Last night the giant billboards of Times Square lit up with the long-overdue news: Vista, Microsoft’s endlessly awaited new version of the Windows operating system, is finally on sale to consumers. CEO Steve Ballmer and chairman Bill Gates both contend that it’s the best operating system that Microsoft has ever produced. That’s not necessarily so impressive: after five years and billions of dollars of development，it would be pretty shameful if Microsoft turned in something worse than one of its Windows predecessors. But Gates and Ballmer can rest easy on that count. While the operating system is not the “wow” generator that its marketing campaign promises, it is definitely an improvement over the Windows of yore.
 

If you are a Windows user, the question is not whether you will use Vista, but when: a solid majority of people will not upgrade their machines to run Vista but will get the system when they buy a new PC.
 

So what do you get when you take the plunge? A whole grab bag of stuff, certainly too much to cover in one review. I’ve been using a beta version for several weeks. With the exception of a few glitches—Vista hasn’t warned to the presence of the Google desktop on my machine—I’m generally pleased. It may not have rocked my world, but it certainly makes using Windows more enjoyable.
 

Other Vista features include a mightier means of handling photos—offering editing and organizing features like you find in Apple’s iPhoto or Google’s Picasa, along with the ability to quickly burn photos on a DVD disk. There’s also movie editing and burning. Handling music on Vista is a knottier task, since Microsoft now offers competing systems—its own Windows Media player and a different program that goes with its Zune player. Meanwhile, many people, mainly iPod users, will want to simply download Apple’s iTunes music player.
 

In short, five years after Windows XP, Microsoft has done a reasonably good job in pulling its operating system a bit deeper into the 21st century. If you’re the kind of person who gets a kick from taking advantage of all the stuff on your PC, or feel that some of the features described above will make a difference to you—and you have a fairly recent, fairly powerful computer—do consider an upgrade now. Otherwise, there’s no problem with letting nature take its course and welcoming Vista on your next PC.