Windows 7: The readers speak

Windows 7 is either the greatest Microsoft OS ever or it's Vista with Botox treatments. The readers weigh in with both love and disgust

Reactions to last week's screed about Windows 7 ("Will Windows 7 change our minds about Microsoft?") came in fast and furious, with readers weighing in on every side of the issue.

Let's start with some hate mail from G.G., whom one can only presume is a bit of a Microsoft fanboy:

Nice hatchet job on Microsoft, what an original piece. I am constantly amused by the "if we say it often enough, it'll become true mantra." Vista didn't suck, it had issues but it wasn't Godzilla to Tokyo. To hear "journalists" talk (I mean steal each others copy) about it, you'd think it failed to live up to being a cure for cancer. At least it opened my eyes to your professions overall lack of expertise, experience and lazy steal from someone else's work ethic. [sic]

[ Fiind out how Cringely kicked up the commotion with a simple question: Will Windows 7 change our minds about Microsoft? | Find out what's new, what's wrong, and what's good about Windows 7 in InfoWorld's "Windows 7: The essential guide." ]

Personally, I only tried to lazy steal from someone else's work ethic once, but they chased me away with a BB gun. Since then I try only to steal from myself.

Reader "mueller4" says he just upgraded from XP to Win 7, which he calls "a very good and minimalistic blend between XP and Vista." He gives it a solid two thumbs up:

I've seen them all since Microsoft started, and the reviews are correct: this is the best. Microsoft is finally listening to the PC makers!

M. M. also likes Win 7 and gives a shout out to Ray Ozzie for his influence on the Microsoft dev team: "His subtle but persistent challenge is to always be great and he gets closer than most."

B. D. concurs. He writes that Win 7 took less than 20 minutes to install on his XP-based Acer Aspire One and runs "astonishingly well."

But it wasn't all flowers and love notes. Reader R.S.H. says he plans to shun Win 7 until Microsoft makes it easier to upgrade from XP Service Pack 3:

Until Microsoft figures out how I can go from XP SP3 to Windows 7 without having to reinstall about 100 applications that I have running on my computer, I will be forced to stay with XP. I do not have Vista, and cannot justify buying Vista so that I can convert from XP to Vista to Windows 7.