I don´t think Microsoft has any credibility left and I can't think of anybody who would actually beleive them, especially if they tell us how much better Windows 7 is. That's what they said about Vista, and that's what they are still saying about Vista! And yes, Vista is exactly as horrible as everybody thinks it is.
So by comparisson alone, Windows 7 will rock.

You write that it is possible to change the way Vista looks if you don't like it. Only problem is, nobody can find out where to do this. I have already seen that this is much easier in 7. And I haven't been having any Vista-breaks (well, 7 breaks then) since I installed 7. I had 5 to 10 of those Vista-is-thinking-moments a day before.
So to me, 7 is better - even if it only does what Vista should have done - it works.

You still rule

Resource usage alone is a good reason to switch. Keep in mind a very large percentage of your readers are gamers... so even if their numbers on the people who only use their computer to read or work are true, your audience isn't the ones they are talking about.

It also has some good features for home media and networking, which anyone who is a technophile (who you cater too BTW) will care about... now try to right an article on "why it *does* matter". It will be easier than you think.

I tried Windows 7, and it wasn't terrible. It did seem to be an improvement over Vista.

What I want to know is, WHO SAYS VISTA ISN'T BAD? Really, I want to know who these people are.

I'm using a top-o-the-line laptop. Well, it was, two years ago. It's got Vista, a fast hard drive, 4gb of RAM, and all the trimmings.

Yet, it's slower than a Windows XP laptop built 4 years ago. With not-the-latest components, such as 1gb of RAM, a slower HD (same used in older Ipods), and a bunch of sluggish innards. It was built to be tiny, not fast, yet it sits there making fun of my fancy Vista system.

Vista SUCKS. It's sucked when it came out, and it still sucks.

I'm in the process of 'upgrading' to a 9 year old operating system, because I want something faster and more reliable.

And I'm not alone.

Please, for once, get your facts straight!

Captcha sucks too!
2nd try

i beg to differ good divce.com i LOVE windows 7 i have used it since the first mile stone and it is beautiful and windows Vista sucks

Having played around with Vista and 7 a bit, I pretty much agree with you, Charlie. I never really understood what the Vista-haters disliked so much; sure, UACs are annoying, but that's the point, and they shouldn't come up if you're just browsing the web or checking emails. Plus, it's prettier than XP. I mean, I still prefer Linux and OS X to any version of Windows, but in the end it's all about what you do on the machine, not what your window manager looks like.

I'm one of your "propellerheads" making my living keeping Windows machines running more-or-less smoothly. I use Vista (32 and 64), XP, and Linux in the office. I use Vista 64, XP, and Linux at home (and I may have a BSD machine embedded in my NAS box).

To the extent that "as long as it works, it's cool," you're right, the OS doesn't matter. The thing is, I, a professional Windows tech, had to spend more than 12 hours hand-tuning Vista to make it run something-close-to-smoothly, and the only reason I have it at home at all is to take advantage of my 64-bit dual-core CPU and 4 gigs of RAM (which XP can't do, and while Linux can, my wife likes to use my computer once in a while, and I swear her maiden name was "Ludd").

If Windows 7 is as stable as it has been reported to be, and even if it's only 50% as fast (which means only 4 times as fast as Vista on the same hardware), and if it's a lot more stingy with hardware requirements, then the WoW player in me is going to love it - AFTER I spend another 12 hours turning off all the *UTTER* *CRAP* that Microsoft always ships with every one of their OSes - things like Aero Glass, and Windows Media Center, and Windows Search, and file indexing, and... I could go on.

Bottom line: I look forward to Windows 7 because Vista *DOES* suck. But if Win7 doesn't suck a whole *HELL* of a lot less, my wife is going to learn Linux, or she can learn to maintain her own damn computer.

When Vista came out I didn't buy it because I wanted to see what other people said about it before upgrading. I did that when I upgraded to XP from Home. I've been using XP for the last 9 years and I'm very happy with it. I won't be upgrading to Vista and I will wait to see how Windows 7 is before I upgrade to that.

I've tried Linux and I've tried a Mac computer and to me XP is just easier for me and my family.

Device, network, wireless network, bluetooth, SSD drive, Power, security, management is so much better in Windows 7 the upgrade makes so much sense. Yes it has icing of a new ui but the cake is so good you don't need the icing.

