The good news for MSFT: It's clear users did not get their appetite for Windows permanently soured by the bad taste Vista left in their mouths. That, or they're really desperate to upgrade from XP but not desperate enough to use Vista.

PC World's Robert Strohmeyer , though he generously ignores the performance problems and "minor functionality glitches" he encountered in the hope that they'll disappear by the time Win 7 ships. (I wouldn't bet actual currency on that.)

From all accounts, Win 7 is really just Vista with some welcome tweaks. I'm getting a strong deja vu back to the days when Windows 3.1 succeeded Win 3.0. Maybe now that hardware and software vendors have finally started to support Vista in real numbers, and the average PC specs are much better than they were when Vista debuted, Win 7 nee Vista might finally be a viable system for everyone and not just the lucky few.

But this is Microsoft we're talking about. They're almost certain to screw this up. It's the Redmond way.

Got Windows 7 yet or plan to get it? E-mail me: cringe@infoworld.com.