It was only after I upgraded my main computer to Office 2003 that I discovered that, for some inexplicable reason, Microsoft had erased one of my favorite programs—Microsoft's own Photo Editor—and seemingly replaced it with the useless Adobe Image Ready program. Actually, the Adobe product doesn't totally suck. It just doesn't have the quick features that I like in Photo Editor. And, oh, yes, get this—aside from the fact that Adobe's product takes ages to load images, you can't print from it. No kidding. Look at the menu. You can't print the darn photos. What kind of thinking is involved here? You can't print a photo? What is the point of this program? Is someone kidding me? Is the process hidden? Is this some sort of scam? Why can't you print? Yes, I'm very annoyed.

First of all, the reason I like Photo Editor, which is not a great product and cannot handle big files, was that it had one or two outstanding filters that I liked to use. Even Photoshop did not have these filters. Now, if I had known that the program—which I thought was mine to use—was going to be blown away, I would have never installed Office 2003. NEVER. The question I have to ask is, exactly what kind of gall does Microsoft have for it to erase perfectly good programs during the installation of anything? I consider this an illegal attack on my computer! Is this what we can expect from "trusted computing?" How is this different than a virus? How does this work with the Justice Department's belief that Microsoft is a good guy looking out for the user? Can someone explain this to me? I'm appalled. I have never seen anything like this, ever.

Okay, I give up. Can we have a new platform, pleeeeze!!!