Glad I got me a Mac. :)

Finally someone that understands and for everyone thinking vista sucks your wrong your just upset that they finally came up with something smarter than you. Vista has rocked since day 100 just like XP everybody said it sucked when it came out but a few service packs later everybody wants to play like its the most amazing operating system ever. I can find more flaws in XP than I can in Vista.
P.S. Macs Suck it took me 5 minutes to hack into my friends from my house and create myself an admin account.

Well I have had Vista for over a year now with nary a problem. Most users out there could care less about benchmarks and the like. As long as the gui is pretty and it runs smooth the average user will have no problem with Vista. Most users use their pc's to access the internet, download and play music, play games etc... They don't tinker around with the os, and wouldn't know how to open the command window if their life depended on it. The analogy that I like to use is that of an auto mechanic and the the general car driving public. Most new cars drive fast, consume less fuel, have millions of fun options and gadgets inside. But ask a mechanic who has to work on them and they will tell you they are a nightmare to troubleshoot and repair. They like the good old days when engines were simpler and less complicated .
Microsoft is a corporation and understands this and designs there OS's for the masses around the world, not for the pc nerds that like to get under the hood, take things apart and rearrange how the parts work together so to speak.
When Vista hit the market most pc's out there really weren't up to spec and could not handle the load Vista put on the machines. Now several years later and most people have upgraded to dual or quad core rigs that can handle Vista without a problem. I can guarantee you that if Windows 7 was released two and a half to three years ago that all the Vista haters would be Windows 7 haters...

I believe you are misrepresenting the people who actually read the reviews and listen to the blogs. I dislike Vista, because I've tried to help my family members fix their Vista computers and cannot do it after I have spent two or three hours trying to fix their internet access. While I agree that most users won't really know the difference, people like me notice lots of things about the OS...And we're the ones who fix the computers when the everyday common user breaks the system. So, reviews do matter. Opinion does matter, and saying that, in the end, no one will know a difference seems ignorant and illogical to me.

"Will they notice that it's faster? Not unless they run benchmarks every day." Not true at all. Anyone will notice the huge performance increase as soon as they boot it up, that has gotten faster as well. Don't read into others' opinions, just go test out the OS for your self.

Vista rocks, it will take me a while to go to 7 because by all accounts 7 is the same with a new taskbar and a few gimmicks I probably won't use very often. If boot up speed is way better then maybe. I haven't had to reload my operating system yet with vista and I'm going at over 2 years now (fingers crossed) I love my Vista computer.

Just to add my 2 cents. Windows 7 is a fantastic PC gaming platform. Just in the beta alone, my games run about 15% better than when I was running Vista or Win XP. I did like Vista but it has its flaws. It did eat up a lot of system memory so game performance suffered. I don't have a bitch system either. I am talking about games like GTA IV, Far Cry, Crysis, Mirrors Edge, COD4 & 5 running at full graphics @ 1920x1080p resolutions. Nvidia is doing a great job with their win7 beta drivers so that makes a big difference. Oh and I have win7 boot camped onto my macbook pro that is supposed to be all badass but once again. The macs are just not up to the challenge. Don't get me wrong, I love working on my mac but it isn't a workhorse for games. Not until we can get some serious power in that aluminum case.

CS: I've been using vista for a few years, and now win7 since december as my primary OS.

I had no problems with vista. Everything worked, programs started a lot faster than XP, and all was good.
I'm not a light user either. I used XP, vista, and now Win7 for everything from gaming to developing websites, developing applications, graphics work, video editing, audio editing, 3d animation, the list goes one.
I've also provided support to many vista users. They did not experience any issues that wouldn't have occured under XP.

Perhaps your issues with vista were PEBKAC related?

Windows 7 is just a polished vista.
The article got it absolutely right.

(And yes, the captcha sucks, I typed it exactly as displayed but it said its invalid.....)

I have been using PC since 1982, used DOS, then Windows through Vista, Liked XP Pro the best but I left the PC world behind 4 years ago went to Macs I have just upgraded to a 24" 3.06Ghz iMac with 1 TB HD 8GB Ramand a 15.4 " 2.8 Ghz MacBook Pro with a 500 GB HD and 6Gb Ram. Love it will never go back unless I put Windows 7 on my Mac with VM Ware.

