Well my take on the article was that all the hoopla was geared towards the business environment, not the private sector. I have XP on my system now, and I am not bound to upgrade in two years, three years, four years, or ever. If you are trying to alert the private individual that Micro$oft will lock them into an upgrade contract, this is NOT the case. The controversy is over business' being bound to such a contract. The only thing that I can see at this time that would effect the private individual is that businesses finding themselves trapped into this 'scheduled' and contractual agreement with Micro$oft will defer the cost by raising the prices of their services and or goods. Thus, we the private individuals will pay higher prices. In the end, it's always the little guy that gets the shaft.