Some dying gurgles from my old, used Dell Optiplex 1998 caused a situation where I could justify getting a new computer.
I thought all the computers could move one down, so my old desktop went to the workshop and I got a new  6 core “HP 9000” with a 1TB hard drive, 6GB ram and, well, Windows 7.
My first job was to install an antivirus and remove the shovelware that got loaded on by default.
Not a task to be laughed at. It took quite a while to convince my computer that I did not want any  games, 30 day trials, or icons for games. And no link to EBAY.
Then Windows update, reboot, Windows update, reboot, Windows update, reboot.

So I took my first look at Windows 7. I can’t help thinking how much it looks like a Gnome desktop and it looks like it has a little flavour of Linux in there. I think that Microsoft has taken a few key features and added them in. I know that most operating systems will eventually become indistinguishable.
I still hate the way things are buried 6 layers deep.

I hated every minute of not having access to Linux and started to download Mint Linux 9 almost immediately but that is another story.