The "upgrade" program for Vista was an absolute joke. I wouldn't rely on it again. And I hope they are not rushing it out again without properly testing it. Oh hang on it's MS cancel that last one.

a) Broken compatibility with the software you want to use $200 for the "ultimate" variant

b) Broken compatibility and a move to linux $free

c) Stick with XP

Difficult one this, i've been playing with linux for a while now !

Ubuntu and PC-BSD are excellent alternatives, especially for home usage or businesses without specialty software.

I'm writing this from my wife's laptop with Ubuntu as the OS, but I'm learning toward PC-BSD as my favorite desktop OS.

Leopard "assuming snow Leopard comes out in October as well" will have cost me a total of five US dollars a month. A grand total of $120, which is what I paid for it at release day. This as opposed to $300-$400 for the top version of Vista or Windows Seven. It looks like Leopard itself costs about 1/3 of what Windows costs. I bought my new OS X 10.5 install disk and a used G4 server for what MS fans paid for Vista Ultimate alone.

My two year old Macbook Pro is still running that Leopard install flawlessly and securely, and the G4 tower "with a few mods" is still happily being my media center at an age when most Windows PCs are either running Linux or in the garbage. . And they both work fine with the Apple iTouch/iPhone remote.

As to linux movie playing, if a MAC USER has to tell you how to use sudo apt-get, maybe its best you stick to Windows and leave the reliable computers to the grown ups. Even My Ubuntu Netbook plays all my Movies full screen.

Have been running 7 since early beta and just got it on a little netbook last weekend. Wow it is so much better than XP for the average user.

And sexy. Like a high end hooker sexy. Costs a bit, but she'll take care of you until you run out of booze and she needs to find a fix with someone else.

I don't knwo where this is going, but I'm pretty stoked to get all my home computers on this. I think those that love linux/Apple/MS can agree that having 3 strong competitors duking it out is good for everyone. There is more competition in the OS market today than there has been for 20 years. Enjoy it all you haters, it's good for everyone.

This will be the most tested version of Windows yet, 1 year of Alpha under code name Vista, 1 year of Beta under code name Vista SP1, 6 months of RC. M$ should have this one right.

The free upgrade should go for all genuine Vista owners.

Too bad the alternatives are too expensive or too complicated.... Ubuntu 9.04 is now my best friend and I will live with the extra complications to make what I want work properly.

How thoughtful ... and well phrased to say that M$ wants a share of the third world money.

At least every Linux version/flavour makes sense Light, Workstation & Server (the number of distributors seems a bit too much though) and Linux distros don't make a point to make you feel you belong to some sort of inferior caste and therefore you need the cheapest (features mainly & monies in a lesser measure).

<SNIGGER>

"Windows 7 code will be finalized " as if!!!!

</SNIGGER>

What is it with Microsoft and their OS versions. This makes it difficult for the consumer and I think that sales assistants in shops will be forced to sell the more expensive Ultimate version for more money ,when Home premium is what most consumers need.

On a lighter note

The Windows 7 RC in 64bit has been brilliant for me. However I am also worried about the lack of testing.

Of the excitement felt waiting for a release of a Microsoft product. I haven't felt that since W2000 launch, which was a merge of the 95 UI goodies with NT robustness. It will be the third major Windows release that I simply ignore and the thruth is that I'm starting to feel a bit worried about the people that are keeping with this upgrade madness - first XP, then Vista and now W7

Perhaps the reason lies in people like the poster that says

"yes linux is good, if all movies would play in full screen all the time and I could use iPhone as a remote control for playing music in my whole house (using remote speakers), I would switch to linux. Because this is not possible and because OSX is 2x more expensive, I will stick with Windows and will roll to Win7 after RC expires."

This is probably possible. My Ubuntu boxes play all movies I throw at them. And I bet someone could script the iPhone remote control bit to a Linux media player. All the pieces are there.

Ah, by the way, the hardware is seven years old (and it was middle spec when I purchased it) and I've yet to see a "kernel panic" (Linux equivalent to BSOD) And no, I don't have any plans or need to upgrade HW or go back to Windows.

The problem, as the poster says, is that this is not available as a consumer level package. But I'm sure that building this under Windows is not trivial neither. What with all the drivers that have to be installed, the DRM crap, and the antivirus/malware/shielding. How long can MS keep enticing people to shell out money for this endless upgrade cycle?

Did I read that right? Because I bought Vista Ultimate x64 M$ will potentially *give* me Windows 7 for free...............

That can't be right. What's the catch?

Much as I hate M$ Windows7 isn't (bites lip) all bad.

The latest version of Ubuntu has just given me endless problems and stills feels distinctly 1980s - it's still what most business/government/educational users ought to choose though!

I only care "how much are they going to stiff Vista users for the upgrade"

BFD

Agreement here on win 7

On a modified AA1 with 1.5gb ram and an HDD as opposed to that shocking SSD they had in there.

