Years ago - 1995 I believe- I happened to stumble on the feeding frenzy that was the launch of Windows 95. I was aware of the midnight launch and it raised anxiety because it represented something I already knew - Microsoft had ripped off my beloved Mac UI. In fact I wondered, how long would it take before I too was absorbed into the borg that is Microsoft.

But along the way, something funny happened. Apple didn't disappear. The Mac OS was radically redesigned and today OS X stands as the premier operating system - bar none. I can still hear my mother say "if everyone jumped off the bridge would you too?" I didn't and I'm glad.

Fortunately for those of you in lock step with Microsoft, you can get your first look at the Mac operating system in the form of Vista. How wonderful that you only had to wait six years to see what the the "rest of us" already knew back in 2000.

Actually, I'm thinking about taking a couple of steps backward into the future. I'm going to trash my Mac, and iPod in favor of Vista and a Zune. They're exactly the same, right?

I give it three weeks before I'm doing things like searching for drivers (whatever those are) and asking questions in Vista forums about the latest greatest DLL (Dirty Little Lies?). And boy, won't I look stylish with that big 'ol brown Zune strapped to my hip (it's a geek thing).

I've always felt Microsoft was really designed just to keep IT assholes employed. After-all, if we all had Mac reliability and ease of use, the cult of IT would no longer exist - no one would put up with the peevish personalities this whole windoze thing has foisted on us. We'd gleefully send them back the the dark hole they came from.

How much you wanna bet that within a couple of days some hacker finds a security hole the size of a Buick in Vista. Ahhh, job security!

Finally, I just need to remind you all what VISTA really stands for:

VERY INTERESTED IN STEALING TOTAL ASSETS.

Anja Merret lives in Brighton, UK, having recently moved across from South Africa. Anja has had a varied and interesting career and life journey. She started as a high school teacher, changed professions to become an admin manager at her late husband's law firm because this allowed her the flexibility to look after her small children at the time. After many years she left this position to try her hand at an art gallery, moved across to public relations and finally found her niche in education again managing a computer training centre for many years.

She now looks after the business interests of her daughter who is a Flash Accessibility expert. She has recently started a blog and writes on issues that interest her from self-improvement to tech stuff for amateurs. She has BA (Hons) MBA degrees.

Her musings may be found on www.anjamerret.com