When Microsoft Corp. released a beta version of Vista last spring -- the final version is due in early 2007 -- I was one of those who downloaded it and installed it. At first, all I could do was run it on my year-old Sony Vaio. But that changed a week or two ago when Microsoft released a Pre-Release candidate 1 (RC1) of Vista, Build No. 5536, and then, more recently a full-fledged RC1, Version 5600.

I spotted a news item on a Mac site pointing out that with Boot Camp now updated to Version 1.1, and with an RC1 disk in hand, Mac owners could install Vista and get a real taste for what the competition is up to.

Who can resist a chance to surf the Web with a beta version of something like Firefox, running on a beta version of Microsoft's next operating system, using a beta version of Apple's Boot Camp software? Not I.

I have to say at the outset that after more than a decade as a hard-core Apple fan, running Windows on a MacBook Pro is bit, well, weird. It's sort of like living your whole life as a BMW fan and waking one day to find yourself behind the wheel of a shiny new Chevy, or wearing sunglasses after dark. You can do it, but it just somehow seems wrong.

Still, in 2006, this is where we stand: Apple's hardware runs Windows, and does so quite well. In fact, the MacBook Pro I bought in May is better equipped to run Vista than the Sony Vaio I bought less than a year ago. At the time, the Vaio VGN-A790 was pretty much a top-of-the-line machine from Sony, with a 2-GHz Pentium M chip from Intel, 1GB of RAM, a 7,200-rpm hard drive and 256MB of dedicated video RAM. I have since doubled the RAM to 2GB.