Indeed, though when I had win98, and got a new PC that came with XP.. I paid a HEAP extra, to downgrade back to 98

Been using the Pre-Beta since November, onto the Windows 7 7000 now, had no problems definitely looking good,

XP eat your heart out, no upgrade from XP to 7,

I've finally got Win7 running on a Virtual Machine, which is nice but I think I'll install it on it's own HD just to take advantage of the full system resources.  It's a tad slow when competing for the RAM with XP.  I haven't loaded any programs on it yet, probably wont' until I get it on my extra 60 Gb hardrive.  (Laptop)  So far, so good.

I just read a review over at PC User that gives Win 7 somewhat of a thumbs down, but ain't that always the way when a new incarnation of Windows makes an appearance... the so-called experts and press give it a ering, not necessarily because of anything real, but just because they can,

I don't give a rat's what any of them say!  I will go on my own obsevations and feelings, and personally, Win 7 is the best OS Microsoft (and Apple, for that matter) have ever put out... and it's not even out of beta yet, so where do these people get off putting the mocker on something that isn't finished yet.  Win 7 is looking good to me, and things can only get better with the end product.

In my opinion it *looks* like the most desktop friendly OS available... If *feels* stable enough to be a microsoft release (which is really scary )...

I'm with you starkers...  I realy do think this ones going to be a hit.....

I think too a lot of people don't like change at all....(look at what happend when microsoft changed the Xbox 360's dash)

Every day i find something else i like about W7....

I all ways try thing for my self and not take other people's word for it...

I should have done that with Vista.  Once I got the balls up to install it, I was glad I did.  And I find I'm in it more than XP now.  Whooda thunk it.

If they would only lose that stoopid taskbar!!! 7 is quick, and clean. I like the ability to use the gadgets w/o the sidebar. It installs well, and it seems to use little resources, of course, I haven't installed much yet. 

That's half the problem... some people fear change, others don't want to be bothered with learning new things... and others, it would seem, are afraid they don't have the mental capacity to learn a new OS.

The other half of the problem... so-called experts who are stuck in a rut and think the tried and true is best; people who put the mocker on new things simply because they fit into all of the above and don't want to expose their fears and ignorance... and then there's the sceptical detractor who has no real reason but puts the mocker on progress/something new just because they can.

The latter particularly annoy me because they perpetuate ignorance and ill-will based on what is usually an uninformed opinion of something they know little or nothing about.  While Vista mave have had some shortcomings and inadequacies to begin with, much of its failure to break into the OS market was due to bad press from these armchair experts who think they know what people like, want need and formulate a one-eyed opinion accordingly.

Fortunately, I am not one of those sheep who blindly follow and believe these armchair experts... I tried Vista for myself and liked it for what it did for me, not what someone says it 'should' do for me.  The same applies with Win 7, I will either buy or not buy it based on my own obsevations, wants and needs.  I don't care if 'joe wanker' over at PC User thinks Aero and the GUI is crap, or that it should or should not have this or that particular feature... if Win 7 pleases me and suits my personal wants and needs, that's all that matters.  Besides, I loves new toys... and when that new toy becomes a useful part of everyday life it's a win, win situation for me.

I can still remember when Xp came out no one wanted to use it, cos there was no drivers, prog's would not work that good or not at all, most games would not run or even install............

It's the same with vista and it will most likely be the same with Windows 7...................

People just need to sit back and go with the flow. OR MISS OUT!!!!

I tell you what i could not go back to XP at all now it seems so out of date.... well thats how i feal.

Remember that people in the know refer to that rag of a magazine as PC LUser for a reason...

I don't mind going to PC User online to find out what's new in the world of technology, and I will read reviews to glean useful bits of information regarding features and the like, but I sure as hell take no notice of writers opinions/points of view, as I'd rather evaluate things for myself.

What did I miss out on?

You won't have less trouble migrating to Windows 7 than you would migrating to Vista. It's basically the same thing, just better organized... So what did you miss?

Do we know this for sure?

In any case, sometimes it's good to reinstall anyways. Especially since you'll likely want to upgrade to the 64 bit version, which I'd highly recommend for future memory expansion and increased security measures such as PatchGuard.

With Seniors, this could certainly be a real issue.

Yup. "I've been using this for years with no problems, and I don't possibly see how this new thing is better" is common. Problem is, many of them don't even try the new stuff, leading to a purely one-sided argument.

Not much. You just took more chances sticking to an OS with inferior security. In addition, Windows 7 will have the same improvements that Vista had: Improved search, improved troubleshooting, a hardware accelerated UI, and the ability to pre-load software into memory, just to name a few.

Basically you decided to delay getting all of the benefits of Vista.

The biggest benefit is security. Not just UAC, either: For a lot of people, switching to Vista also means switching to a 64 bit OS, and this gives them PatchGuard, which helps keep malicious code out of the critical kernel sections and makes it nearly impossible to rootkit.

In addition, Microsoft has released many patches that are "Critical" in XP because XP runs pretty much everything with Admin privileges, but only "Important" in Vista because Vista's security measures protect system files and default to being run at lower privilege levels.

OK, so I went a different route altogether.  For some reason or another, my CD/DVD burner will not burn a DVD (CD's no problem).  So I coulnd't mount the .ISO to a disc.  No worries as I downloaded and installed a copy of Virtual CloneDrive on my laptop and mounted the .ISO to it.  Then I put a 30 gb partition on the Windows Vista partition and installed Win7 on it.  Now I'm triple booting Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP on the same 320 gb HD.

The Virtual HD was a nice try, but you need alot of resources (RAM) to do it.  I found Win7 competing with XP for the RAM and it was sluggish.  This way, Win7 has all 4 gb of the RAM to itself.  It's nice and fast, I haven't loaded any software up as it was 2am when I finally finished.  I did load the installer for my wireless and that keeps dropping from the network.  I'll have to look into that.

I feel like such a nerd.

Didn't you know, Monkeys have always been either nerds, or astronauts! 

A monkey smiley would be cool!!