i finally got it running on an old toshiba with not-so-great 1.4 GHz processor and a gig of RAM. I really don't see too many differences between this and vista. They've added a few options to add a bit more customisation to people who like to prod around in the control panel and system folders like myself, but it really boils down to adding alot more accessibility it seems. They've added one option on the taskbar that has numerous things to fix various problems you may encounter with the system.
Finally even with the cruddy processor and RAM (its got as much as the motherboard will let it take) it still seems to run slow in terms of booting up and opening certain apps like internet explorer.
ill keep it around just to run media storage backup. but i'll stick with ubuntu linux for my main system. i've been messing with that for about 2-3 months and have really taken al liking to it.
oh and if anyones interested, microsoft's website glitched on me when i was getting one of those free product keys and it gave me 2 extra, if anyones interested in them lemmie know.