>That's the way I read Steve's message, too. Which is not cause for optimism, because AFAIK there are not trial versions of *any* Microsoft products. Can you think of any?

That´s not true. Some months ago it was stated that Microsoft wouldn´t have trial versions for its DevTools... that was a lie. At least in Brazil, you can just access MSDN Brasil and ask for you 120-day trial for VS.NET. Besides, if what they´ve done with the betas for VS wasn´t a "trial", I don´t know what is a trial... I mean, in the last two year, you could just kick a tree, and it would fell thousands of VS Beta CD´s...