Vista was really obviously bad on release. I mean really unusably bad. It wasn't just that it was only on par with XP, it was substantially worse. Windows 7

Vista was really obviously bad on release. I mean really unusably bad. It wasn't just that it was only on par with XP, it was substantially worse. Windows 7 is quite different. It's not going to blow you away, but it works and looks a better than XP. The "bit" better puts it right about on par with OSX for various tasks -- although the GUI consistency is off because Windows as a far longer history than OSX, and can't afford to blow off bw compat (that's part of the Vista error). There are parts that still feel like they're stuck in 1991 (especially the command line), but that's Windows for you -- and I don't expect that to change. If anything worries me, it's MSFT itself. Their management really stinks, which makes me question how stable the internals of the system are -- are they managing the development of windows more tightly than, lets say, their mobile effort? One hopes so... but one never knows for sure.