the subject alone is amazing. please show me another industry where you would expect.. nay, demand... a product from an expert for no cost what so ever. seriously. think of one.

food production?
medicine?
cosmetics?
automotive?
computer hardware?

ok.. they may be physical real world products. let's try intellectual based products:
--
music?
art?
marketing?
graphic design?
movies?
tv shows?


service based products?
--
legal advice?
tax preparation?
medical?
car repair?
landscaping??

you can't even get your yard mowed or car washed without paying someone at LEAST $20. so why is it that people actually think they can argue about software production and expect to get it for free?

answer? the open source community... which is big business's answer to the garage programmer... the little guy we all heard about in the late 80s/early 90s that could topple some large corporation from his garage (if you don't know what i'm talking about, go watch 'the pirates of silicon valley' for a refresher). by supporting open source, big business insures the little guy cannot earn enough money to work solely on his 'garage project'... thereby hampering development and insuring a dominate role for the large corporation.

add 15-20 years to that movement and you come to today... where people expect all software for no money out of their pocket. what most people don't realize is that those 'open source' companies have staff that require salaries. how do you think those salaries get paid? with what income? answer... by selling any data they can collect on their users to marketing companies, which in turn will push directed ad campaigns to the end user.

when you start to understand that.. you'll think twice about using 'free' software from unknown/anonymous sources.. especially anti-virus software (free AND closed source?? LOL)

as for the price of the equipment, i believe skarlot was going to nitpick over the cost of a computer. i believe you can get refurbished computers for $500... plus tax. mid line machines are $750-1000. top end is still $1500-2500. and don't forget you need a monitor... which you could dumpster dive for, or spend the $200.