I would agree to an extent about the user-friendliness. I do think, however, that the problems with Vista usability (UAC particularly) come from historical design mistakes in the Windows line so in fact they’re as much XP’s (and predecessors) fault as Vistas – Vista was just trying to patch over the holes. I still think that half the trouble was trying to sit on the fence between backwards compatibility and major change, and achieving neither very well.

I also think that Mac OS X does the best job of combining user friendliness and advanced usage of any OS I’ve used. I can give one of these to absolutely anyone, there’s no manual driver installs to worry about, the UI is consistent and easy to use, but underneath it is a full Unix-compatible base that I can do much more with out of the box as a tech than I can with any version of Windows. Perfect combo, definitely the standard setter IMO.

My one issue with Microsoft’s new OSes in general is that they are very much catering to the computer illiterate person, trying to make it easier and easier to use. This sounds good, but it means a lot more dialogs and clicking for the advanced user. I also don’t like linux for the opposite reason, you really have to know where to go to install and configure the machine the way you want. I think XP was a good middle between the 2 extremes. It would be cool if there were 2 UI modes for Windows 7: noob/advanced.

I agree with your comments on Android. The first phone didn’t make any real sparks and appeals only to developers, which is a minority in the mobile phone space. I think late 2009/2010 there will be some really good phones on the market.

On Windows 7, the question is not whether it’s justifiable over Vista, but whether it’s justifiable over XP or OS X – that’s where the real choice is in practice. Of course people with Vista are going to upgrade, just to get their performance back to where it was on XP on the same machine. You really need to write Vista out of the equation and concentrate on the people that never ‘upgraded’ to it in the first place, or who are considering or have already switched to a Mac. There are also those who have ‘switched’ to an eeePC or iPhone – traditionalists may scoff, but there’s an increasing number of people for whom these devices are actually enough for their personal needs.

And regarding Windows 7, the performance and system requirements alone would justify buying it over Vista. For me at least, the switch is a no brainer.