231w ago - It's not a Windows Vista killer - Windows Vista fulfils that role quite well enough, thank you. But it's hard to know how excited Microsoft itself is about Windows 7.

Show it too much love, and it's effectively agreeing with everyone who hates Vista - and sometimes it feels like that really is everyone.

So Microsoft is keeping Windows 7 at a distance, and not saying that much about it at all - or perhaps just enough to stop its users going on and on about how much they love Windows XP.

A nice counterpoint is Apple, which actually does get excited about new versions of its Mac OS X operating system - or as excited as a cold, controlling organisation run by one cool man can be.

Obviously, Apple's manic users go way over the top in their pant-wetting love of Jaguar, Tiger, Leopard, et al - tatooing System Preference icons on their faces, endlessly rolling their cursor along the Dock with Magnification set on Maximum, leaving their screens on all night so they fall asleep under the warm glow of a Time Machine backup.