I don't know. My 29 days with vista was a nightmare. Drivers not working, incompatibility issues, Internet access that was spotty, wifi connection that required frequent reboots. It is a clunky piece of program that has a lot of fancy doo-dads attached to it with the coding equivalent of duct tape.

Maybe they fixed these issues but Microsoft lost this customer. I run Linux on my desktop now and bought me a Mac. There is a reason why people say that it is a shiny sluggish OS. That's because it it. You can polish a turd but it's still a turd.

http://www.howtocleanstuff.net/strategies/how-to-polish-a-turd/

Does the OS matter or do the applications matter? Depends, I would say. When I got a laptop 2 years ago with vista preload I (a windows and OS/2 user and admin in the IT business for long long years) tried for about 3 months to tailor it to all my needs. I wasn't really impressed. Then a colleague proposed using Ubuntu as an alternative. Knowing at first not much more about Linux than a couple of UNIX commands, after 3 months using it I got everything to work (except Lightroom, for which I use a XP in a virtual machine), and more. And, apart from games, more comfortable than on Vista. I installed Vista again for my wife, after servicepack 1 came out. That was clearly a major improvement, and she is very satisfied (after working out the usual kinks when switching the OS). Still I prefer Linux for my needs (which is not gaming). I'll surely check Windows 7 out but I'm used to Linux now and not likely to change. And for gaming, I'll probably buy a Wii...

I don't see all the fuss about Vista... I've had it on my desktop and laptop systems for quite some time now and have had no trouble at all... I personally am pleased with Vista.

As a builder of machines for 12 years, I have to say the author of this article may be a great writer, talented and may even possess above average IQ.. but thand GOD he is not a writer and not anything else.

The writer of this article is using his emotions. He has no scientific bearing on what Windows 7 means to computing. In fact, he is hardly a scientist, much of the way a pizza maker suddently becomes a critic of a piece of engineering on a spaceship built for NASA.

I've been using Windows 7 beta now for 3 months.

Although I would like to kick the owers of Microsoft in the rear for taking all of us for a ride over the last 9 years... I will proudly say that Windows 7 is truly AMAZING.

For starters, it is reliable and will protect yuor data. And when it comes to protecting my documents and data, isn't that the most important facet of any machine?

As far as it's capabiliites, Windows 7 is designed to handle the new hardware such as solid state hard drives (ths is the future of ALL hard drives) and works peacefully with other compenents and software.. something that Vista and the old Windows Millenium failed to do.

For those of you who hate change, you can stay on Windoews XP. But it's 8 years old... and will lose 'support' very soon.

Observation: People seem to buy new cars after 8 years when they can afford to do so. If you can afford Windows 7 and you want performance enhancement like you have NEVER seen before in Windows -- and you like change and improvement.. I recommend you BUY Windows 7.

I've already beta tested Windows 7 and its Vista with a few tweaks. Just like Vista is XP with a few tweaks. It doesn't run faster, the benchmarking I did on it using Everest shows that it's just as slow and just as cumbersome as Vista is. The only benefits I see coming from Windows 7 is that it supports over 16 gbs of ram (unlike Vista, which, though it claims to beable to handle more than four gigs, it still only recognizes four gigs unless you do alot of tweaking that most people don't know how to do), and it uses less space over all when compared to both Vista and XP. Maybe Microsoft is finally getting back to the no-bloatware ideal.

Windows 7, I installed it, used it for about 12 hours now. My opinion; Best release of Windows ever in terms of the user interface, folder structures, resource management, appearance.

My only peeve is it took over my router and domain in the house and made a really hairy issue for me to give access back to the rest of the house.

Took 20 minutes to install.
I did need the right drivers for my D-Link wireless N card & my intel motherboard chipset. Vista drivers did fine.

as far as the OS is concerned:
All of the UAC issues that bugged the snot out of me with Vista Ultimate since its release.... gone.
Or at least more transparent and user friendly.
This is above and beyond a minor facelift over Vista.
With my Avast! Anti Virus installed and Open Office;

W7 Ultimate running 44 processes. Using 30% of 2GB RAM
Vista Ultimate 66 processes, used 50% of 2 GB RAM

Interface, the taskbar is much improved, no more of the garbage taskbar buttons we cant read anyhow.
Everything goes to a smaller Icon of type; application, explorer, IE, etc...
Similiar to the quick view for drawings in AutoCAD 2009/2010, mouse over the icon you get an instant preview of each instance to select.

