I’ve been quite satisfied to date with Windows XP — yes, I know, your mileage may vary — and have not yet had a reason to go out and buy a copy of Windows 7.  (Thank all benign powers, I have never experienced Vista!)  It’s been a temptation, though, just for the sake of being up to date.  (I think the current box has enough marbles to handle it.)  Three things hold me back:

1. It’s incredibly early days yet in the life of this latest version of the Microsoft flag program (no pun intended on the Windows logo).  I’d rather let someone else be the gamma testbed, and wait until the first few rounds of bug fixes are out of the way.
2. I don’t have the money (the leading reason!).
3. I’ve heard Dreadful Rumors, verging on Unconfirmed Reports, that Second Life won’t run decently, if at all, on the new system.

From what I’ve seen in a quick Google search, this last is again a case of Your Mileage May Vary.  Some people may have the proper drivers to do the job; one report I’ve seen says that the native Windows graphic drivers (from Intel) can’t hack it, and you need an Nvidia card and drivers to carry the load.  Others report things just fine if they install XP drivers.  Others tell tales of woe and no success (or login), no matter what they do.

One thing is probable; you’ll need an up-to-date box to run Windows 7, and that means a relatively current graphics card.  Desktops, of course, will be in the lead on this, as their owners can buy new graphics cards (“Please, Santa, bring me a new Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 as a stocking stuffer!”); laptop users are pretty much shafted by the nature of their beasts.

Assuming that the card is compatible with Windows 7, then the ball is in the court of the client writers.  I’ve been checking the Big Blog, but Linden Lab is silent to date on whether either the official client, any of the Release Candidates, or Snowglobe will cope with the new system.  The independents are probably working faster on the question; their progress will be controlled by whether they’ve obtained Windows 7 themselves.  I’ve already heard of one workaround for Emerald, probably the most popular independent client.

Do you, gentle readers, have any information to relate?  Any workarounds that can assist the lunatic fringe, uh, the early release users of Win 7?  If you know of something, drop a comment here.