A salesman at a local computer shop said that this version doesn't actually require student status, and that the only down side would be that is does not qualify for future up grade price/paths.
I think the primary difference is that you're not supposed to commercially use them.
Other than that, upgrades--well that is interesting, I have not seen a student/teacher-edition upgrade. So just going off of that and my quick Google search, I'd say that's right--at least currently, there are no upgrade versions for that edition.
Thanks all. I found an MS' spot on Google that I did not know about and after sifting through a bunch of posts, it seems to be on the honor system only. But I ran into a tip re; Open Office there as well. Downloaded, looks like I'm on my way.
Wayne