What is "sad news"? Microsoft hasn't announced anything officially; in my admittedly naïve interpretation they're just dragging their feet a bit on releasing final service packs for sunsetting versions of SQL Server. They released 2005 SP3 and SP4 under similar pressure that we're applying now for 2008 and 2008 R2. Let's give them a chance to respond before concluding that they must have already made a decision that they will never release another service pack ever, which is what a lot of these doomsday messages sound like.