While they're not offering Windows 7 via The Ultimate Steal like they did with Office, Microsoft is apparently offering students a discount (~$30 USD) version of Windows 7 Home Premium/Professional, starting tomorrow for folks not in the US/UK. I love me my XP Pro (*clings*), but I know that at some point, I'm not going to have much choice but to upgrade. Also, I'm frankly curious.

And, hm. Dilemma. I just ran the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor and apparently Podkayne (my present desktop machine) can run it, but for a few graphics issues that I don't really care about (I think Aero is silly.).

However, I'm still pretty sure she's going to die soon. She's six (seven?) years old including the time before refurbishment, and has been freezing some and making working-too-hard sounds lately. I'm loathe to replace her, but I also don't want to be without a desktop computer. (Yes, I have two other computers, but they're both laptops and it's different, shut up. :P)

So do I:

a) buy the damned upgrade (~$40 CAD with taxes and such) and possibly need to replace the entire PC in the near future anyway, or just

b) throw up my hands and replace her before she blows, with a newer, better machine that will come with Windows 7 preinstalled?

On a related note, have any of you been using the betas? How does it look? Shiny or Tissue Of Beautiful Lies like Vista?