I completely agree -- and I've only had to use Word as yet. I've been a big fan of Office and greeted every upgrade with happiness. All of a sudden, I completely get why my German colleagues were flummoxed at trying to save a simple file so that I could open it. I have a lot more patience now. :)

Run, don't walk, to Windows 7. I've only heard bad things about Vista but Win 7 is a winner for me. If I had to take a guess, I'd say that Win 7 is more XP-based. That's a wild guess but it operates much like XP and it's compatible with everything I've thrown at it thus far. It feels like a Mac! ;) There are still some things I'm getting used to but it's not so very different.

I think you should cheat and fly Karen over there to upgrade your computer for you. ;) (Karen does report that upgrading to Win 7 was the smoothest upgrade she ever did.)