Well, I've been running Vista Ultimate for a couple of weeks now, and so far so good. Thought I'd write a little bit more about the software I'm using and my experiences.

The hardware side of things is still a MacBook Pro (I've done this to two of them now), running Windows Vista Ultimate natively thanks to Apple's Boot Camp software. I'm using version 1.2 of Boot Camp, and although it's still classified as beta software, my experience with it has been excellent. Having said that, I'll sleep better at night once it's finalized, which will happen as part of Apple's October release of Leopard.

On the software side, I'm happy to report that all of my key applications continue to run well. That includes Photo Mechanic, Adobe Photoshop CS2, Elements 5 and Lightroom. On top of that is the entire Microsoft Office 2007 Suite (which I'm coming to like as I use it more), Nikon Capture NX 1.1 and Picture Project, Filezilla (excellent free ftp software), iView MediaPro 3, Snagit (great screen capture utility), Proshow Gold 3 (wonderful slideshow creation tool), MacDrive 7 (so I can access the Mac side of the hard drive), and Google Earth (just plain fun!). I'm happy to report that Avira's just released their new (for Vista) AVG Anti Virus 7.5 Free Edition. Just got that installed, and it's happily checking for viruses. There are others as well, but that's my key group for now.

What about the Vista experience itself? I continue to really enjoy the interface. Everything's cleaner and makes more sense to me. The Start - All Programs is much easier to navigate, and I've taken to keeping all my key progams on the Quick Launch icon in the Task Bar. The new Backup and Restore Control Panel makes it simple to have any or all of my files backed up on a regular schedule to my server on the network. It even has the ability to create an image of the entire computer and store it offline, to speed up recovery from a massive crash. In fact many of the control panels are now more helpful and useful. Networking, sharing, connecting to networks - pretty much everything's undergone an overhaul, with good results. I'm not thrilled with the protective interface options, as you have to click your way through approval screens on a regular basis. However, if it helps keep harmful stuff off my computer, I'm willing to live with it until they come up with a better solution.

Finally, as someone who spends a lot of time teaching photography and its digital interface (all things computer), the new Windows Photo Gallery is a great improvement over XP's digital photo support. It's made seeing, organizing, adjusting and sharing photos much easier. Not only can it handle JPEGs, but many RAW formats as well. In fact, for a lot of people who just shoot photos around home and on vacation, it could well be all they need. You can rate and tag photos, rename and even add caption information. Put a card in a connected reader, or attach a camera to the computer and an AutoPlay pops up that offers to help import the photos. You can set the location, some simple renaming options, allow rotation and have the Gallery open when finished. Add to that well-planned CD/DVD burning, support for email of images and extensive slideshow creation options (want to author a DVD?) and it's a very nice photo package for a casual user.

Bottom line? The jury's in for me - I'm a Vista convert. I'll still run XP on some of my machines, as some clients have said they'll stay at that release for the time being. For the rest of my work, it will be Vista.