It's odd how the US and the UK share a common language but seemingly have a different outlook on everything else.

You would rarely (maybe never) see a blurb in a book written by a Brit that thanks God "for providing me with the skills to write this book", yet in technical books written by US authors you see it all the time. Similarly it seems to be par for the course for US authors to thank their "lovely wife XXX and our two wonderful children" (or even more excessive prose) whereas UK authors might just stretch themselves to a "thanks to my wife for putting up with me" in their blurbs.

In a similar way US computer magazines always seem to say that they like a product even if reading between the lines you realise they actually hated it, whereas UK computer magazines take delight in calling a spade a spade and saying that something is useless if that's what it is.

So (finally getting to the subject ...), it's not really suprising that the US and the UK have two different takes on the number of Windows 7 versions.

A US writer said in his piece that Microsoft have taken note of the complaints about the number of Vista versions and have announced both fewer versions and no overlaps (i.e. each version contains what the previous version did and a bit more). Theme: it's it wonderful ...

Meanwhile the UK PCPro magazine has a piece on its web site (http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/246562/windows-7-to-come-in-six-flavours.html) complaining that there are almost as many versions of Windows 7 as there were of Vista (and thus that Microsoft haven't learnt a thing).

I'm with the latter interpretation. But then I'm a Brit (despite being an exile) and my book didn't thank God or go on and on about my wife (let only my "kid") either.