"I have heard that Microsoft only supports two OSes at the same time with patches, currently XP and 2000, but with Vista will drop XP. Can anyone verify this?"
I see that Syntyr has already answered this in post #96. IMHO, MS won't drop support for XP until the majority of the marketplace has upgraded to Vista, even if that's beyond their planned lifecycle.
If Vista is largely rejected and/or ignored over the next 2 or 3 years (most likely due to DRM issues), then look for a major service pack or possibly a new major release to correct the perceived shortcomings.
I believe that MS suffers from 'bloatware syndrome'. - trying to dominate the market through monopolizing all phases and services. Just like big government, this leads to waste, mismanagement, poor quality, poor service or very expensive service (support), superfluous and unwanted features, inflated costs and pricing, etc.
Linux is looking better and better all the time. Mac may be the answer for some, but will probably become as bloated as MS, if not there already. Linux is the only solution that, to my knowledge, a user can configure to run mean and lean, with only the desired features.
It's sad that there are not many programmers left that use pure assembly language for their programs. It produces code that is small, extremely fast, and efficient. Steve Gibson is a long time professional developer who still uses pure assembly language for his programming. He has developed many unique utilities that can increase system security and performance. Most are freeware. I highly recommend everyone to check out his website: GRC | Gibson Research Corporation Home Page - I've been using his products for years and really like them.
Thanks for that answer.