You can download Windows 7 RC from the Microsoft website.

So it's that time again, Microsoft offer up another version of Windows trying to take over from Vista which hasn't been the biggest success for the company.

Personally I don't have a problem with Vista, sure it has some quirks but no more than any other OS. I can however see why it wasn't a huge seller, the majority of users (like my family members) are quite comfortable with XP, it does everything they need and it responds in a way they're used to.

Vista with its huge, but neccessary, visual shift would of scared off any non-techie user, it was the big reshuffle, reorganisation that the Windows desktop needed, however this would be confusing for the casual or nervous computer user.

I use both Windows and Mac OS X, I can get on with Mac OS for "general" use, but when it comes to some of the more techie things I find 3rd party support for Mac OS X is still vastly limited when compared to Windows, hell I can't even find a SFTP client that does everything I want.

With that said Vista does have a few issues, the over protective UAC for example. This is where Windows 7 enters the ring, it's biggest "feature" is that its an overall improvement of Vista.

Having used the Windows 7 64bit Public Beta for over a month now I'm pretty satisfied, the UI improvements are a plenty, Windows Explorer has had some excellent little tweaks, improving on the ideas you find in Vista/ OSX.

The biggest visual change is the taskbar, this "improved" version actually kind of works like Apple's Dock. It's a taskbar/dock hybrid allowing you to pin applications to the taskbar, reorder them as you see fit. I'm still undecided if I really like this feature or not, it's growing on me though.

Anyway, get the beta if you can, if your at ease with Vista you'll really like what 7 brings to the table. I still don't know if this will replace the beast that is XP.