Windows 7

After the disaster of Windows Vista, Microsoft needed to step their game up, which is exactly what they did. With the demand for a new operating system, you may think that Microsoft rushed out this operating system, but from the looks and feel of it, that's far from the truth. It's very stable, and it's quite rock solid. Like I said, there aren't that many updates in the Windows Update Center yet, yet there aren't any bugs, which says there isn't much that Microsoft needs to fix.

There isn't much to say about this. Windows 7 comes on every single computer released by the manufacturers currently, under direct orders from Microsoft, and Microsoft is pushing Windows 7 on everyone. They aren't exactly pushing it to an extent that it's annoying, but they are boasting and selling it and making it seem quite like a need, which it is!

Well, this one is quite controvertible. I don't think it's worth exactly what I payed for it, however, it's still quite a good deal considering what they released before this (Windows Vista). It almost bothers me that they still have their line of around 5 different versions of the operating system. It bothers me a heck lot more though that they only added Windows XP functionality in the Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate versions. That was one of the major problems in Windows Vista, and they should've added that in all of their Windows 7 versions, but that's their decision. There's probably going to be a workaround that sometime soon anyway

One word; amazing! In performance tests (not done by me), Windows 7 has shown to be faster than Windows XP, which I find quite amazing. Comparing this to OS X Snow Leopard would be quite hard to do, but as many people say, OS X just gets that spinning beach ball way too many times, and I agree. So I think Windows 7 would get kudos for this one, considering it's even faster than Windows XP!

It's Windows. It may not be the most user friendly out there, but it's definitely the second most user friendly, and the most popular. Being as popular as it is, kids tend to grow up using Windows instead of the most user friendly (OS X), and they'll find Windows as the most user friendly. So technically, I'd say it should get a 5.0 for user friendliness. But as I said, it's Windows, and you've got to decide how user friendly it is for yourself.

All in all, if I were you, and I had the money, I'd go out and buy it now! Now, coming from a tech enthusiast, I would say to not buy the upgrade, but buy the full installation disk, which is around $100 (USD) more than the upgrade. I'd tell you to back up everything on to an external hard drive and do a clean installation, but if you're not a power user, then this won't really matter.
Just remember, when buying the upgrade, you can't upgrade Windows XP to Windows 7, and you must buy the same version upgrade of Windows Vista that you have. For instance, you can't upgrade Windows Vista Home Basic to Windows Vista Ultimate. And one last note (sorry for all of this extra stuff!), Windows Vista Business upgrades to Windows 7 Professional.

Enjoy!