I'm still running Windows XP Professional and I upgrade my computer every now and then. Ever since Vista came out, I'm a little paranoid about upgrading to WIndows 7. I have read good things about Windows 7 but still can't bring myself to upgrade yet. Can anyone give me a push here and tell me what I will gain from upgrading and what I will lose?
I game regularly, watch movies, listen to music, and surf the web.

Don't be paranoid, when MS created Windows 7 they ditched the Vista kernal that didn't work and went back to the Windows XP kernal (so far the most successful Windows OS). Now Windows 7 has all the features that Vista was meant to have and the stability of Win XP. So stop messing around and get it now.

Speed: 
Windows 7 > XP > Vista 
 
Features: 
 7 > Vista > XP 
 
Looks: 
 7 > Vista > XP 
 
Support: 
 7+Vista > XP 
 
Ease of Use: 
 7 > ANYTHING 
 
It's pretty simple, 7 doesn't have one gripe over any other Windows OS.

being able to hit start then type the name of something to run
pinning things to your taskbar
progress bars on your taskbar  
task peek'a'boo on mouse over 
win+up = maxmunise 
win+left/right moves the window to the screen in that direction
I'm assuming you have a 32 win xp and a 64 core 2 or something which win7 can use for some of the newer stuff  this will also let you have more than 4gb of ram
windows 7 updates your gfx drivers 
games folder 
librarys esp if there are other people on the network soo much easier to share stuff with them 
aero is nice 
ready boost if you have a spare usb stick around is quite nice 
keeps most of your setting if you upgrade 
dx10 and 11 support

DirectX 10 and soon 11 should be enough convincing. If you want to play any of the new games coming out, you're going to need DX10.

XP is already over a decade old and is leaving extended support soon. That should be reason enough

" XP is already over a decade old and is leaving extended support soon. That should be reason enough "

" Don't be paranoid, when MS created Windows 7 they ditched the Vista kernal that didn't work and went back to the Windows XP kernal (so far the most successful Windows OS).  "  

heres a reason:  the year is 2011

Win7 is great.

Windows 7 is really good, Windows XP is also really good but dated. Relax, there is no reason at this point to stick with Windows XP unless you are using a netbook.

" heres a reason:  the year is 2011 "

" Speed: Windows 7 > XP > Vista  Features:  7 > Vista > XP  Looks:  7 > Vista > XP  Support:  7+Vista > XP  Ease of Use:  7 > ANYTHING  It's pretty simple, 7 doesn't have one gripe over any other Windows OS. "

I like vista more than both XP and somewhat 7 
 
Not saying that either are bad by any means its just i kind of like vista for some reason or other

" I like vista more than both XP and somewhat 7  Not saying that either are bad by any means its just i kind of like vista for some reason or other "

Win7 is just as stable and awesome as XP ever was for me, and it looks loads better. Plus I don't plan on dooming my PC to being antiquated  solely because I'm too stubborn to upgrade my OS. XP doesn't have *anything* over 7 other than being old.

" @ShaunassNZ: You only showed 5 reasons that 7 is better, you need another 2 to complete the list.  Driver support:  Windows 7 > XP > Vista  Gaming: Windows 7 > XP > Vista "

Windows 7 is pretty good.

Snap windows, that is all.

" Snap windows, that is all. "

I tried using XP after several years of using Windows 7 (one of my parents' old PCs still runs XP), and well it didn't go so well . . . <_< Just the thought that a lot of people are still using XP, just well, it doesn't bring a lot of pleasant images into my head . . . 

Internet Explorer 9. Face it, some program is going to force you to use Internet Explorer whether you want to or not. If you're going to have to use Internet Explorer, you might as well use the version that supports websites built in the last decade.

There's no reason not to upgrade except maybe to wait until the next version of Windows at this point (but that's going to be a long ass wait), and Windows XP is so old and janky it feels like a toy of an operating system at this point.

" @ShaunassNZ:  I used to work in a PC retail store when Vista was launched and remember how for months after the release we used to get customers coming in with driver issues, printers that were boughtt months before Vista launched no longer worked with Vista and some cases hardware bought with the PC never worked at all with Vista, many of the technicians that were dealing with the problems were telling customers that Vista was based on completely new code. When 7 launched none of those issues came up and technicians were saying it was down to kernal changes and how the new kernal was based on XP coding and not an updated Vista Kernal. "

Yes, but have a look at drivers now and programs and they're for both 7 AND Vista. "

" @ShaunassNZ said:

Yes, but have a look at drivers now and programs and they're for both 7 AND Vista. "

And so you arrive at the conclusion that Windows 7 and Vista are based on the same Kernal (core code). "

" @ShaunassNZ: Ok. I think I see what you are saying. I resisted Vista for as long as I could until I bought a really good deal on a PC. Gaming performance on Vista was not very good, I got about a 30% gain in performance on my PC by installing Windows XP on it and while some of the Admin tasks were more complex and took longer with XP, XP was still a generally better OS.   Windows 7 is regarded as the OS that Vista was meant to be by many people. "

Too bad I haven't seen a good deal on Win 7 or else I would upgrade.  Im too cheap to pay $90+ on an OS.