My only complaint is that I dont need what feels like 14TB of sodding drivers. I have these things called installers that come with my devices.

Agree with Colin too on linux, in order to get the same functionality it takes literally days to research which of the 3084759845243 apps for one particular function is the best, and works well with the 'flavour of the month' linux.

I will be going to Win7 as soon as its released

Go for it :)

Just check that vista drivers are available for your hardware. Also be aware that the INTEL chipset installers _do_ know the difference between Vista and 7, so make sure that MS have the drivers, or Intel have Win7 installers for your kit.

Ram wise, 1GB should be fine, if you are going to run it in anger, get 2gb in. I've tweaked my services too to free up some ram. 512mb isnt worth toying with now TBH.

Processor wise, should be fine. I ran Vista (I know!!) on that processor with not too many problems.

Win7 install is about 15gb all in.

Hope that helps

...I'll make the switch to Linux when (if) it can play my games.

Until then, STFU. :)

@Colin Wilson @A Baird

Its called virtualbox (or quemu or kvm etc etc) - run xp on that (takes about 1/2 hr to set up)

for all the stuff you cant run using wine and you wont need to touch the command line.

then you have the best of both worlds

(virtualbox's ability to take snapshots of the OS means that if you fsk up xp you can roll it back in seconds)

I certainly do -- listining to 20's, 30's music on amarok while playing fallout3 :D

and if you think thats too hard to do - then stick with paying for a OS .

..I'll pay attention to your pointless post when (if) you grow up and stop playing games.

Until then, STFU. :)

OSX/Linux user I am, I only used to play one game on Windows, Fallout 3. It would occasionally crash on XP, so I gave the Win7 demo a whirl.

Very impressed and a big step, credit where credit is due. I wish them all the best of luck, but MS you got my money for a 360 console so I could play F3 without Windows and so I switched to Mr Torvalds and Mr Jobs, I can do all need with their toys from now on.

Best of luck though and thanks for all the fun, it was good while it lasted!

PS. Try to get rid of that rather unpleasant Mr Ballmer or least send him on holiday for the duration of the release, eh?

Windows 7 looks like a good attempt to produce an improved Windows experience, but I jumped ship after a coworker gave me a "Warty Warthog" CD some time ago and then tried it 6 months or so later after another Registry Cancer event forcing a system rebuild.

Why should the Home User Try the Penguin ?

1) No DRM

2) No Phone home spyware

3) No Crapware on you new machine

4) You need not touch the command line anymore on many distro's

5) Run's on more vintage hardware, probably you can get 2X the life out of your machine

6) it actually has some really cool games (OpenGL), yes

7) Most distro's come with a very full suite of applications by default (writing a techical thesis in OpenOffice as of now)

8) Package managers, they make the IPhone AppStore look like an amateurish late to the party attempt - think of all your applications coming down the wire

9) Very little, if any, malware

10) installation is easier in recent years than Win or Mac (LiveCD's), driver support is amazing no more looking for that 3-4 year old dusty CD when the latest reinstall from a corrupted registry hits you

11) The release cycle of many distro's is blazing, it seems every week there's something added to the system

12) No more migration treadmill

13) VERY easy to network, I tried for a solid week of evenings to get some WinXP and Win98 machines to talk and share to one another, achieved that same with

14) Community support is GREAT, have heard most paid distro support is very good and knowledgable

15) Periodic system rebuild every year or so to "clean up" registry is in the past, the filesystem of the machine am typing this on is 4 years old now, despite OS core and applications upgrades.

It goes on but will leave it at that.

I have tried many linux distros, but I just can't be arsed.

I even tried dual booting for a while.

but I found that I couldn't be bothered to reboot to play games, so I'd just boot into windows anyway.

Deleted the partition in the end.

I like the shiny desktop in Vista and 7. I don't like the desktops on linux, shiny looks better!

I have loads of Ram and Graphics power! Give me shiny! Not this "we dont waste resources" shit. USE my GPU dammit!

I can play *real* games on windows. I can only play crap on linux, even if I can get (3d)drivers.

Open Office/Firefox/etc is on Windows. It's on linux too. I use windows, why reboot?

If I never played a game in my life, never watched a vid, then yes I would use linux, because it's free. But because I do, I'll pay the MS tax. For now.

Many dinosaurs would happily survive a tsunami, either being flight-capable or aquatic, and the land versions reached such immense sizes dues to amazingly light bone structure via such means as internal air pockets, like modern flying birds, so their "floatability" would also be up for debate. For those out there wanting to add that they would have the in-built survival awareness of modern animals to run to higher ground (many documented cases show this but are unscientific), that is up to the jury as we just don’t know enough about the wiring of their brains.

You're getting too technical on me.

All I had in mind was the image of a T REX drowning in the incoming wave.

But thanks for the short lesson on dinosaurs.