Microsoft is launching
Windows 7 today which is pretty obvious given the deluge of ads and posts you're going to see around the internet today. It's a bit of a wash for me though as I've been running the release version of the OS for the last few months as it's been available to MSDN subscribers since it went gold earlier this year.
The operating system is worth upgrading to if you're using Vista and doubly so if you're still running XP. The operating system is significantly more stable, runs faster, and Microsoft has put a bunch of solid new features into the system that make it worth the upgrade (the multi monitor support is fantastic).
The big question is the support for games and the OS shines here as well. I've played a bevy of games on a 64 bit installation of the OS without any problems. The only real problem with the OS is that Microsoft has still not really fixed any issues with Games For Windows and it's still the same Steam wanna-be it's been for years. If you want more details on the failures of G4W then check out this fantastic
write-up over at PC Magazine. I keep hoping that Microsoft will actually do something good with G4W like allowing developers to access achievements and profile information without having to use the rest of the Live infrastructure but I don't see that ever happening. That said the rest of the indirect benefits of
Windows 7 make it with the money so if you're on the fence as to whether or not to get it just do it as it's significantly better than Vista.
