I recently emailed M$ regarding their "student license" packs because we wanted to get Windows XP Home/Professional for our son using this scheme (you can currently get Windows 2000 Pro for 44.00GBP). I got a reply yesterday that said, in essence, "We will NEVER be offering Windows XP Home/Professional on student license; the only product we will be offering on that scheme now is Office XP Standard". I said "OK" BUT what about Access???? You don't get Access in the Standard Edition and that's what a lot of students need Office for isn't it? They haven't replied yet..it seems my reply has been passed further up the food chain :-) Well- Mandrake 8.1 and StarOffice would be fine anyway...we just thought about XP because he uses it at school and has special needs--so some familiarity with the interface etc would have "helped" a little. Paul