MSFT usually hits its earlier adopters with higher prices. With time, they start cutting prices and, since they control supply, curtailing availability of earlier products (which of course compete against the new stuff). What's different here is that the costs are being hidden in additional server-side software and HW requirements. Expect to see this played out in the press, particularly Linux-friendly sites.

The other issue of course is that people don't upgrade. It's not O2K3 that's going to be loaded onto existing systems, it's that new systems will have 02K3. The problem then are the network services necessitated, making a heterogenous network difficult. Which of course pushes corporate adoption back 12-24 months.

If this script plays out as expected, I anticipate an announcement from IBM in the next 30-60 days that 02K3 is expressly not allowed on the corporate network due to security or interoperability problems with existing systems. Tensions with Sun make OOo or StarOffice adoption slightly problematic, though I'll suggest it's possible. And there's always the possibility that a wholesale migration to GNU/Linux will be announced.