If you dumb enough to deal with a company that can't give you a working demo... then it looks like your trying to work with un-established packages / companies.
Haven't you heard? You get what you pay for! IF your such the app killer developer, then why haven't you wrote the package you want already? Hmmm... couldn't be since it takes TIME and MONEY. If it doesn't merit you paying for it then why should someone put together a package that you won't buy. Yes... free is cool. Nothing wrong with free... EXCEPT... it's NEVER free. Someone spent time on it. Someone worked their butt off to make a working app. So.. someone paid for it. If you want to base a business off of FREE software... then all the power to you. There will be cons though. You won't always get timely support. You won't always get updates and patches. If only a few people are using your product then I guess you could spend 5 minutes to fix a bug. When you get to the volume of bugs / calls I handle then we can talk about FREE. I think you might reconsider your stance on FREE.
That said. There is nothing wrong with FREE. Well hell, even this forum is based on FREE software. I love freeware. But I don't expect there be freeware for everything out there! Especially an industry specific package.
And as far as XP... yes it does require activation. So much for your pwned google skillz. The only way to get around activation is through open licensing, which I highly doubt you have at home.
Want Proof?:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/p...activation.asp
Hmmm.. so much for your credibility. No sense in arguing with you if your going to lie.
EDIT: Not to be a jerk or anything, but I didn't see any "killer" apps offered on your website. A few scripts... but no killer apps. You got me curious... I want to see some of these GPLed killer apps.