I was part of the team that helped develop and roll out Media Composer software. It's fair to say that I was the face of that roll-out, and I'm proud of it.
There were great internal debates at the time about how to position Xpress Pro software and Media Composer software (or MC Soft as we called it) relative to each other. One of those questions of course was whether Xpress would carry on. I'll spare you the details of that debate, except to say that, in the fullness of time, I think the right side won. 
Before I left Avid, I went to a few FCP user groups, including the one in LA. The suggestion I made to them was to ADD Media Composer -- not stop using FCP, but treat Media Composer the same you would a second-format camera: the object of the game is to never ever turn away a customer with money in their hand. MC Soft offers the opportunity to keep everyone you want as YOUR customer.
Another way to look at it is that there are some features in Media Composer that are worth spending the money to get - they'll pay for theselves in a job or two. This works the same way that Motion, After Effects and Combustion do, providing the right tool for the right job.
The other thing that impresses me about Avid's move is that the edu price is only $295. Less than some iPods. There's really no excuse not to have it anymore.
Which is to say, I'm excited about it too Shane.
