"Best Buy" memo explains that Windows Vista does not work.
 

Kind of a stretch.

But, even if they really are "admitting" that Vista doesn't work, they aren't telling anyone anything we don't already know. I still say MS owes me a free OS to replace the pile of crap that is vista on my otherwise awesome laptop.

I still don't understand the "Vista is crap" marketing strategy behind Windows 7. I have never had any problems... I run both Vista and the Windows 7 RC on my computer and they perform equally well. 7 has a few new tricks which are nice, but I'm not compelled to switch immediately.

Preliminary performance reports suggest that Windows 7 is creeping towards parity, if not a edge, on Windows XP when it comes to performance. It already beats Windows Vista in many areas.

What this suggests is that Windows 7 is poised to eventually beat XP in performance alone once you get updates, patches, bug fixes, drivers, etc., improving over time as they do.

The beta is getting close to XP. That's a good sign.

I've been using windows 7 since Jan. 09

I'm absolutely in love with it.

I'll be picking it up when it goes retail.

My opinion on Vista so far has been that it is completely underwhelming, but I have only used it briefly on a laptop with a dual core 1.5 Ghz and 1 GB of memory.
Soon I shall be seeing it on a significantly faster machine with 4 times the RAM, and actually using it in a real sense for audio work. Hopefully that mostly useless glittery eye candy I saw does not slow it down or can be turned off.

It does say something for the massive trainwreck the Vista release is that MICROSOFT is saying it's bad. They never actually admitted that WindowsME was a catastrophe.

This is the problem with Microsoft's OS division's business model--they have to compete against their past selves for customers. So every release has to be better, bigger, faster, shinier... Not hard to think they'd ship a turd every now and then, just to bake in some sales for the next version.

I've been using Windows Vista (64 bits) for over a year without much of a problem. Yes, there are minor annoyances, primarily the UAC popups. But overall, it works fine. I wouldn't want to go back to plain olde XP.

As for Windows 7, I haven't seen it yet. I've heard good things about it, but can't be bothered to install it.

Aside from UAC annoyances, I thought Vista was great. That said, I installed it on to a powerful system. I like W7 more but to me, it's just Vista with a couple of improvements.

The really encouraging thing is that the Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade will only be $50. I think that is a fair price. I know people want to bitch and moan that MS should give it to them for free for buying Vista but that isn't feasible. $50 is a very fair price.

Ok, WTF does UAC mean?

User account control. It is an annoying dialog box that pops up when you want to install a program or if a program wants to connect to the internet. I just turn the shit off.

I had to check out the criticisms of Windows Vista Wiki article because in 7 months of using the OS, I haven't had a single problem. After looking over the things people are bitching about, the only thing I could see that might affect me is a tiny loss of performance but I'm not buying XP just to see if it's faster. Hell it's probably not faster because I have more than 4 gigs of ram and XP wouldn't even recognize it.

As for UAC, I just run in admin mode. I'm not a retard, I don't download attachments, even from my mother, especially from my mother. I keep windows updated and I keep my security updated. Not having malware is better than having malware asking for permissions.

the UAC is still in windows 7, but it's like a pet dog, you can train it. I leave it on but it doesn't pester me for most things I use frequently, except programs I have to run as administrator, and i'm totally fine with having to approve those kind of programs running at that level.

I use a couple of Macs with OSX 10.4 I have an older laptop and a MacMini - which looks like an oversize wonder bread ham sandwich.
A couple of my friends are always telling me I should switch to "a real computer."
I can run Windows on my Mac, but have never found a good reason to. It already does everything I ask of it.:)

Lindy

The Mac Mini IS a real computer. I love that thing.

And OS X is WAY better than any Windows product I've ever used. At least when it comes to editorial and office productivity.

That UAC seems a good thing in my book.