I've found some references, when looking for information on WAIK installs of Windows 8 of a varient called Windows 8 core, that can be installed off the professional edition disk. There's also a mention of it on Win Super Site that says
The cheapest, called MSDN Operating Systems, costs $699 a year ($499 renewal), and of course includes Windows 8 (Core), Windows 8 Pro, and Windows 8 Enterprise. You get five licenses each for Windows 8 Core and Pro, and one Multiple Activation Key (MAK) for Windows 8 Enterprise.
What is Windows 8 core? Is it the new 'home' edition or something else? What differentiates it from the pro and enterprise editions?
3 Answers
Windows 8 (Core) is simply Windows 8. It's the base (core) product, which Pro and Enterprise built on.
And I say that because I can find no official reference to a Core product and it was in parenthesis in your source (compared to the other editions where no parenthesis was used).
The "Core" from "Windows 8 Core" simply emphasizes it is the "plain" Windows 8 and not one of the other versions (Pro, Enterprise, RT).
Paul Thurrott of WinSuperSite explicitly names Windows 8 Core in his giant comparison table of different Windows 8 editions (notice the plain "Windows 8" is absent from the table because it is referred to as "Core"):
It means the "Home" edition for all intents and purposes. Perhaps the best source for this is MSFT's own site (for Windows programmers). Search for "PRODUCT_CORE" here (which programmers rely on) and look at the "Meaning" column:
Note that it currently refers to it as "Windows 10 Home" but all other editions have their own qualifiers (e.g., search for "PRODUCT_PROFESSIONAL", "PRODUCT_ENTERPRISE", etc.) In fact, prior to the release of Windows 10, the "Meaning" column for "PRODUCT_CORE" (at the same link) referred to it as simply "Windows 8", which normally means the home edition by default (in the absence of the terms "Pro", "Professional" or "Enterprise").
