I have the RC on my laptop. It runs great, seems snappier compared to Vista! Looking forward to buying it when it comes out!
It runs surprisingly well on old junk. Like PIII with 256 or 320MB of RAM So on a decent computer it's pretty good. I haven't had any real problems with drivers. I hope it's a hit with the public because I'm getting tired of everyone being obsessed with a 7 year old OS (event though I use it myself)
I've got it running in a VM on my Mac, and it is really pretty good. Pretty darn snappy given that I'm only giving it a quarter of my RAM (1 of my 4GB). My only issue is that it won't let me change the display resolution from 1024x768 (1280x800 native screen), even when I fiddle with the registry. I figure that's probably more to do with the Virtualisation software (which is, in itself, a beta).
I've been running windows 7 at work since beta 1. I have had only a few problems with IE8 on it. Some proprietary software I use at work wouldn't install so I had to hack the installer, but it works fine. RC1 seems like a finished product to me. I love the new taskbar of windows 7. Aside from that, I'm happy they went back to version numbers rather than silly names.
It also runs suprising well on new hardware! Like AMD Phenom II 940 @ 4.2GHz with 8192MB of RAM. XD Seriously though, Windows 7 manages my hardware much better than Windows Vista, especially the instalation of my TV tuners.
Windows 7, i think is going to be a fail. Not that much is new. not that much that makes a difference to the average user at least... :/
Windows 7 is nice - it has a few Features, but overall, I like it. The real pull for me when it comes out, though, is that I desperately need to reorganise everything, completely - wipe and start again style. I'm still using the same file structure that I did when I got my first computer. Win 7 is a great excuse to do that.
That never stopped Apple from selling upgrades. At the very least for new purchases it will keep people from insisting on an 8 year old operating system.
I've been running it for months, I really enjoy the RC. I agree that the start bar is fantastic, I don't even use desktop icons or the start menu anymore, it's great. And it seems more organized that a Mac's object dock or whatever.