I played FFXI for 3 years on and off. The lawsuit is probably about the horrible way they do billing if you cancel and resubscribe.

Billing (at least for me) was always on the first of the month.

If you canceled on the 20th of January, and decide to resubscribe the 23rd of March you wouldn't actually be billed until the 1st of April at which point they charge you for a full month of March and for the month of April despite only using it for 8 days of March.

In other words they don't prorate. It's a really archaic way of handling a MMO subscription. I'm not sure if this is listed in the ToS if it's not then there might be grounds for a lawsuit. $5M is still way to excessive for what should be in small claims court for $30

It's mostly a cost issue. Basements generally require a lot of brick and cement to avoid damage from water, bugs and animals. People not like to live in basements, so rather then spend the money on one that will only be used for storage they make the houses 2 stories for less money with more living space.

Most of the basements I've seen were of the walk-out kind that were built on a hill. As well as much older houses built before central heat and air were common as the temperature underground is more stable making it ideal to store food and to escape extreme cold and heat. There's also the bomb shelter type basements made in the 50/60s

After how badly Vista Basic failed I find it odd that MS would try again, and even more odd that they would make an even more basic version of it. (yes I know starter has been around sense xp, but they are trying to sell it worldwide now)

I predict that it will follow the same path as Vista Basic

A few companies will try selling it with cheep entry level systems for 400. No one will buy them, and those that do will complain about how much Win7 sucks. In the end the companies will be forced to put home premium in order to sell them.

If starter was free to download and basic was less then $30 (retail) I could see some value in them for home builders and people who want to upgrade and want a low cost and legit version of 7

I don't get what the problem is.

If they have a french version then its just a matter of changing the logistics so that the games sent to Canada have the french voiceovers/text

If they don't have a french version then no harm no foul.

Or is the dialect of french spoken in France different enough from the french in Canada that they would need to redo the dialog?