OK. Just to set the record straight and to finish this latest circle concerning the private MVP newsgroups.
On the following topics, here's my current stand:
MVP private newsgroups
This was apparently a misunderstanding on my part. I can attribute it to a less than perfect lack of knowledge on what actually goes on in the newsgroups and to jumping too fast into conclusions. Fact is, reading this post from Jason Salas made me jump to the conclusion that there is real and live information flowing in there that other people do not have access to. Information which, in my view, should be shared. It turns out that most info there is NDAed and what ever is not is usually non related off topic material. All I can say is, Sorry. I did not mean to offend anyone of the MVPs or the people who run the newsgroups. I was wrong and a lot of people had very informative comments that set me straight on this issue.
Paid developer support
Still not happy about this subject. Shoot me but I can't help but feel that I'm being taken advantage on when I have to pay a company to help me with their product. Sure, a lot of people say it's not economically feasible, but still, I'm a purist at heart and this bugs me. I wish there was a better model.
Other stuff
Frans Bouma opened up a can of worms of his own with the whole subject of lack of patches and updates to existing software. He's totally right. I am glad that some of these issues were brought into the light of day. We're better off having these issues being discussed and debated than not being mentioned at all. Obviously this is an important subject. Alex from MS even wanted to get more feedback on these very issues. We might as well take the opportunity.