>Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you read that right - if you don't get lucky and win a voucher, you have to pay to take these exams ($125 each). MS has succeeded in productizing (official MS-speak) the complexity of their licensing.

I don't feel like a linux fan boy, but I'd rather fiddle 2-3 days of my time on technical problems of installing linux before I spent time *and* money to figure out licensing schemes. There you have only steady ongoing changes to worry about<bg>.