Captain Sensible: As far as I can see, you've got to get the damn thing done or else you don't get any further Updates and therefore no future protection.
Can anyone confirm whether this is true?
I have been declining SP2, but in the last couple of days I have been offered (and have accepted) "Security Update for Windows XP" (KB833987) and "Update for Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS)" (KB883357) through the Windows automatic updater.
I'd be unhappy to be forced to take SP2 at this stage merely to keep all the other bugs out of XP as and when they're published.