I coudln't read this article since the link took me to a general AP page, but to give my answer. For some people, non-tech, maybe office or home users I this upgrade will be a welcome addition to trying to combat spyware and viruses. In that it will turn on the ICF FWall automatically, and set it up. as well, it will offer a more seamless Windows Update for all those damb updates that pop up becuase of security issues.

for someone who is fairly up on tech and software, they will already have a FW installed and be downloading the updates regularly so there will be no change. I for one have been using mozilla Thunderbird and now Firefox for more than a year and it is a much better browser. Just because MSFT introduces a pop-up blocker (and the implimentation of such is not very good) doesn't really help make my experience any better like FF does.

For some mobile users, there are some wireless configurations additions that will make configuring wireless for various hotspots easier, but IBM and SONY and DELL have had this on their LT's for years, so it won't make a differance there.

I have been using SP2 for about a month, took it off my day to day machine and now have SP2 2169 loaded which seems to be the best. I think this is the final one if you are looking to download and install. but, if you are one of the more tech savy users described above there really is no need.