Hmm . . . I'm not sure whether You would have to pay for Msn IM in the future. Besides, if You had A look at CNET ' s database You would notice that about 95% of the software there is only A tryout, which means that You have to pay for using it in the long run.
I am very angry with that. Maybe we should focus on FREEWARE? I remember when most of the stuff on the Internet was free , at least I think so.
Also.....
I think that sooner or later You could end up paying for just about everything, since now the net has became a target to marketing, not just users exchanging information. Everyone is trying to sell everything and make a Buck on it.
Have You tried Linux? How about FreeBSD? They are Open Source and come with 3000 + free to distribure programms / packages. Cool, heh? The screenshot below is from my personal LinuxBox, in JPG.
One more thing: In Unix You don't have to stay with one Window Manager, which means that You can make it behave and look like Microsoft Windows, Amiga, Linux, KDE, GNOME, Text, Mac and so on. You can edit the whole Operating System and sell it as your version of Linux. FreeBSD is free to distribute too.

Ive never used Unix but I really want to once i got my laptop I might buy a secound hand computer thats not to grate and install it on it. As its ment to run well on lo build pcs. It looks allot better than my pc at the mo and thats runing ms windows xp.

Dan