[[Also, you missed a great big point - If people get disgusted with paying rent on their computer, they'll vote with their wallets and go get something better. Instead of whining about "oh, when will Linux do this/that", perhaps you ought to get off yer duff and help out a little? After all, Linux is about community, not about carping on some corporation to get things done for you. ]] HOW will they "vote with their wallets" if there is NO other operating system available for PC's that will run all the programs they want to use???? M$ is certainly working very hard to keep everyone out of the market so they can use their monopoly status to FORCE people to play it their way. It's been pretty obvious that their strategy is to 'slowly' shift to the pay-by-month approach, bit by bit by bit, so once it's fully in place, the 'general run' of users will be 'used to it' and won't realize what they've signed away until some month comes when they forget to pay on time and get cut off from all their own files, by which time it will be way too late to do anything about it except pay up - and once they've got everyone trapped into the system, you can absolutely COUNT on those monthly fees increasing quite regularly. As far as "getting off my duff" - I am NOT a programmer in ANY form. Since it is totally unrealistic to try to ditch all my other interests and work, and spend the next several years doing nothing but learning how to program - there's not a damn thing I CAN do to help except be ready to buy Linux-ported software IF and when it becomes available, and IF and when Linux comes in a form that laymen/non-programmers can use, be ready to instantly convert to it.