Not to mention windows 7 is installed on the slowest drive in the system: a 160GB IDE drive.

Windows 7 is, in fact staggeringly fast and responsive. The testing that these people have done is just incredibly irrelevant. In Vista x64, it takes about 4 seconds to launch Firefox, on a clean install for me. In windows 7 Build 6801 for me, it is INSTANT. Same with every other application I have launched from Windows 7. This is not to mention the fantastic new taskbar and much improved and "cleaned" explorer, as well as the new tray and window management, which is extremely useful. So what if you don't shave time off your encodes? Prove to me that Linux or Mac OS are faster in this area. I find launching applications and the UI much snappier in Win7 Build 6801 x64 than Ubuntu 8.10 x64 or any previous release of any linux distro, unless it is like DSL or Puppy or something, but they don't really count, do they? I'm sick of the hate. This is a fantastic release.

Windows 7 is, in fact staggeringly fast and responsive. The testing that these people have done is just incredibly irrelevant. In Vista x64, it takes about 4 seconds to launch Firefox, on a clean install for me. In windows 7 Build 6801 for me, it is INSTANT. Same with every other application I have launched from Windows 7. This is not to mention the fantastic new taskbar and much improved and "cleaned" explorer, as well as the new tray and window management, which is extremely useful. I'm sick of the hate. This is a fantastic release.