No, you can upgrade to Win 7 Ultimate or Professional from any Vista version.

If you purchase the upgrade, you will not have to do a clean install. I'm not sure if a clean install will be possible from the upgrade disks or if you will just be able to use your XP/Vista disk for verification. You should run the upgrade compatibility tool first, especially if your come from XP. It can be download from MS.

If your main concern is gaming, you could probably save your money and just get home premium. It's doubtful that any new game or app will be able to make use of 16 GB of RAM any time soon, and even further away to make use of PRO's 192 GB.

It won't.

I'll pass on Windows 7.

That's like music to my ears...

if i have vista 32bit can i update to Win 7 64bit as well or is that asking toooo much...

I ran the tool and it told me i was good for both the 32 and 64 bit versions, but it told me a "custom installation" would be necessary and then that i should back up my apps before i started. I wouldn't need to back up anything if it was an upgrade-in-place. And by "Custom instalation" i assume it means clean install. I don't see how it will work uprgrading from XP if the upgrade versions do not do what microsoft says they need to do

If you want to go that way, yes.  I know the full versions of Win 7 Professional and Ultimate have both 32 and 64 bit versions on the installation disc, but I'm not sure if upgrade copies do... you'd have to check that at point of purchase.

I won't....it's the best OS MS has ever released.....the RC appears to be rock-solid. [so far] ...

Bet you it's not near as solid as OSX 10.6...

(Apples and oranges yes I know...)

Can't skin OS-X 10.6 with ObjectDesktop, though.

I've not used OS-X 10.6 so can not comment on its reliability/performance, but I can categorically state that Win 7 is rock solid (even in RC) and is definitely the best OS Microsoft has put out... ever!  It's on my PC shopping list... at the top, though it's only  just ahead of an OCZ Vertex 120gb SSD drive.

No need to. Plenty eye candy to go around.

Ah, but I loves my OD and Stardock apps... so OS-X is not on my immediate shopping list.  I wanted to get myself a Mac a couple of years back, but sadly other, more important stuff came first.  Hopefully one day, even if it's a Mini Mac that I can hook up to the peripherals I have already.

See, I'm not anti-Mac!  Like Win 7 (any OS I suppose) I'm sure OS-X has its plusses.

Nah you're just anti-Linux right? Anyhow...

You cannot update a 32 bit Vista install to a 64 bit Windows 7. You can only update 32 bit Vista to Windows 7 32 bit, and same for 64 bit. Now, licence-wise you should be allowed to, but it's not technically possible, so you'd probably have to install Vista 64 bit first (your 32 bit version key should still work for 64 bit) and then update, but that's quite a hassle and most people will lose some data in this process because they don't know how to backup properly. I wonder how MS will facilitate this.

What i heard, there is a big "fight" inside Microsoft Europe (and Redmond), because this mess. After all, Microsoft stated on latest article, that they have almost 970.000.000 customers. Vista works perfectly nowadays, but in start, it was so slow and unstable and marketing screw up, so it was biggest invest by MS and biggest flop. After all, big companies are important than "only" customers, but many still use XP, because Vista. And now Windows 7 have all those fixes and possibilities to use different kind of modes, etc. Like many, i feel abused by Microsoft, because i have 3 legal Vista licenses and 0 illegal, and what i heard and saw that they already allow "warez"/"piracy" word in their own main forums (MS), because even MS own workers are against some MS decisions, WHAT MAYBE will change!?!? Because if you read that EU Antitrust statement, and their reply, you may surprise that this EU-thing is not so easy. Those who don't know, in EU, there is only Windows 7 E and/or N version, other is without IE and other is without Media Player. Due the monopoly. Or Both N & E version are also possible, lol. That's why many big companies will not set any prices (in EU), yet, even some may try, but be careful, because all may change. I think that MS don't want to mess or screw up their marketing - again.