If any others of you are Consumer members you might like to write something to them. Please be polite. They have often recommended software such as Openoffice before so I think this is a genuine mistake. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Ian McDonald <ian.mcdonald(a)jandi.co.nz> Date: Oct 2, 2007 8:49 AM Subject: Your article on EULA - feedback on Free Software To: editor(a)consumer.org.nz Dear Sir/Madam, I noticed online at this page: http://www.consumer.org.nz/topic.asp?category=Computers%20%26%20Phones&subcategory=Computers%20-%20software&docid=3056&topic=End%20User%20Licence%20Agreements&title=Protect%20yourself&contenttype=general&utm_medium=email&utm_source=07Sep26Update&utm_content=EndUserLicences&bhcp=1 that you said this: Use caution with 'free' software. It is rarely free. There's often a trade-off in advertising, access to personal information or use of your computer's resources. For example, peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing programs use your computer to send information across the web which may leave it vulnerable to viruses, software flaws and trojans (malicious programs hiding in benign applications). I think that this is a little misleading as there is a whole category of free software which is completely different. This is also called "open source" software. Some examples of this are Firefox, OpenOffice (which you have mentioned positively previously) and Linux. Many large companies such as Google run on free software. A good article on free software is one here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Software I think the software you mean is actually freeware which I agree is often very problematic. This is described here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeware It would be great if you can print a clarification for this as often free software/opensource software is a better choice than paid software. Regards, Ian McDonald (An open source software programmer) -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz