hi addy, there is really no way to address the fud factor, and the giant software barons have gone all out to exploit it to dissuade cto types from adopting open source software. i'll offer a couple thoughts to your questions. if they miss the point, let me know. support: i have never heard of anyone who spoke kindly of tech support via the giants, indeed their rudeness rivals the treatment of passengers in coach. digicool support is really good. the ceo even answers the phone and email. if you get a fix that doesn't quite do the job, you can actually talk to someone and get the fix fixed (not that it is all that frequent an occurence.) peer support is quick, and it is usually archived and searchable (go to google.com and look for zope information, and you will get thousands of responses). software: the giants release products that are buggy, you cannot get patches in anything like a timely fashion, and you can never look under the hood to figure out why something is not working. open source lets you go into the code and learn why it does what it does and how either to repair it or to adapt your interface to meet its needs. ciao! greg. Gregory Haley DBA/Web Programmer Venaca, LLC.