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I sympathize, Mark, especially since I support 180+ machines in our district's WAN and the networked CD-ROM programs we run on them. I can tell you that the reason producers upgrade and improve is that they are fighting for market share, and their customers demand bigger, better, faster, glitzier programs. It is a fact of electronic life that a computer will likely be obsolete within two years of purchase. The estimated life span of a non-upgraded library automation program is under 5 years. As library consumers we start out simple and quickly become aware of the foibles and bugs of the program we buy. We hound the producers to correct the problems and make the user interface just a little bit friendlier. Unfortunately those enhancements require faster processors, more ram than DOS can provide, or other "Bells and Whistles". Newspapers don't set type anymore because that can't meet the rapid demand. XTs and 286s won't meet sophisticated information demands anymore, either. Carol Mann Simpson csimpson@tenet.edu Facilitator - Library Technology 214 882-7450 Mesquite (TX) Independent School District