The more I read this, the more I am inclined to acquire that book I saw for sale in a famous P.C. retailer entitled "Ubuntu". Microsoft will have to realise, with the complexity and obscurity of their current licensing schmes that there IS competition out there and their attitude is driving more and more of their customers (like me) to seriously consider the alternative. After all, like most domestic customers all I need is an OS which provides me with a protected radio LAN with open access to the other computers on my network.
With trepidation I moved up from Win 95 and 98 SE to XP because of its superior photograph handling facilities. This was a good reason for moving up despite the learning curve. There is no similar reason for moving up again to Vista and we all know what a catastrophe that has become! Unfortunately, getting a new computer without Vista is now becoming extremely difficult and the last time I had a requirement for such, a second hand one with XP on was the only obvious solution.
I assume that my Ubuntu disk, when I finally pluck up the courage to boot it up will enable me to format the hard drive which originally contained a Microsoft product.
P.P.