As I sit here typing on my Ubuntu powered notebook (pre-installed, by the way), I have to admit that the mistakes made with Vista appear to have hit home. And they appear to hit home enough with their work on Windows 7 that as I have pointed out in the past, Vista served as Microsoft’s “New Coke.”

After looking at what may potentially spell out Windows 7 come its release, I find myself thinking that if these feature improvements hold true and the boot times remain intact, this may end up being a real hit. Keep in mind the way Windows 7 is handling wireless access points is nothing new, I can think of two other operating systems that have doing this for years now. Still, things like one click Wi-Fi access are critical to attracting users.

Another key item I like, if the user can be responsible with it, would be the improvements to the UAC. I think putting power users in control is a great idea, however, I would hope that all the shields are up for newbies.

Homegroup is a double edged sword, I am afraid. While half of me loves how simple it makes Windows networking, I find myself frustrated that it means the other networked box must also be Windows 7 as well. But hey, it’s not that big a deal — looks like it could be a great way to go.

Even Windows Media Player has finally taken a more “Apple-like” appearance which again, hardly original, but desperately needed as Windows Media Player in its previous versions was really useless.

Will all of this make me switch back to Windows? No, not exclusively anyway. Much like Windows XP users, I am just too set in my ways. I like being able to bang out a SSH powered bash script in 5 seconds (yes, I am dead serious) that enables me to open up my Evolution PIM client from across the country without remote desktop and totally encrypted that is at home while I am away. I can do this on Windows, but it would be a pain in the butt. Sorry, but PuTTy does nothing for me. Yeah, Bitvise is pretty cool, but I do not care to run another program window in the background - I like to keep my desktop cleaner than that.

Are you planning on upgrading to Windows 7? If you are sticking with Windows and OS X/Linux is just not cutting it for you, it might be a good fit. Hit the comments, tell me what you think of the latest news on Windows 7. Will this beta remain intact come release time?

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