Well...basically...Blackcomb was going to originally be Microsoft's ace-in-the-hole in case they needed to do ANOTHER backtrack with Windows XP (In other words, if they needed to ditch the NT-9x combination idea AGAIN). Originally, 98 was supposed to be the last 9x. Now it's ME. Blackcomb was supposed to be the backup NT product if Microsoft couldn't make XP work...

NT ---> 2000 ---> Blackcomb
9x ---> ME ---> XP ---> Some other subscribed OS

But if XP ended up taking off...

NT ---> 2000 ---> XP ---> Blackcomb
9x ---> ME ---> XP ---> Blackcomb

Blackcomb is what's supposed to start the OS subscription model...Blackcomb is going to be essentially, what we now think of as Windows.NET. XP was just a placeholder to make sure they could merge the two systems together properly...and also probably a starting point for the entire subscription tie-in thing. Since XP ties itself to your hardware, Microsoft will pretty much be using it to test out their locking mechanisms which will be much more thoroughly implemented with Blackcomb.

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"And knowing is half the battle!"