unless you are in England and waiting for the postman to deliver your brand new copy – you will probably get it by Easter.

In contrast to the debacle that followed the release of Vista,  Windows 7 has received glowing reports from both users and the press alike – it is a easy to use, has a nice feel to it, is intuitive , and runs smoothly and quickly.

Both PC and Mac press comparisons put it slightly ahead of Apple’s latest incarnation of Leopard, though I won’t go as far as to  say it knocks the spots off it.

Of course it wouldn’t be Microsoft if there wasn’t some confusion involved with a new release and in this case the blogosphere has been buzzing with the differences between the ‘Upgrade’  and ‘Full’ versions.

In theory you should have a previously installed version of XP or Vista to be able to install the upgrade version – this of course applies to the vast majority of  purchasers, but In practice you don’t, although you may have to install twice if you are installing on to a brand new hard disk which has never seen a Windows operating system.

In short, save money and buy the upgrade even if you are building yourself a new PC.

Windows 7 sounds the death knell for Vista and not many will rue its passing, but XP will continue for a few years yet – and why not – it’s still a good solid operating system.