>The MSDN is a different bird - the quarterly library is needed if you want to have the current info on hand, on line and searchable easily. The licesnes are needed to have the tools and the OS test platforms. And the cost of a year's subscription to Universal is certainly cheaper than the cost of Visual Studio Enterprise, Office 2000 Developer Edition, Win98, WinNT, BackOffice and the like on an individual basis.

Thanks for the info. The problem is I had to take care of myself for XMas, so got a DVD player. My car could fall apart at any moment and a few other associated expenses. I think getting Technet (the plus version) makes sense now. Just to avoid the headaches of tracking down updates is worth the expense.

Pf