"Version" vs. "edition"

Solution 1:

For software products...
I'll better give examples.

Inside each release of SQL Server 2008 (2000 or 2005) there are editions like:

• Standard Ed.
• Enterprise Ed.
• Developer Ed.
• Express Ed. (free)

which are bound to different sets of provided functionalities or features.

Hoping that you've read answers to your "differences between “update” and “upgrade”?", you may update your MS SQL Server 2005 by installing a service pack or hotfix getting after that an elevated version number (of the same edition). Or, one can upgrade from Express Ed. 2005 to Enterprise Ed. 2005 with the same version. Or from the same version to elevated version of SQL Server 2008, really new major release.

Solution 2:

There are many different uses of each of those words (including the heavy use of version for software), but in their main meaning, the difference is mainly given by the (New Oxford American Dictionary) definition of edition:

edition (noun): a particular form or version of a published text

The emphasis is mine, and it outlines the core of the matter. If you're thinking of a text, each state of the manuscript or typescript is a version of the text, while only published versions are editions

To give an example: over a span of one year, there were many many versions of my thesis, but there was only one edition of it (the final, published work).