Windows 7 - the waiting is (nearly) over

Microsoft will officially launch Windows 7 this week, and the company will be hoping that it gets a better reception than its predecessor.

So the waiting is all but over - Windows 7 officially launches on Thursday, though a news embargo will be lifted on Wednesday when we'll be able to release details previously unpublished.

However, it seems already like there is very little that we don't know about Windows 7 - millions of people worldwide have downloaded and installed the Beta or the Release Candidate.

And some people already have the official version. Due to the postal strikes, some vendors have been sending out copies a little early to make sure they arrive on time, meaning that a handful of people around the country are already using it.

So what are our hopes, dreams and expectations for Windows 7? A stable, speedy OS would be nice - I guess everyone is hoping this is the case - but more than anything, I don't want to have to pay through the nose for it.

The answer to this dilemma is buy early. In fact, you should have already bought it. If you caught the pre-order period in July, you'd have paid £49.99 for the Home Premium version - now, the official price is £79.99. In the new year, it'll be an eye-watering £149.99. Amazon also seems to be offering a slightly better deal - you'll only pay £64.68 at the moment.

But buying early would be to go against advice being offered by a number of outlets, who recommend waiting for as much as a year. This is because, they argue, any major flaws and defects will have come to light and been fixed by then.

You only have to look back as far as Windows 98 for a Windows OS that had a major flaw - so major that Microsoft was forced to release Windows 98SE barely a year later. A memory buffer overflow issue meant that if you left a PC switched on for 49.7 consecutive days, it would shut down.

Other versions of Windows have required some major updates too - Windows XP required three Service Packs, for example. So would you be wiser to leave it a while? You'll almost certainly be poorer, as unlike with most other types of product, the price of Windows 7 gets higher over time.

Anyway, I'll be attending the London launch event tomorrow, hoping to see Microsoft top brass - we had Bill Gates himself for the Windows Vista launch - and I'll report back on the happenings here.

Meanwhile, here are more of Web User's thoughts on Windows 7 in our latest podcast and a brief history of the Windows operating system to keep you entertained until then.