Get this gang. MS was toying with the idea of charging a small fee for XP SP2, but I think they realized their swiss cheese of an OS might get them strung up to the nearest tree, keep in mind, MS does a good job of balancing flexibilty with functionality, without those holes, functionality takes a big hit. You take the good with the bad. I found keeping XP up to date is superior to any OS overall. Linux has real mode driver problems I hate to deal with, and the stability thing is way over rated, Firefox trades one set of problems for another, so all in all, XP(with SP2) is welcome in my house now, I used to hate it, b4 sp2! I still have 98se at home (most stabile and versatile os ever!), it will now, sept., be replaced by XP.