Do We Know When Microsoft Plans To Retire SQL 7? (or SQL 6.5?)

We have been asked by a customer who uses our software product whether they should upgrade from SQL 6.5 to SQL 7 or SQL 2000. They have one server with 250 clients accessing SQL Server.

I used to think that upgrading to SQL 7 would be cheaper in light of the complaints I've heard from administrators about the cost of going to SQL 2000's new pricing model, so I took a look at Microsoft's web site. Navigating around their web site looking for licensing info is always an adventure!

I saw only SQL 2000 (non-upgrade) pricing on their web site, so I'm assuming that buying SQL 2000 and then upgrading to SQL 7 would result in the same pricing structure whether a customer upgrades to SQL 7 or SQL 2000 (minus the discount for upgrading). I see that a processor based license ($2499 per processor standard edition) with its unlimited cals would be cheaper for a company with 250 clients, since the cost of cals for 250 clients with the standard edition server-based pricing would be prohibitive.

So if the pricing is the same, the decision to upgrade to SQL 7 or SQL 2000 would rest upon features available and when SQL 7 will be retired.

Does anyone know how long Microsoft will support SQL 7? (I'm defining support as until they stop providing the patches and hotfixes, since the product will no longer be actively supported. The information I saw on Microsoft's web site made it seem like SQL 7 will be supported for a long time yet.

Does anyone know how long Microsoft will support SQL 6.5? That will give me an idea how long our customers will have to upgrade?

What would you recommend to your customers so as to benefit them most?

Thanks!

Barbara