BTW, i’m waiting anxiously for Windows 7 to come out. My understanding is that it is everything that Longhorn promised to be (before it got castrated and turned into Vista). Much as i love Windows XP, my understanding is that Windows 7 is so far more stable and faster.
Win7 is NOT "everything that Longhorn promised to be (before it got castrated and turned into Vista". That major overhaul is waiting for (yet) another release.
The Beta of Win7 is indeed faster and may be more stable than Vista. It has many features removed and/or relocated to Microsoft's cloud service (Windows Live), to reduce its footprint. Most people who panned Vista seem to like Win7 so far.
System-wise, Win7 is essentially Vista with some fixes. Steve Ballmer said as much -- it's minor changes, not an overhaul.