Quote - > Quote - I can live with that, thd77 - and e-on said exactly what you are saying (I couldn't stand the suspense so I just called them a few minutes ago)

Thanks for your input,

Mari-Anne

Edited:  I was pleasantly surprised to note that I got an extra 30-days added on to the maintenance expiration date by e-on once my purchase was approved.

Yes, I got that last year, too. With the new prices, I can always have the latest version of Vue for $195 a year. An excellent deal in my book.
Do download the 8.5 pre-release if you have not done so yet.  It run's very well for me and some of the additions are just great.  Especially some of the little stuff (you can now drag and drop multiple plants/objects from the browser in an eco-system. That makes populating one with many different species much faster. And there is now a preview button for dynamic ecosystems. No need to render just to see what the ecosystem looks like).

Ciao
TD