I've been running the beta for 3 days now on my primary PC. It's amazing!!!

The hardware is less than 6 months old, and all the hardware drivers were already there in Windows 7. Plus, the drivers all have to pass Microsoft QA standards, so this time driver support will be there from the start.

Boot times are down to about 15 seconds, and shutdown takes less than 5 seconds. The new task bar, show desktop, and tile features rock, and system settings (and other navigations) are even easier to navigate than WinXP.

This is truly what Vista should have been when Vista first launched - I'm sold.

Maybe Windows 7? ;)

[Fixed. -Rick]

From what I've read, driver support -is- Vista's driver support. Obviously, yes, it behooves a company to provide good driver support upon release, but this is much like the 95->98 and 2000->XP transition; all of the hard times are already over, so the drivers are simply "there" for the next generation of Windows.

That said, looks like Microsoft is finally trimming the fat. Very good news, that.

"getting new systems preferring instead to stick with XP-based machines. In addition, many consumers and businesses today are opting for the Windows XP downgrade option at an additional expense"

So because a bunch of people stuck with XP instead of Vista they are not going to upgrade to Win 7? That doesn't make any sense. They are waiting for a better OS to come out to upgrade. They have ancient machines running a rather outdated OS. Even if they updated their machines hardware XP is still getting old. Win 7 brings a lot to the table, just like you mentioned in the article. I am betting the PC maker reps that Ben Reitzes talked to were not running the Win 7 beta or they might have sang a different tune. Win 7 is the better OS, it will drive PC sales.

"Microsoft's recent problems (and here) delivering the Windows 7 beta have also served to reduce confidence by many."

Once again you use a legitimate fact to support your false conclusion. Microsoft's problem delivering the beta was due to greater then projected interest in Win 7. Maybe it is because they listened to analysts like you that they didn't have enough bandwidth and servers available to serve all of the downloads.

One possible reason that analysts are so down on PC sales for 09 is that the US happens to be in the beginning of the biggest recession since the depression. I don't know, just a though.

It's funny, because I've just installed Vista 64 for the first time a month ago, and I couldn't be happier about it. I honestly don't understand people's critics, because to me it's better than XP in any aspect. Sure if you want Aero to work at maximum pace you'll eat resources, but then again, deactivate it if you don't have the HW required for it. I understand though the frustration of those that installed it in the early days when there were missing drivers and support.
Hope that Windows7 is even better.

My only grip with vista or vista 64 (which is what I use) was it was a resource hog, but now that you can get 4 gigs of ram or under $100 and 6 gigs for ~150 it's not that big of a deal anymore.

Windows 7 is nice though, I do like it a whole lot better than vista. They just need to fix the quick launch bar IMO I don't like the mac OS style stacking, never have.

Articles like this really make me wonder what the hell these guys are analyzing. People are not buying new systems right now due to the recession. A YEAR from now there's a much higher chance that people will snap out of their technology drought and, strangely enough, Win7 will be there to greet them.

The tech community is buzzing. Vista has started to turn around since SP1. The people that read these news sites, that write tech blogs, and frequent tech forums are the ones that will make Win7 work. We are the ones who yay or nay the consumer base on new releases, through recommendations to family and friends that are not as informed.

Crashing MS servers, in my opinion, is a huge early success. Unfortunately, they relied on analysts to predict interest, and they were horribly wrong.

Windows7 will be the next great OS.

Have been testing the beta Windows 7, and while it has some nice features, I don't feel compelled to upgrade from Vista.

XP was great
Vista (64 not 32) was v good.(although marketing was the weakest point of the OS)

Win 7 64 beta so far the best. I do hope they will go further in the right direction.

Works like a charm.
MS - i never liked, but I'd rather use windows than appleis soft.
and i am too lazy to use Linux . so Fingers crossed for Win7

The fact is that operating system is NOT a game.. it should provide best performance for applications that are running on it. I understand that today 'user' (rather brow(u)ser not user per se) is 15/20yld bloke who just is happy to be able to see colorfull menu and check his/hers myspace page.

Well I got it running on my ancient Compaq Presario 730US. We're talking 1.1 GHz AMD Duron with 512MB of PC133 RAM and a 20GB hard drive. It installed flawlessly, immediately connected to the internet to download drivers for my sound card and USB wifi adapter (I had it wired during installation). I still have plenty of testing to do, but it's good to know it'll run on something that old and outdated.

The only issue is that there are no drivers for the video card, S3 K Twister, but that's not MS's fault. They only made complete drivers for Windows XP for that video card. As a result, even the basic games included like Solitaire barely work, but again, I'm not blaming MS for that.

Going by the recent positive feedback on Windows 7, looks like I'll finally say goodbye to XP in the new year. (Given there are no 'Vista' like delays!)

Been playing with Windows 7 at work, while faster in some things. It is basically the same.

The DRM is still messing things up where it is still downgrading the images from our digital x-ray system.

Work won't be upgrading to Windows 7 either by the looks.

Do the progress bars fills entirely?
Can you open a bunch of files with the mouse as in XP?
It no more take ages to copy files?

I've updated my vista 64bit to 7 over the weekend and can't confirm any gains in the overall system responsiveness. Boot times stayed the same as well. Task manager indicates more free memory but so what. And the interface stayed as cluttered as in vista (ok, it's easier to adjust screen resolution and UAC ca be managed (not just turned off, done this anyway), more power options is available). Can't find the way to switch start menu to windows classic style (you can have it only the MS way), IE8 is a dud, the update/installation from vista took forever. It was free and seems to be working (with occasional glitches).