Free Linux and OpenOffice - even if your email address doesn't

To answer the first part first : There are many cases when you can buy the source-code and not have the right to redistribute it -- in other words the program is not open-source in the accepted sense. One classic (!) example of this (which I haven't done) is that you could buy source liucenses for many of he PDP11 OSes, and also IIRC VMS. Now, as for examples of times I did buy non-open source code, I bought the Technical Reference manuals for the IBM PC, PC/XT, PC/AT, PCjr, etc. Those include the BIOS sources. They are not open, they are copyrighted by IBM. I also have the Apple ][+ refernce manual (included with the machine) and the //e refernce (which I bought separately). Again, you get the monitor ROM source. But it's not 'open'. And of course for the HP71B calculator you could (and I did) buy the 'Internal Design Specifications'. Volume 3 of the Software IDS is the commented source to the ROM. SOme other HP calcualtor ROM sourcves were distributed throught the user groups under the NOMAS scheme. I don't think they're truely 'open' though. I'm not sure what the exact status of LDOS (TRS-80 operating system) is now. I know the sources (to all but the Microsoft bits of BASIC) can be distributed now, and are, IIRC on Tim Mann's site. But they may not be truely open. As for what true open-source stuff I run, well, basically an old linux distribution, all the stuff that comes with that (gcc, vi, etc) and various assemblers, utilities, etc that I've pulled from the internet. -tony