[Barrykgerdes]

Some interesting comments on operating systems!
I use:

1 installation of Win 7 Ultimate, 2 installations of Win 7 home premium (all 64 bit on dual core platforms). The main computer has two installations of Win 7 64 bit Ultimate. Win 7 is great for programs designed for 64 bit that are unuseably slow to use on a 32 bit system

1 installation of Vista Home (32 bit on this laptop)

7 computers with at least 1 installation of of XP SP3. but mostly 2

and 3 installations of Linux (Ubuntu)

I have XP as a main system on all computers

The computers running Win 7 all have VMware 8.04 virtual systems supporting XP, Linux, DOS and Win 98 2e.

XP in any installation is by far the most user friendly but does not display well on some laptops with ATI video that has no drivers for XP and does not run some of the other later software designed for 64 bit.

Win 7 needs to be fitted eventually so you need to get used to its unfriendlliness that is much worse than Vista was. Doing something new like setting up networks, adding software that hasn't been approved by microsoft or just having to get administrator approval for the simplest of tasks makes jobs that took a single keystroke and a few seconds in XP take anything from a few seconds to 30 minutes.

Win 7 is no bother for most who just use a computer for browsing and normal microsoft programs although I would recommend removing the update to IE9 and revert to IE8 or better still use Firefox.

I haven't tested Win 8 yet but will try it some time on one computer that is well backed up first. I have heard nothing but bad reports on it so far.

Barry