Service manuals and classis computer Was: Free Linux and OpenOffice

I'm in agreement with you there. I like doing CERTAIN things on my own cars. I won't do things like oil changes, because most times, it isn't financially worth the effort. I'd have to buy oil, buy a filter, get the truck up, drain it, then figure out what to do with the old oil, as here you have to pay to dispose of it. Frankly, by the time it's said and done, most times it's cheaper to have someone do it, as someone ALWAYS has a special in my area for $14.99-19.99. Of course, sometimes I'll do it just because i feel like doing it... However, things like brake work, etc, I'll do myself. It's highway robbery what they charge. Last time, they wanted $149.99 parts+labor to change the stinking brake PADS on my pickup! Cost me $30 + about 15-20 minutes for BOTH sides! Although we have the source to some of the systems we run that are developed in-house, other systems that we are pretty dependant on, we will negotiate a source code escrow contract, so in the event the company goes belly-up, we aren't completely screwed. I mean, yeah, it'll take a while to get people looking at the code, figuring it out, etc... but at least you have SOME kind of chance! One prime example is Royal Caribbean. They run a property management system named Encore, which originally was named "The Captain," from a company named Encore, which ran on Tandems (I think on Linux now, or will be - most dev systems are under SCO or Linux, and the programming environment is DB/C), and they had a source code escrow agreement. When Encore went under (I think RCI was their only major deal), they basically bought the assets, and got the source out of escrow, and have maintained it in-house ever since. Tony