Hi Brad
Using Professional Audio / Visual editng stuff on a Beta OS is not likely to work - these are usually the LAST applications to get converted so I think your compaint was largely unjustified - if most of your apps don't work on W7 then you are probably running some highly specialized stuff which I wouldn't expect to work on a Beta.
If I'm going to a Professional gig and I need a computer you can be 100% certain I'm not going to take a laptop with a Beta OS to the GIG.
VISTA intially and on the hardware it was loaded on (pre SP1) was a TOTAL DOG for most users -- OK with some time you could optimize it but users don't generally work like that --they just want to switch on the computer and it goes.
VISTA also as has been posted elsewhere got a bad press from day 1 -- Microsoft seemed to be "foisting" this on to basic consumers whether they wanted / needed it and to add insult to injury bought computers never came with a proper install disk and were generally so loaded with Bloatware that even JC himself wouldn't have been able to fix a lot of machines.
SP1 is better (and so is the hardware of course) -- The lack of a proper install disk still rankles and you still have to tweak SP1 to get reasonable performance.
For most of the apps people have been using W7 for in Beta it works far snappier (and actually on less hardware).
Added to which you've got a proper install disk (two if you want both X64 and X32) and if you tweak it like VISTA was tweaked then there is no competion. W7 wins hands down.
If it doesn't suit your applications - fine but I'm not surprised that W7 is enjoying relatively good feedback -- most people's initial introduction to VISTA was not a very pleasant experience - even if you can make the current version perform at supersonic speed.
Once a product is tainted -- it's almost impossible for it to recover - so hence W7.
My main gripe - but this has always been a problem with Microsoft software is why is it always so complicated to get a simple HOME LAN to work properly. There always seems to be 1 computer in the mix that wont talk to the rest of the network.
Cheers
jimbo