I wouldn't pay too much attention to suggestions that "my blue chip firm will not install SP2". With some firms this might be a legitimate thing (i.e. known problems with their standard install on their desktop machines) but not by any means always. I know of some of the biggest banks that wouldn't upgrade to Windows XP from Windows 2000 for years. Others stick with ancient browsers - one of America's most prestigious banks was still using Netscape Navigator version 4 a couple of years ago, because they hadn't got round to certifying IE (and yes, I do generally subscribe to the view point that says using a minority browser like Firefox is a good idea these days).
For what little it is worth I've installed SP2 on at least ten machines, of a variety of types and age, without problems.
My advice would be back everything up and try it.