8 hours of Windows 7 Amazon sales outstripped Vista's entire pre-order period.

I am already using Windows 7 RC as my primary OS. It's so much faster than XP and the UI improvements are fabulous. Vista was just a beta version of Windows 7, or another Windows ME. XP lasted me almost 10 years and I figure 7 will do the same.

I'm still a little baffled by Vista's reputation. I'd rather not run Windows at all (alas, I enjoy PC gaming too much), but even just the addition of Aero makes it a much more enjoyable experience than XP for me. UAC is also clearly the right thing to do, and, begrudgingly accepting Microsoft's need to maintain backwards compatibility, they did a pretty good job of it. I've also had very few problems.

I have been using XP for years now (on my tablet for over 3) and it has been reliable. After lots of research and colleague input I decided to actually wait to upgrade my machine entirely so that I could avoid the entire vista fiasco (wasn't in the mood of paying more for a downgrade).<p>A buddy of mine has been using 7 as his main OS for a bit now and tells me it is greatly improved over Vista. I hope its true because I am not totally comfortable using Linux as my main OS and I would love to get a new Windows machine soon...

I'm currently running Windows 7 on my laptop. It's a lot more responsive and stable then Vista, so this is no surprise.

And I managed to miss out on the half-off preorder. Sigh.<p>Hopefully they'll run another one before release day.

Congrats to the guys at Microsoft.

I'm about to build a gaming PC, so I need to buy Windows. I use Linux for everything normally, so I don't keep up.<p>Is Windows 7 supported by all the major games (FPS/RTS)/drivers, etc? Is it recommended for a gaming PC, yet? What version should I get, for a dual core 8GB machine? Home edition enough?

A half-price pre-order deal on the full (not upgrade) version runs in the UK until 9 August.<p>But, somewhat infuriatingly, the Windows 7 EULA isn't yet available (<a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/eula.aspx" rel="nofollow">http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/eula.aspx</a>), so I'm left wondering whether "Home Premium" will be licensed to run in a virtual machine, which is the only reason I'd be buying it.

In the EU, how will people download Firefox if they don't have a boot-strap browser already available?

Requires a clean install? Is this really the state of the art in the Windows-world?

Was tempted myself, but the installation seemed aimed at individuals who are not particualarly computer savvy (really awkward to format and reinstall) and their biggest concern is that they are pissed off at vista (Not using it).<p>So close MS, almost made me buy an OS for the first time(Aside from OEM includes).

So, one concludes that that Vista 7 has more hype than Vista had? Is that what should I be getting from this?

No surprise there. The devil (angel I guess in this case) is in the name and user's perception. People are familiar with the name Windows and 7 means a better version. Vista means something totally new and after years of being comfortable with Windows why switch to something new.

Honest question: who in his sane mind pre-orders an OS???

I note it repeats the lie that Microsoft took IE out because of an EU ruling. I can only hope this plan backfires on them and people install Firefox or Chrome instead.