[Dennis Kalma]

Let it be said that I am no friend of Microsoft. I have had the misfortune of dealing with them when **they** want you to upgrade and you do not...guess who wins and at your expense.

Personally, I think this is the kiss of death for Microsoft, in a way similar to what happened to IBM. They are trying to lock down the market and doing so in a way that is expensive for the consumer of the service, which will naturally lead to people seeking alternatives, choices like Linux come to mind.

In my most recent CIO job, we replaced Microsoft Server with Linux, same hardware, more reliability...better net effective performance, cheaper and easier to support. At this point ALL the good sysadmin's I know use Mac's at home, with Linux where needed and only keep Microsoft around to the degree that they need to have it to do their support work.....

Personally, next step for me when I need to move is a Mac or Linux.....

Dennis