hello, following are my coments and reaction to this thread and I want this to be the last one. firstly I can Understand that vihan reacted without complete knowledge of what was actually said in the conference. so although his feelings are justified but those were not just a bit rood but also targetted towards the wrong people. he is too young and I can understand his over excitement in which he may have targetted his feelings to the wrong person at the wrong place. my only advice to him is that when it comes to comenting about such things, first confirm from a person who is more experienced about what was the reality. as an cineor person with 10+ years of experience, my only advice is "think before you go on records ". that will leave less chances to oppologise later. nagarjun, thanks for responding late but only after confirming things. I have been a reporter myself for about 5 years and now into this IT field for 10 years, I very well understand the dynamics of how things get presented by the media. as nagarjun rightly said, we need to seriously speak to the media. secondly, I don't think we must insult the gnu/linux project by only giving importance to the "free of charge " aspect. although when a screen reader would cost rs. 70000 for a single license, cost factor is equally important for an average blind person, given today's economic condition of those people. employment is difficult to come because if the employer has to pay 70000 rs just to employ a blind employee, he will think 10 times before doing that. and what if the blind person then leaves the job? the investment is waisted. but there are other more important issues as well. think about this case, one of my studant named Balaram from Kerala had a job offer from Taj group. they had a software which he was expected to use. but the proprietory software in question was not at all compatible with what he was supposed to use. now, had the source code of this software been open, it would have the possibility of modification and thus being adopted to that particular software. but nither the company took responsibility nor released any part of the software for modification. so the issue is not about cost (the taj group was ready to pay in the above case ), the issue is about the freedom to modify that software and after that use those modifications for who ever got that opportunity to be employed. so one should understand that freedom is not just the matter of philosophy but it applies to practical life. regarsd, Krishnakant.