*printing this to study at leisure*..

Thanks John...it is good to get another view of it all. If it turns out that The Riddler's stuff is paranoid nonsense, so much the better. I do truly appreciate the effort to make a clear case for what you say....that's a lot of typing and thinking!

I suspect that I will 'mostly' continue to use some non-MS stuff, simply because I also like the interface better, and people are not targeting Pegasus and Eudora email with viruses....and because I genuinely like the idea of MS having some real competition.