[parma]

My local elementary school requires Office 2007.

Is not the same as

Many of the K-12 schools require

It's easy throwing around wild generalizations, but it isn't necessarily accurate. And it doesn't go to the heart of the matter which is, why did the MS format have to change at all, other than to force a reason to upgrade? How were K-12 schools at risk two years ago by not having the "benefits" of the last format? What problem, exactly, got solved by the upgrade?

How many home users use Oracle?? IIRC, only very recently did Oracle start offering a free "starter" edition (or similar), widely viewed as a buffer against free Mysql gobbling up the soft underbelly of the database business. Yes, perhaps if I were running a credit card processing operation, I might opt for Oracle -- running on Oracle's own "Unbreakable Linux." (Hmmm, Larry Ellison doesn't seem to have the same misgivings about open-source code that you do.) You seem to have a difficult time sticking to what a home user would use a PC for.

The same for Photoshop or Maya. Free alternatives exist (at least for Photoshop). And if Maya does what I think it does, then for it too. However, there aren't too many home users who line up for the privilege of plunking down $600 for Photoshop, especially when many free programs do everything home users typically ask of a image manipulation program. Even on Windows. Let's see: Maya from Autodesk costs $1,995. The line forms over there. Home users up front.

The latest version of Ubuntu comes standard with 23,310 software packages, all available for free (and painless download/installation). We could both list packages for our respective platforms; but you'll stop naming yours before I stop reading mine off.

The route you take to a destination away from home benefits you economically, disclosed or not.

Maybe someone else here can explain what that means, or how its relevant. I haven't any idea.

IMO computers are tools, not toys!

We agree on something else.

I keep 150 years of family history and photos, accounting and tax records, medical records and images, inventory, kitchen management and recipies, books and white papers, etc. in several database files. Why else have computers? They are tools to improve quality of life and much faster and more organized than dozens of 5 drawer file cabinets.

Good deal. I do similar things.

My bank requires IE or Netscape. FF is rejected.
My bank trust department requires IE.
My private equity broker requires IE.
My own secure server requires IE.

Well, we must be living in parallel universes, because my experience is the opposite. I won't lecture you on monocultures, because I am sure you know the ramifications. But diversity attenuates risk. So if I had to choose between an institution that encouraged diverse clients versus one that didn't, I'd go with the former.

And, in my experience, those institutions are all over the place.