Not by a mile. Windows 7 literally beats Vista to death -- it's a lot snappier and (to me, anyway) a lot more stable.
Let's not forget that it actually runs in 512 MB of RAM, and I can attest to this. I'm an OS X guy by trade and employment, but Windows 7 I can actually tolerate (which blows my mind, really).
Agreed. I'd never use Windows as a primary OS (that would just be silly), but I find that I don't hate Windows 7. It's still Windows (still opaque, still overwrought, still not posix, still has a registry), but it's a Windows you can live with.
Let's not forget that it actually runs in 512 MB of RAM, and I can attest to this. I'm an OS X guy by trade and employment, but Windows 7 I can actually tolerate (which blows my mind, really).