microsoft prepares first pre-betas of "Windows 8". Ships next year.. so you might want to skip Win7.

THIS ^^^^^

faster win? buy SSD....

linux = not lots of program for it.

no viruses = don't install from hacked site.

XP Professional 64 bit >> FOREVER

my xp crashed last week. done after 7 years of usage.........

This. F*** Win-doze and the horse it rode in on.

until app/game XYZ will force you to.. " needs at least Windows [version here] " ..

I remember people refusing Win XP or office 2002 originally when MS came up with their activation thing in these both. People were used to Win98/ME and 2000 , Office95,97,2000 .. all these OS and apps could be installed on a trillion machines with one and the same serial. In 2002 all in a sudden the rules were changed and all screamend "NEVER"..

Now everbody got used to it activating their Windowses and Apps over the Net, over the Phone and having "genuine checks" running online before being able to download updates.

In Vista and Win7 MS steps this up once more, having those legit checkers build right into the OS, running every now and then without your knowledge ..

Office 2010 plugs its unique authentication "genuine checker" into this subsystem, running one more task every few days..

In Win7 all the multimedia-apps like Moviemaker,Picturegallery were removed ( Vista was the last one that had the "offline versions of these included ), so User must download "Windows Live" to add them to the OS .. naturally User will be forced to authenticate with "Windows Live ID" and if it is only to use "Windows Live Mail", because microsoft even removed the simple Mail application that was included as "Outlook Express" in XP and a spiced up version as "Windows Mail" in Vista.

In the meantime Microsoft jumps the "cloud" wagon,releases "Windows Azure" for their Servers to run a sort of "private cloud", offers 25GB of free online storage for those Live-Apps-Users, runs Word and Excel as optional cloud-services and just launched "windows intune", a service to remote control your Windows Desktops , install updates from mobile devices and all these sync stuff.

Then not forget that MS is also playing now in that iphone league with its mobile OS ..

Believe me. Windows8 will be totally "cloudy" and this will be very normal soon after. And having that "live ID" ( then forced and mandatory ) will also be a thing of "well.. i dont like it, but it is needed" sorts of..

Ballmer said "Windows 8 will be the riskiest operation ever". Everybody thought he refered to a x64bit OS .. but it turned out that this was not the risk, as MS said they will continue the 32bit processors with win8. So it must be something other "risky"..

My bet is : it is the risk of forcing users to adopt their PCs to Windows8 as "online only". Would make sense. Conspiraciest like us can easily see such a OS as the perfect spy-machine.. at least MS knows WHO you are, WHERE you are, WHAT pc you use and WHAT you do on the net.. ( posting to facebook via their Messenger, posting your pics to picasa,smugmug,winlive via their "picture app".. , posting oyur videos to youtube over their "movie maker".. all the time authenticated with your real world name, as registered to MS when you had set up Win8..

WOW.. not one driver. you sure?
i wanna try

yes why not. Vista roughly introduced it, and Windows 7 has laid the better fundamentals for such scenarios, it has "Biometric framework" and "geolocation" support. means you can log on into win7 by fingerprinters,iris-scanners,body sensors of all sorts plus attach gps devices or wifi sticks that reveal your exact location..

Both Vista and 7 feature Speech Recognition, Touch-spoort and handwriting recognition. These OS are completely designed to "interact" with you and actually understand your spoken or written words. Thats not fiction, its there, right now. Only MS knows why this is not used widely, but it is there ( seach startmenu for voice,speech,handwriting.. )

Also Vista and 7 have both "Windows Cardspace" included ( control panel ) where you can store digital ID-cards that hold your personal,financial infos. These "ID"s can be used to log you on in websites that support that format ( hint : none does. but it will change and of course become one of these MS-only-standards on the net - otherwise MS would not have shipped this tool as a precaution in vista and 7 .. )

and face recognition to LOGON is also available right now for vista and win7. All you need is a webcam and a tool that plugs into the windows framework - some Laptop/webcam vendors might offer also individual apps that will do.

The only people who bash Windows 7 are people who haven't tried it.

Microsoft bashing was cool in 1998... but it is not 1998 anymore...
Still using Windows XP?

See no reason to change because only my gaming would benefit and nothing is really that much better in Vista/7. Why would I want to skip seven when 8 isn't going to be as solid.

Not true, there are thousands of programs for linux. Many of them are free and open source.

Look at this for example:
[link to packages.ubuntu.com]

Ultimate edition 2.9 on my desktop
PuppyLinux 5.1 on my eeepc :)

In Virtualbox, on top of a screaming ferrari of a custom FreeBSD installation :)

man , just say no to micro$#it
[link to www.ubuntu.com]

There are lots of drivers built in to Linux. You can try ubuntu linux by downloading an ISO image, and burn it to a DVD. Then boot off the DVD. It'll be a bit slow because of booting off a DVD. But at least you can see it working.

[link to www.ubuntu.com]

Then if you like the look of it, you can install a dual-boot system.

surely you ve gotta install a driver - say, if you're using a netgear wireless usb stick - you 'll have to install the driver... but can u get one for the Linux machine?

nope most distros of Linux can automatically hotplug "most" wifi adapters BUT if you have an odd one you ned only to ndswrapper the Windoze driver for it and Linux can use it.

Microsoft is for suckers.

==============================================

I have a box still running it for my kids games.

But ,, my PC is rinning UBUNTU

I don't game so I could care less what Microcrap is doing.