Well, it's here now...
I have been running Win 7 RC for several months. I should add that never before have I been tempted so early by a new offering from Microsoft - previously I have done what others here are advocating and waited a year or so. Two things made the difference this time: the first was the Vista bloatware on my Dell (I have wanted XP Pro on the machine when I bought it earlier this year, but they would only supply Vista Ultimate, due to compatibility (i.e. Windows Media Center [sic]) with its bundled Hauppauge DVB-T TV card. The second was the fact that I had recently passed on my old PC to my daughter and so, for the first time, had a non-critical testbed to try it out on.
I needn't have worried. It puts Vista in the shade, and although I've never run XP on my Dell, I reckon that it would give that a run for its money speed-wise. Yes, the interface is pretty much Vista (with some tweaks) but then the interface was the only thing about Vista that I liked - I'd run XP for years using the Windows Classic interface because I couldn't for the life of me see the point of those fat title bars and I hated the dayglo green Start button.
If you're wavering, I recommend that you give 7 a try. As the press is saying, Microsoft really needs to get this launch right following the (shall we say?) 'suboptimal' uptake of Vista. I think they just might have done that.
Incoming...
Gadget 