personal computers I find it remarkable that in 20 years of working with computers, I've never owned one. That makes me one of millions of people around the world who have some form of access to these resources, who may never need to own a personal computer. Such is the power of the ethos and values driving the phenomenon of the Internet and the World Wide Web. Part of my motivation to publish a personal website has been to explore the least-cost way of doing what I need to do with email and the web from any computer I can access, anywhere I travel, that has an Internet connection and browser. So far, the cost of this production has been the contributed time (labour) of the action group, routine office expenses, and the cost of the Internet connection (dial-up at 56k) and services provided in the Halifax region by the Chebucto Community Net for $100/year ($8.33/month). In other words, people and organizations who do own computers and participate in the Internet have made it possible for many more people, like me, to have practical access to these powerful communication resources, and to participate in a global forum for civil society. On behalf of many of us in the Halifax region, I'd like to thank Ken-Porter and his colleagues at K-PC Ltée, who have given outstanding service to our community by supplying and supporting reliable personal computer systems, and by patiently providing honest and knowledgeable advice, since 1982. Ken-Porter, K-PC Ltée 2445 Agricola Street Halifax, N.S. B3K 4C1 (902) 423-4111 fax: (902) 423-0238 k-pc@k-pcltee.com Please contribute your comments here. why use free software Simson Garfinkel, writing in MIT's "Technology Review" (Feb 03), paraphrases a message from Chris Ball, Deputy Director of the Science and Human Rights Program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science: "Too many people put themselves in jeopardy by illegally copying programs from these [commercial software] companies. Ball is especially concerned about overseas human-rights organizations, but his argument is universal. "When rich organizations use expensive, proprietary software they implicitly encourage the poorer organizations with whom they work and share documents to do the same. And that requires either violating the law or using scarce resources to buy legitimate software. This is a compelling reason to push for the widespread adoption of free software. "Even two years ago, it wasn't practical for nongeeks to run Linux and the rest of the free-software mélange. But today, thanks to Red Hat Software and OpenOffice, free software is a viable alternative." For these and other reasons, Bluedoor provides links to free software we've found useful. Any references you can contribute by email here would be appreciated.

why use free software

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