[EarlyBird]

I have had a standard policy since the early 1990s: I do not install any new or upgraded Microsoft products until a minimum of 6 months after release. I have yet to regret waiting, and there have been many times I have been very glad I did. This appears to be yet another case where waiting for the maintenance release will pay off.

I don't begrudge Bill Gates his money, but I do figure that he really could afford his own guinea pigs.

I agree, except my rule is to wait until at least the second service pack has been released. Every new Windows release is buggy until Bill get's around to fixing it -- and then fixing it again, and again.... (NT 4.0 had at least six fixes.)

I'm just now updating all of my boxes to Windows 2000. I really love the Server version. It's saving me loads of admin time.

For XP, I think I'll modify my rule to wait until the second service pack and until Bill finally gives up his new absurd licensing scheme.

[Stefan Stackhouse]

As they say, "At Microsoft, Quality is Job 1.1"