By WALTER S. MOSSBERG
THE RELEASE OF a new version of Microsoft Windows is like the launching of a new aircraft carrier. It's a major, ponderous event whose ripples affect everything around it. So Microsoft's planned launch of the next version of its Windows operating system, called Windows Vista, currently set for January 2007, will be a big deal.
Vista is the biggest revision to Windows in over a decade. It will be a major change, not only for consumer and corporate Windows users, but for computer makers, software creators and many others downstream.
But what's in Vista? How will it be sold? And what kind of computer will be needed to run it? Here's a rough guide to the new Leviathan of the digital seas.
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