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ut there still is some good news in what’s on tap when Windows 7 ships, most likely in the third or fourth quarter of this year.

Microsoft went public on February 3 with its planned version (SKU) line-up — but not pricing — for Windows 7. After receiving an admittedly very quick SKU overview from the Softies yesterday, here are my first impressions of Microsoft’s new SKU plan.

The Good

Microsoft learned a lot of lessons from Vista — among them, that too many SKUs with too few justifications created customer confusion.

Microsoft is putting the bulk of its marketing dollars and muscle behind just two of the Windows 7 SKUs: Windows 7 Home Premium and Windows 7 Professional. “We think over 80 percent of customers will be on those two SKUs,” Bill Veghte, Senior Vice President of the Windows business said. “That’s where we are putting our marketing focus.”

The Bad

While Microsoft is going to emphasize just two SKUs, it still is going to offer five or six (depending on how you count) different Windows 7 versions. (And more, if you count the stripped-down K, N and KN versions the company is required to sell overseas because of antitrust rulings). Here is the full Windows 7 SKU line-up:

* Windows 7 Starter Edition (for emerging market and netbook users)
* Windows 7 Home Basic (for emerging market customers only)
* Windows 7 Home Premium (the main “Media Center” equivalent)
* Windows 7 Professional (the business SKU for home users and non-enterprise licensees)
* Windows 7 Enterprise (for volume licensees)
* Windows 7 Ultimate (for consumers who want/need business features)

Veghte claimed that Microsoft can’t have a one- (or two-) size fits all SKU plan because it has more than a billion customers worldwide running Windows. There are too many diverse needs to shoe-horn them all into two SKUs.