
- supports 16gb of Ram on a 64bit machine
- supports WIndows Anytime Upgrade
- Themed slide shows
- support for media extenders (ie. XBox 360)

Business Edition:
- Has a Domain join, group policy support, and an encrypting file system
- has fax and scan, and small business resources
- no parental controls
- supports 128gb of Ram on a 64bit machine
- includes ShadowCopy
- includes desktop deployment tools for managed networks
- includes integrated smart card management
- supports WIndows Anytime Upgrade
- Wireless Network provisioning
- Roaming User Profiles

Enteprise Edition:
- Business Edition features +
- has BitLocker drive encryption
- supports worldwide interaface languages
- Virtual PC Express
- subsystem for UNIX-based applications
- includes integrated smart card management
- does not support Anytime upgrade

This is only a partial list of some of the differences.

Brad!

[boudino]

According to information I have from Microsoft's people, Vista is not yet ready for development. VS has problems on it mainly in debugging, caused by new Vista's security features (UAC). I think Vista won't help you in development, it causes troubles more probably. If you need Vista because your clients use it, I would recommend you to develop on XP and install Vista in VPC and just test the application on it.

[Zcumbag]

Thanks for your replies. I'm not really looking to upgrade to Vista in the nearest future. But I suppose that I eventually will... So I thought I'll have a look into what version of vista that would be sutible for a developer. I probably will go with Ultimate. Thanks!