Microsoft is starting the push for Windows 7 now. You can order Windows 7 as a pre-order and get 50% off the upgrade price.
Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade $49
Windows 7 Professional Upgrade $99
Compare the Windows 7 Editions online to see the differences. I was hoping they would go to a flatter product matrix, but I understand they have license requirements and government restrictions from different countries as well. I am sure it is quite complicated for them to change SKUs.
I Like it better than Windows Vista
I am running Windows 7 on my laptop and my kids machine at home. I have found that the new UAC is actually useable with my kids machine now. With Windows Vista I got way too many calls from my daughters about needing permission to do something like update the AntiVirus. Those type of things seem to be gone.
Better Memory Management
I have also found that my 4 GB 64 bit Laptop actually has free RAM again running Windows 7. Under Windows Vista I was constantly having to close Visual Studio instances to prevent swapping to disk. Right now I have 2 Visual Studio 2008 sessions, Live Writer, 2 Chrome tabs and still show 1.7 GB free memory. The machine does not swap on most application context switches either. I think the preload and cache was killing performance in Windows Vista, but now it just seems to work much better for me.
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