[BC] Why "Upgrade" unnecessarily?

[WBRadiolists at aol.com]

In a message dated 03/20/2009 11:50:33 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
psmerdon at fastmail.com.au writes:

> This'll give Office XP and Office 2003 users the ability to read the 
>  new 2007 file formats for Word, Excel and Powerpoint.
>  Anyone still using older versions of MS Office (like most of us) should 
>  install this pack.

I already checked, and that doesn't work with WORD97, which is what I happen 
to own.

What this all boils down to, is that users are being *forced* to "upgrade" 
something that has been working quite nicely (doing everything they want or 
need) for a VERY long time, now... WHY? To line Bill Gates' pockets!

I think not.

It's bad enough having to eventually consider abandoning perfectly good and 
100% functional computers, because the newer version of Windows won't run on 
them, because newer WEBsites require some confounded "plug-ins" that don't work 
with the older OS, etc, ad nauseam... or just giving up on those sites, and 
finding alternatives. The latter is a whole lot cheaper... and Linux is *Free*. 
:)

Willie...