What are your general thoughts on it? What problems have you run into? What do you think is critically lacking so far & what do you like to be returned to the OS. Justin: I can't believe it's already been over two & half years ago that I asked you about setting up a Vista forum. With Windows 7 debut timetable looking to be shorter than M$ initially led many to believe, -- probably because they are trying not to avoid the situation with Vista -- are we likely to see a Windows 7 forum debut here anytime soon? Jabbering Idiots: Everywhere You Look!

I would love to try 7. With the exception of downloading a 7 torrent, it seems the priviledge is reserved for a select minority. As far as I've read, the beta release is like a stripped down version of Vista.... Is this true?

I am running the PDC Pre-Beta -- 6801 -- Ultimate build & there's nothing stripped down about it IMHO. The core functionality of the OS is not compromised, even with Windows Mail, Photo Gallery & Movie Maker yanked from the OS. On the plus side, Windows 7 does perform snappier upon install & the installation was much faster compared to Vista & it didn't claim as much space either. So far, it also reflects better efficiency CPU & memory-wise and just as stable. I think I should touch on UAC: If you are one of the folks that found the feature repulsive -- I don't -- you won't have the allegedly "in your face" effect anymore, even though the protection is still there. If you have a Vista Beta key laying around, download the torrent & use your Vista Beta key to activate the time-limited installation. Or just take it for a 30-day spin. Oh & BTW, it is lighter on hardware, as there are folks that have demoed the installation on netbooks like the Dell Mini 9 with quite optimistic observations ... see below links for example. http://activewin.com/reviews/previe... http://www.lyalin.com/Blog/archive/... Jabbering Idiots: Everywhere You Look!

Thanks for the links. 7 certainly looks very promising, unlike Vista maybe this OS the general public (and maybe businesses alike)will more readily adopt. I may take it for a test drive on one of my experimental machines. With some luck MSDN will offer it up before my membership expires... that would be really cool.

I tried it and I think that it is by far the best OS that Microsoft has ever made. It is much faster and more reliable then Vista. This is what Vista should have been from the start!

as i posted before Mr KERCHING Gates shoulda told us all we were only pre testing7 when we paid £180 for the beta version of 7 called VISTA:))Yes it rocks ie8 smooth frooze on me a few imes but im only running xp 2200 cpu 1.5gb ram geforce 5500 256md but for a month no major probs So my next build will def be 7 and keep this trusted little dinosour for the beloved XP? Also the m/soft link to beta 7 has just shut but if you've allready d/loaded it re-install on same machine as much u like till 1 august 09 leave the pirated ones(or at least check 4 viruses )as my m8 had a nice little virus off tpbay? But look forward to the real deal

We're testing 7 where I work and for grins and giggles I installed it on an older PC I had kicking around in my office. It is "Build 7000 - Ultimate" I never touched Vista. I saw no point in it since I have several copies of XP running at home and I'm quite happy with it. I see no reason to supply MS with more of my money for no reason. I'm a firm believer in "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" and my XP Pro computers most definately aren't broke. All the reading on Vista I've done since it came out coupled with what I've heard from people who have it has convinced me I made the right choice. It's apparently MS's latest goose egg (can you say ME revisited!). So far, I'm pretty happy with 7. It did install very fast. It appears to be pretty solid and stable, considering it's completely lacking in drivers which is of course no surprise. I suspect like XP and Vista, it will be released for sale without a decent package of builtin drivers in order to have it make money for MS as quickly as possible with no concern for the problems this creates for the end users. Regardless, without proper drivers it's impossible to thoroughly test this (or any) OS. For instance it's of no use to me at home. If I can't install drivers for my dual 8800 NVIDIA video cards running in SLI mode, it follows that I can't then install and run any of my games. The same is true for a lot of other software that has minimum hardware requirements that can't be met because there are no drivers. But hey, it looks good and that matters right!?!?! ROFLMAO All joking aside, I won't be spending money on it any more than I did Vista. Again, my XP PC's are working perfectly so until some game or other piece of software comes along that won't run on my XP boxes, I'll keep on running XP and keep my hard earned money in my pocket where it belongs! Oh, we never did deploy Vista where I work. It had too many compatibility issues with quite a few of the different applications and databases we run here. Right now our PC department is testing 7 Ultimate against the same software and it's doing slightly better, but still isn't doing good enough to be adopted here. Perhaps by the time MS is ready to release it they will work on those compatibility issues. I know they've not made near as much $$$ as they had hoped to with ME....errr....I mean Vista.........because like us, many many other business's couldn't get it to work right with their software so they never incorporated it into their environments either.