One clarification on the stuff from the 20th. Looks like Amazon had a mistake, and the $1000 standalone version doesn't have the $300 rebate. At least Amazon's not listing it anymore. Also, a couple of people emailed me to let me know that you need the original box-top to get the rebate, which might be a problem for some folks.
Finally, you can qualify for the $500 price with a lot of stuff. Some of it you can probably find cheap nowadays, like MS J++ 1.1.