Windows 7 -- I'm surprisingly impressed

For the last 4-5 years I have thrown aside all, or nearly all, association with Windows primarily because I was tired of the infections vulnerability, the fact that many utilities were not available free (such as burning ISOs to CD or DVD), that XP was ponderously slow in comparison to OS X and Linux and, perhaps principally, that Windows seems primarily aimed at those looking for no more than a point and click experience which, I like to think, well below my aspirations.
Vista, which we had on just one of our computers, did little to change my mind.
However, I had tried out a free pre-release version of Windows 7 Ultimate and my eyebrows remained pleasantly raised for quite a while.
So, was it time to splurge out on a new copy of MS Windows?
Well, before taking the plunge, given that we're in economically challenging times, I decided to give Windows 7 Ultimate a short-term trial.
So I downloaded a Windows 7 Ultimate torrent from here, burnt it to DVD and proceeded to install it to a Dell Dimension 9200 with 4GB and a nVidia GeForce 210 card which allowed me to have dual monitors.
And, guess what? I love it.
It just doesn't seem like the old plodding Windows any more but shows much more of the brisk and versatile style of OS X and/or Ubuntu.
Of course, you still need an anti-virus program (I'm using AVGFree on the Dimension 9200 and I'm trying out Microsoft Security Essentials on a Dell Dimension E520 that I'm just in the process of setting up).
Another thing I like is how fast it boots (on my two installs, W7 is part of a multiboot system). On the Dim 9200, W7 boots completely in 50 seconds, while on the Dim E520, booting takes only 40 seconds.
Now that's impressive.
So, what looked impossible less than a year ago, seems now to be very much on the cards and I'm going to buy a legitimate version of Windows 7.