Win7 has offered nothing of value to the end-user in my opinion.
Really? I guess he hasn't really used windows 7 beyond listening to other linux users complaints. Application virtualization is pretty cool feature, improved UI, but the biggest feature is the security.
Much ado about nothing - most virus authors have gotten around UAC by now... and that is the main sec difference between XP and Vista/Seven. Give me 20 seconds on a win 7 box (ANY win platform actually) as a guest and I can be sitting on a SYSTEM desktop (not Admin now, but SYSTEM). I do it all the time in order to kill tough bugs or delete files that will not die... getting admin on a cold start is a piece of cake. So is shutting off UAC on the next restart from a cold box... elevating from user, too. nothing has changed much.