The desktop clear button is now just a sliver to the far right of the clock. Nice and handy.

Performance... the OS is lightning responsive with all features enabled.
I'm thoroughly impressed.
This is everything I expected and didnt get in Vista.
The Windows 7 folder structure, very clean and well laid out.

I found this the most comprehensive and best release of Windows to date and it is a Beta.

I have been running Vista for 4 months now without a single glitch. It is MUCH faster than every copy of XP I have ever run (which is not to degrade XP, which was fast and stable as well, just Vista is better). I am running Ultimate 64, so maybe that makes the difference, but most of the techs I know started liking Vista after the SP came out.

f**k windows, thats only a slow fu**in OS which isn´t able do do anything correct.. buy an Apple Macintosh, it´s the best and you don´t have to use windows anymore..

Since years the same question: Why Windows?
it´s the worst OS, everything is better then that "windows"!

>dr did you even read the article? if you had you would realize that you are the exact reason this article was written, you still think it is all about the product name and believe all the propaganda that gets thrown around every day. why don't you take a minute and form your own opinion rather than regurgitate what you are told to be the "Truth".

It is sad that Microsoft has lost it's confidence entirely and is allowing their marketing dept. to fix their problems by forcing a redesign of Vista that is going to be sold as a "new" OS. Key word being "sold", as these changes are not going to come to the millions of current Vista users for free.

A few service packs and users would have a sleek, well developed Vista OS. There isn't a single feature or "fix" in 7 that could not have been accomplished with Vista over time. It's the same process by which XP became XP; give Vista 2 more years and it will be XP. But in our internet-connected, instant gratification world, there is no time for any imperfection.

7 is a warped PR-marketing-service pack. Don't get me wrong; 7 is not a poor OS by any means and I like it, but the repackaging of a decent OS smells of deceit that plays directly into the sheep-herd mentality of most users.

The sad part is that at only 2 years old Vista is a perfectly good Microsoft OS. Why didn't they just fix any problems with Vista instead of rebranding their flagship product? It only means that corporations that did not adopt Vista are even less likely to adopt 7. What will happen when users start complaning about 7? Is Microsoft going to scrap it and release yet another "new" OS?

The stick-to-our-guns confidence of Microsoft of old has been replaced with Apple-like public opinion-based management. Microsoft will win of course, but it doesn't mean that some of us older users aren't scratching our heads. As far as public opinion goes (which is all that matters, right?), we are just Vista fanboys I guess.

It is sad that Microsoft has lost it's confidence entirely and is allowing their marketing dept. to fix their problems by forcing a redesign of Vista that is going to be sold as a "new" OS. Key word being "sold", as these changes are not going to come to the millions of current Vista users for free.

A few service packs and users would have a sleek, well developed Vista OS. There isn't a single feature or "fix" in 7 that could not have been accomplished with Vista over time. It's the same process by which XP became XP; give Vista 2 more years and it will be XP. But in our internet-connected, instant gratification world, there is no time for any imperfection.

7 is a warped PR-marketing-service pack. Don't get me wrong; 7 is not a poor OS by any means and I like it, but the repackaging of a decent OS smells of deceit that plays directly into the sheep-herd mentality of most users.

The sad part is that at only 2 years old Vista is a perfectly good Microsoft OS. Why didn't they just fix any problems with Vista instead of rebranding their flagship product? It only means that corporations that did not adopt Vista are even less likely to adopt 7. What will happen when users start complaning about 7? Is Microsoft going to scrap it and release yet another "new" OS?

The stick-to-our-guns confidence of Microsoft of old has been replaced with Apple-like public opinion-based management. Microsoft will win of course, but it doesn't mean that some of us older users aren't scratching our heads. As far as public opinion goes (which is all that matters, right?), we are just Vista fanboys I guess.

Does the OS matter enough for people to pay for the upgrade? For the vast vast majority no. And it better not bust my favorite app.

Besides a browser I use my custom Desktop Search. It can randomly play videos and can search and return passwords, URL's... It's the application that always counts more.

In the old days it would be suicide to try and force a OS change on your user base.