Windows Vista feels, at times, like my own god-child. Albeit with a hideous drink problem. I saw it born, watched its first tentative fumblings, mopped up the inevitable infant vomit and saw it stumble headlong into the expectant wider world, with a mixture of excitement and trepidation.

In the intervening period, I've seen it career into innumerable fights, stumble blindly around places it should never have been (netbooks, I'm looking at you) and I've hidden behind my hands as it's fallen over, been paralysed by existential horror and given itself a reputation about as savoury as molasses.

Too little, too late?

And now, just as it's recovering, becoming more mature and stable, it's already being usurped by a new kid on the block – Windows 7. While the thrillingly named Service Pack 1 and various other updates have actually sorted out most of Vista's pre-pubescent problems, it's too little too late as far as most people are concerned, and the PR damage is done.

It's all caused Microsoft to make the gestation of Windows 7 hugely public. "Look at all we've learnt!," scream its parents. And you can, of course – there's still a day in which you can download the beta from Microsoft's site, here.*

The same. But not the same

And the gamble seems to be paying off too – for now. Coverage of the still-early-days code has been almost entirely favourable, and we're quietly optimistic about the various builds of Windows 7 we've been living with for a while too. Unless something gets broken in the interim, it should turn out to be a fairly pain-free birth. Hooray.

But what's interesting about all this is that Windows 7 is not, as no version of Windows has been since Windows 95, a significant rewrite code-wise. In fact, it's quite feasible that more code has changed between Vista's release and Vista now than will change between Vista now and Windows 7.

Which leaves us...

Which leaves us with the realisation that it's actually the same 'child' all along. It's made mistakes, hopefully learnt from them and tried some new things too – which don't always go brilliantly.

I'm hoping that the new start this gym-and-facelift regime has given it isn't ruined by, say, useless marketing or Vista's lingering reputation as awkward and greedy. For a start, Mac OS needs some good competition, but there's also no-one as well positioned as Microsoft to finally start pulling together all those disparate digital home threads.

Fingers crossed.

*I wouldn't advise it for the feint-hearted, but that's only because installing an operating system can be arse.