Much has been made of the new operating system from Microsoft: Windows Vista. And much of that has been less than positive. But a year and a half after its release, is Vista finally ready for prime time?

If you’re still happy with Windows XP, there’s no reason to upgrade. In fact, moving from XP to Vista can be a painful experience, as some old hardware is still incompatible with Vista—and older computers running the OS can bog down terribly, thanks to its hefty overhead.

Apple’s Leopard upgrade to the venerable OS X, which was released late last year, is considerably more modest. If you’ve used any prior version of OS X, you should find Leopard quite familiar, almost to the point where you may ask yourself whether the new OS is worth the $100. Key upgrades include updated iChat, the Time Machine backup system, a multiple-desktop system called
Spaces and numerous enhancements to the Safari Web browser. Apple counts more than 300 upgrades, but only a dozen or so are any real importance. If you’re a serious power user of the Mac OS, you’ll appreciate the new features. But more casual users can safely skip the upgrade this time around.--C.N.