Bijou has a point - it has gotten to the point where most software makers will charge an ungodly amount of cash based on how long the copy protection holds out vs. how quickly they must recoup their R&D investment. This is why I've mostly shied away from proprietary software, unless I have no other recourse. OTOH, those folks who do make a great open-sourced program or game are certainly worth a few bucks, enough to get me to whip out the credit card and support 'em. For instance, I can download Red Hat Linux for free, but I would rather support the cause, and so I go out and buy the $80 boxed set. Call me a fool all you want, but I'm doing my part to make sure RH sticks around for a couple more years (they're the first purely Linux-based company to turn a consistent profit). I also get free godies like automatic patching and priority access to their servers. They also tend to listen to paying customers faster than the non-paying ones :) This is the exact opposite of the Proprietary world, where companies demand cash, and are often far more surly in their pricing and treatment of customers. /P