Hi all. The urge has been building to buy a new camera and I'm starting to fall for the Fuji E550. Light weight, better than average zoom for a pocket camera, lots of pixels, standard AA batteries, 640x480 30fps movie mode, and low price are all calling out to me. The downer for me is the xD picture card. They look expensive, non-standard, and my existing card readers won't read them. I'm wondering, first of all, do I need a card reader? I presume I can connect the USB cable directly from camera to computer to download images. If I do, do I have to install software on all my computers to use it? I hate doing that because it means I can probably only use it under Windows (not Linux), and who knows what will happen when the next version of Windows, or the next service pack comes out. I also find that when you install software you often get more than you bargained for - like some kind of spy program that wants to talk back to a Fuji server or worse, some Fuji subcontractor. Has anyone noticed such problems? Even with a card reader, do I need software? CompactFlash has a standard interface that allows any computer to read it with a standard CF driver. I can read my CF cards on Windows XP and on Linux with no custom drivers. Is that true with xD? Finally, any general comments on the E550 would be appreciated. Thanks. Alan