As a college student, I haven't been able to afford a nice bike for commuting, so I've been using a single-speed cruiser that my friend made for me and it hasn't been very commuter-friendly. Now that I'm graduating and I'll have more disposable income, I want to get a nice bike for commuting and hopefully will start biking a lot more.

I've been doing some shopping around at local bike stores, and have narrowed down to a hybrid commuter bike, like the Kona Dew Plus, or a cyclocross, like the Kona Jake. Obviously the cyclocross is much more expensive, but I was wondering if anyone has some suggestions for what would be a better buy. I'll probably be biking about 15-20 miles a day, and may get more into biking for recreation now that I'll have more free time.

I'd love to hear some pros and cons with the commuter and cyclocross bikes, because at this point I really don't know what to do. I also have the potential of moving to the Pacific Northwest or Colorado within the next two years for grad school, so I'm wondering if either bike would be better for those areas? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!