Windows 8 might have as many as nine editions

Online sources are indicating that Microsoft might offer as many as nine different editions of Windows 8.

The references to all these editions were found in the Windows 8 Preview Edition registry.

The versions referenced are:

Windows 8 Starter,
Windows 8 Home Basic,
Windows 8 Home Premium,
Windows 8 Professional,
Windows 8 Professional Plus,
Windows 8 Enterprise,
Windows 8 Enterprise Eval,
Windows 8 Ultimate,
Windows 8 ARM edition

Of course, this could be just a temporary entry in the Windows 8 registry and we might get fewer versions at launch after all. But still… It is going to remain a headache for the consumers to choose between these variants.

It seems pretty incredible that the company is continuing with multiple editions targeting both home and business customers. Apple seems to be doing incredibly well with one edition for home and another one for servers.

Remains to be seen if this works out well for them in 2012.