I had a similar experience myself last year. I was impressed with Win 7 and had been using it since the RC. Meanwhile, I was also testing out various nix distros but kept going back to 7. I eagerly awaited Oct 22, the day when 7 would be available for purchase. I was refreshing MS (NZ) website the whole day for news of the student version, but there were no updates. Tried again the next day, the whole week, still nothing. Contacted some people in the MS loop here and they said that the student version would be available later, but only as an upgrade. Also, it’d set me back by – 125 USD. What.a.ripoff. (considering it was $50 in the US!)
7 might be a decent OS but I’ve had enough of MS’s indecent practices. Formatted that very instant and went on a full scale distro hop with a vengeance.

The next big date I was looking forward to was Oct 29, when the Karmic Koala would be released from its den. And as it so happens, it was a Karmic Katastrophe. Amongst many annoying bugs, the major issue was that the internet wouldn’t work. Spent a lot of time on IRC and the forums but no one was able to help me. Survived a few more days on Puppy, until Mandriva 2010 came out. This was perhaps the biggest letdown for me. Ubuntu, I could understand, but Mandriva was an even bigger disaster I didn’t not expect. I then turned towards the green gecko but even it had issues with the net (11.1). But I hung on, hoping that 11.2 would arrive soon. Finally, came November 12, 2010. 11.2 was here. Salvation. 🙂