Better yet, Vista runs faster, more smoothly, and with better video support on Apple’s device than the laptop I bought 18 months ago from Alienware. Somehow, Alienware and Nvidia just couldn’t be bothered to update the graphics drivers on the Alienware device.

Once again, Apple trumps all other tech vendors for quality of user experience…

I haven’t done a thorough test, but so far, most of my applications are working just fine. The notebook recovers from sleep even more quickly than before — within a couple of seconds of opening the lid. (I wish my PC Vista notebook could perform like that!)

So far, the only compatibility issue I’ve had is with a one-year-old version of Google Earth, which failed to launch. To be fair to Google, I haven’t tried to install a more recent version.

What a stark difference between the experience of installing Vista as an upgrade to a Windows XP notebook, and installing Leopard as an upgrade to Mac OS 10.4 “Panther.” Nine months later, I still lack drivers to support the full capabilities of my PC notebook. I’ve given up hope that those drivers will ever arrive.

As for Leopard, let’s hope this positive experience continues to be the norm on my MacBook Pro!