[poopers]

Vista support will last for a long time, they haven‘t phased out XP support yet. If you‘re not encountering any problems with vista (so do some don’t, mostly dependant on hardware) then there’s no need, as of now, to upgrade. That said Windows 7 does feel a lot more polished than vista, is a lot faster on old hardware and is worth the £70 imo.

Aren’t you eligible for MS’s educational discount too? Do they still do this? When I was at uni (doing computing too) you could save tons by getting the student licence, bit of a palaver getting it though. They’ll be a family licence for windows 7 coming soon allowing you to install the os on 3 separate machines for around £150 so might be worth checking that out if you know others interested in getting it too.