We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember "John"
saying something like:

I don't want to get into too much technical debate with Geeks - but do I
need Microsoft .NET Framework?

I have been offered an update at 248 Mb. I wonder if I can strip it off as I
don't see what benefit I get from it.

There's a lot of stuff relies on it and I've found it doesn't interfere
with normal operations. I put off installing it for long enough, but a
prog I needed to use insisted on its presence.