For the last 6 weeks or so, Windows 7 has been available for the MSDN and TechNet subscribers, and I have played with it since then. Since last week (October 22nd), it has been available on the shelves, but brand computers ordered after (approximately) October 15th have been delivered with Windows 7 pre-installed unless otherwise specified at the time of order.

On the shelves Windows 7 has replaced Windows Vista. Well, not exactly “replaced”: there are about 5 times more Windows 7 boxes than there ever were of Windows Vista.

Computer magazines are full of laudatory user comments, which makes me wonder: when did they have time to evaluate it since it became available? Or are they basing their judgment on the freely downloadable RC version? Granted that many people have downloaded it, but from a quick survey of people I know who did so, about one in 5 has actually installed it.

In the Paris métro (“subway” for our American friends) you can see ads for computers of various brands sporting a Windows 7 screen (i.e., a screen with a large “7” prominently conspicuous) with the comment “between you and me, the computer comes with it” or something close.

The TV ad campaign “Windows 7 was my idea” is going on full blast, here as everywhere else. The Microsoft marketing juggernaut is on its way.

In my opinion, and many others’, Windows 7 is “Vista as it should have been”. Microsoft has – at long last – produced an OS with snappy response, light on resources (in comparison to Vista, that is: the time when “640K should be enough for anybody” is long gone and forgotten), where everybody but technophiles like me can find a way to tweak the GUI (the advanced settings are hidden ever deeper with each new version). All the people I know who have actually tried Windows 7 proclaim their intention to upgrade “as soon as they can” (which, for most, means “when I replace my computer in a couple of years’ time” ).

Even my wife, a technophobe who can hardly open an email or print a document, wants me to upgrade her office computer to Windows 7. So far I’ve been able to postpone the inevitable… Don’t take me wrong, I like Windows 7. It’s just the prospect of having to teach her the differences with Vista I dread – I remember what happened when she had to switch from XP to Vista. She’s simply not interested in technology.

People here in Europe seem to take Windows 7 pretty much in stride, and the ad campaign that preceded its general availability has done its job: for practically everybody, Windows Vista is a bad thing better forgotten, and Windows 7 is the right thing, like XP only better. Even people who never had any problem with Vista (other than its hardware demands) and have not had any first-hand experience with Windows 7 share this opinion, which at least shows that the Microsoft marketing people got their act together.

The computer magazines are already full of tricks and tips to customize and tune Windows 7. It reminds me of the beginnings of Windows XP, except that people soon became as disillusioned with XP as they later were with Vista, and for the same reason: the lack of hardware drivers.

People have apparently forgotten that phase. With Windows 7, Microsoft has managed to make the hardware vendors release the drivers for their hardware before the OS was generally available – not a great feat, most of the Vista drivers are suitable.

Altogether, Windows 7 acceptance here is about the same as it seems to be across the Atlantic – among the general public. In companies and corporations, the consensus is to make the existing computers last as long as possible – hey, some of them still have NT4 servers… even though most seem to have eliminated Windows 9x/ME by this time. I suspect it’s the same in the US of A.