Windows 7: Worth the Upgrade?

Windows 7 has been released for a few months now and the jury is out. Windows 7 is a really good operating system. But how good is it? Should I upgrade? The simple answer is if you are running XP, wait until you buy a new computer. If you are running Vista, you will really appreciate how much smoother things run but the $130 upgrade price tag might be a bit much if you plan on buying a new computer within the next year.

As someone who bought 2 computers that came with Vista, I feel cheated by Microsoft. At first glance, Vista looked much better than XP. It got a lot of bad press at first as many printers and other peripherals didn’t work but that was largely taken care of with Service Pack 2. I was used to Vista and everything was fine. When I got my hands on a copy of Windows 7, I realized that it was pretty much the same as Vista except my computer ran faster. Basically, Windows 7 is Vista running the way it should.

XP  doesn’t have the prettiest interface but it works very well. Networking can be a little tricky but with XP, your computer should run reasonable fast. XP is not quite as as efficient as Linux but it’s still 3 times as fast as Vista. Keep in mind that if you upgrade, you should back up your personal files on the internet, on DVDs, a memory stick or an external hard drive and then do a full install. There is a feature that will keep your files and programs and do the upgrade from Vista but this is not recommended as it can create instability.

If you have a netbook, avoid Windows 7 Lite. There are few options for customizing. You are better off with Windows XP or Linux Ubuntu. If you have a really simple netbook, you might like Linux Puppy though it’s not the easiest to install.