Am I the only person who disliked Staroffice 5.2? I mean, yes it was free and so I used it instead of those other products. But I got so frustrated at the incredibly weird user interface.

Yes, StarOffice had wierd default behavior -- that whole very presumptuous replacement desktop type of approach. Didn't like it, but figured out how to turn it off. Not sure that I still would love StarOffice, but it certainly presented a compelling value proposition when the cost was zero (and when it could open Word docs that Word could not!!). I used "jay" and "research" in my story to hide the nature of that company's business and its identity, but trust me when I say that they could ill afford to part with $300K...but somehow did. I''d say that 95 percent of their computer users probably used 5 percent of the features of Word -- they could have done their work with Notepad. If I had been CIO and CEO, I know the choice I would have made.

Blame-wise, I think it is a mixed bag. Microsoft practices in achieving near monopoly on the desktop were complemented by the "nobody ever got fired for buying ____" mindset.

I might part with $30 when the new SO comes out. Is that how much it will be? Will it have reveal codes??? Pleeeeze???