Windows 7

Because I wanted to see how it performed, I installed Windows 7 as the dual-boot counterpart of my Ubuntu desktop. What can I say? Having an MSDN Academic Alliance account certainly has its perks. And for a fact, I no longer feel so dirty doing it because, as my usage pattern over the past few months indicates, I really do spend more than 95% of my time with Ubuntu anyway.

My overall impression of Windows 7: for the first time in a long while, I've finally encountered a Windows operating system that did not annoy the heck out of me. Windows XP, in the last few months, felt like a sputtering coughing horse that I should have put out to pasture; and Windows Vista? Let's not even go there.

But Windows 7! Windows 7 came smooth and easy: no fiddling for drivers, no obnoxious warnings, no unexplained crashes. To be honest, my end-user experience felt as easy as using, well, Ubuntu. Now if it only came with free software installable from a single app....

Nah, this is still Microsoft Windows.