Five years, $6 billion and 15 million lines of code later, the next revolution in personal computing has arrived in the form of Windows Vista. Wait, did I say revolution? Hardly. Microsoft's latest incarnation of its unfortunately popular operating system proves Gates and Co. have no sense of innovation and rely too much on the competition for inspiration.

All hard feelings aside, I would like to congratulate Microsoft on its milestone accomplishment of completing another OS. Well, perhaps this would be a truly heartfelt statement if it were 100 percent accurate. Microsoft once again has shown us its keen ability to release a product before it is finished. Already, Microsoft is working on a service pack to make its product more stable. Give me a break. Wait five years, and you expect me to buy an incomplete mess? At least I know when I pick up the latest installments of Mac OS X I can look forward to new software that builds on an already impressive supply, rather than correcting the mistakes of its predecessor and filling in security gaps.

One rather disconcerting fact about Vista is that the PC that many of you use on a daily basis does not stand a chance of running Vista at optimum settings. To really be able to harness all the benefits of using Vista, the user should really cough up a grand or so and buy a new PC with top-of-the-line parts and a gigantic hard drive to boot. To upgrade from XP, Vista requires a good 15 gigabytes of hard disk space. I nearly choked when I found this out. While many new systems are going to come with Vista preloaded starting this year, I fear for users who love their mobility. Let's face the facts — laptops are really never as powerful as their desktop counterparts, so mobile users are at an even greater disadvantage, as the system requirements are really quite outrageous. Meeting the minimum doesn't translate to full functionality.

Forgetting the cost of what it would take to get a brand new system with Vista, and focus with me for just a moment the cost of simply picking up a copy and upgrading with your current PC. Realistically, when you buy an operating system, why not get the most out of it? To do so, pick up a copy of Windows Vista Ultimate, at the staggering full version price of $399. I'm sorry Microsoft, but are you kidding? Last time I checked, my rent on campus was nearly less than that. Yet, I suppose if I want the latest in computing I could go a month without heat or shelter. Going with a less expensive version of the product is even more of a waste of money than the Ultimate edition. Browsing the product comparison on Microsoft's website, it is easy to see how bare some of the more basic versions can be.

Not to drum up an ongoing topic of Vista versus OS X debate, but I think it is appropriate to let people not in the know of how similar some of the new "innovations" Microsoft is marketing actually are to its Mac nemesis. A few applications are shameless carbon copies of OS X to the point where you can watch a YouTube video of the Vista keynote presentation audio, but everything is being demoed on a Mac.

Personally, the comparison between one of my favorite Mac features, Expose, and Microsoft's Windows Flip/Windows Flip 3D. Both applications have a similar useful concept. Users can easily see all the current applications they have open and cycle though them to find what they need quickly. Yes, this is wonderful. I use it every single day, and I have been for years. Thanks, Microsoft, for having a divine epiphany and incorporating it into your new OS.

Another borrowed idea Microsoft is marketing is a feature they call Instant Search. Anyone, computer literate or not, would not be able to tell the difference between this and OS X's Spotlight. This program, too, is really cut and dry. Simply type in anything you desire to find on your hard disk, and the respective program will actively search and return corresponding results, breaking them down into categories like music or documents. I suppose I did make a mistake when I said it would be impossible to tell the difference between Instant Search and Spotlight. They just happen to be located on opposing corners of the screen, and Instant Search is tucked away in the Start menu. Clearly, I apologize for such an error.

And finally, I really had a laugh when I found out about Windows Sidebar and Gadgets. I was sitting there asking myself why this sounded so familiar, when it hit me. Just like Expose, I use it everyday, a little application called Dashboard, which I fill with Widgets. These two programs provide the user a convenient way to carry out simple tasks. Whatever you would like to call them, the Widgets, for example, will display the current weather, movie times or even simple games to pass the time. Again, Dashboard is something I have been reveling in since Mac OS X Tiger was released, so sorry to say Microsoft, you are almost three years behind.

So I cannot go through the entirety of this column and not say one nice thing about Microsoft's new baby. Like most newborns, everyone thinks it is the most beautiful thing to grace the planet. Vista actually does posses a pretty gorgeous user interface that is described as having a glass effect. Beyond glossy effects, the interface allows for live window animations so users can get a preview of what they have open at any given time, including video. The high-end visual style, however, dubbed Windows Aero, can only be handled by top-of-the-line graphics cards, which may not be available to casual users. Luckily for them, toned-down visual options are available, which are indeed far from impressive.

So go ahead and call me a Mac addict, a fan boy, Apple-obsessed or whatever tickles your fancy. However, in response, I will only politely and humbly thank you for your kind sentiments. The next time you can ever hope to see me using Windows is the day hell freezes over and I am led through to eternal suffering by Bill Gates — I mean, Satan himself — at the point of his trident. Now if you will excuse me, I have a date with my iBook — all this talk of Windows is making me nauseous.

Justin Voss is a Type-A, Apple elitist and a sophomore majoring in Japanese. Send your tech and gaming questions to him at [email protected].