Originally Posted By: mlord
What you propose is, as usual, trivial for Linux users. But you continue to prefer to pay money for your software, and the situation is different there.

Ah, but I have my software now, already bought and paid for, and am satisfied with it. A quick scan of the non-free software I have shows:

AVG 9.0 (2 licenses)............$ 55...I appreciated the free AVG so much I upgraded though I didn't need to.
dbpoweramp ripper...............$ 36...Much more polished and faster than EAC.
Driver Detective................$ 40...Expired now, I won't renew it.
Hyperterminal Private Edition...$ 60...Regular HT doesn't work well with empeg.
Infothek Scan 11................$ 00...This was purchased for me by my employer, list cost $80.
Microsoft Office 2003...........$ 00...Employer (site license), they said I could keep it.
MP3 Tag Studio..................$ 19...So useful, no way was I going to deprive Magnus of his two sawbucks.
Nero 7..........................$ 30...Older version came bundled with DVD burner, upgrade -->7 was ~$30.
Quake III Arena.................$ 40...and worth every penny! Bought it the day it came out.
Rosetta Stone Spanish...........$395...Expensive, but necessary.
Total Recorder Professional.....$ 30...For use with my professional recording studio.
Tunebite v6.....................$ 30...For removing DRMs from audio books downloaded from the library.
TurboFloorPlan 3D...............$ 80...I have spent hundreds of hours with this program designing my house.
WM Recorder.....................$ 30...Semi-satisfactory program for capturing internet video and audio.
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Total cost of bought software...$885...For five years on this computer, plus some from previous computers.

I probably have well over 100 other applications installed, nothing pirated, mostly applets and utilities like Adobe Reader, Auslogic Defrag, ClipTrak, Emplode, Google Earth, ICQ, memtest, Microsoft ICE, Recuva, TweakUI, ZDoom etc. Above is just tip of the iceberg. So under $1000 for my software costs is not unreasonable, and even on a Linux system I would still have had to pay for most of it, as I don't think there would be free Linux substitutes for dbpoweramp, Rosetta Stone, Tunebite, TurboFloorPlan, Quake III, etc.

Originally Posted By: mlord
For disc-burning, I still have great success with external USB2 connected burners -- so that's one way to free up a SATA slot.
Doh! Of course. Brilliant idea, Mark, I'm embarrassed I didn't think of that myself. I don't imagine there would be a speed penalty with USB, as the bottleneck would be in the burner hardware itself. Of course, I already have 15 USB cables attached to my computer blush (counting the two cables daisy-chaining the pair of 7-port hubs) but some of those are just occasional use (like all the proprietary mad cables for three different cameras, iPods, iPhones, Kindles, GPSs, etc.) so I can find room for one more cable easily enough. WHY do manufacturers use proprietary USB cables? But that's a topic for another thread, I guess.

As always, thanks, Mark!

tanstaafl.
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"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"