from the little bit that I have used Vista, I was really unhappy with the UI experience. Coming from a Windows XP background, it’s so drastically different that it’s hard to just seamlessly slip into.

I’d agree with Tony that Vista was a lot like Windows ME. I’ve used Windows ME, had it installed for a while and it was absolutely horrid, in my opinion.

Overall, I’ve been really unhappy lately with Windows latest production OSes, I think they could have done a lot better of a job if they had been more innovation and unique. It feels a lot like they’ve been stealing ideas from OS X lately, which is partly why I’ve become such a Mac fanboy.

But I’m definitely interested in your opinion after you’ve used it more.

For Tony Adam to compare Vista to ME is ridiculous, it shows me 1. he never used ME or 2. hasn’t really explored Vista. ME was a hybrid that was aimed at a very specific market and intended to bridge users into XP from the NT and 2K world.

At the end of the day, Windows 7 at first look is very similar to Vista, I will give a deeper analysis once I play with it more in depth.

Windows 7 Public Beta Finally Goes Live
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2338732,00.asp
Microsoft has made the public beta of Windows 7 again available to download, after overwhelming traffic to Microsoft’s servers caused nearly a day’s delay.

Just before noon Saturday Pacific time, Microsoft’s Windows 7 beta page on TechNet went live, offering access to the beta. For those who are not TechNet subscribers, Microsoft has published a second Windows 7 beta page for the general public.

I don’t believe a single word of it. Microsoft has been behind what is a
heavy handed clumsy campaign in which Windows 7 has been making its way to the public, the most apparent of which was when the completed copy of the beta somehow managed to appear on the internet via bit torrent something at odds with the highly classified manner it would otherwise have been accorded.

Microsoft wants Windows 7 out as early as possible with free updates to all
Vista users is what I’ve read. The talk is that Microsoft wants desperately to get its disastrous Vista days behind it all of which makes good sense.

The company did not offer a new schedule for delivering the beta of its newest operating system.

“Due to very heavy traffic we’re seeing as a result of interest in the Windows 7 Beta, we are adding some additional infrastructure support to Microsoft.com properties before we post the public Beta today,” a spokeswoman said in an instant message reply to earlier questions about Microsoft.com’s performance. “We want to ensure customers have the best possible experience when downloading the Beta
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9125626

Windows 7 Beta (x86) : 7000.0.081212-1400_client_en-us_Ultimate-GB1CULXFRE_EN_DVD.ISO

Windows 7 Beta (x64) : 7000.0.081212-1400_client_en-us_Ultimate-GB1CULXFRE_EN_DVD.ISO
See if you have luck with the direct links. Currently it’s working for me, and fairly fast as well – about 340kb/s.

You’ll still need to go back for a key, assuming you want to use the beta for more than 30 days, but at least you’ll be able to burn a DVD or mount the ISO in your favorite virtualization app. Alternatively, there are plenty of timer reset and watermark removal tools available on the various torrent trackers.

Just going blindly over the web turned up nothing but dead ends and so succumbed to my urges by going directly to a private tracker I’ve been a member of

And from the meticulous reseaarch, time ans energy I’ve put into this I’d say for the foreseeable short term this would seem to me to be the only way to go until things start picking up for Windows 7. Please don’t hesitate to make any inquiries of me here.