Selfsufficientish.com

I've got a very old pc that I bunged ubuntu on, and I use it as a storage device and to share printers with other pc's in the house. On the whole I have to say that my problems have been with windows being unable to cope with ubuntu. Ubuntu just works. Don't forget, you had to learn to use windows. ...

Yes, I've done work in a primary school using a wordpress.com blog. They're free and open source, which is ethically good. Also, there are no hosting costs, which is great for the school. Many of the themes have customisable header images, so you can include a photo of the school. The great thing is...

Not sure about viruses, but it could be spyware/malware. Worth checking that your security programs check for that.

There's a nifty utility called primopdf which you can get for free from http://www.primopdf.com/. This also installs a pdf printer but it has some built-in options for things like pre-press preparation, so could be useful even if you have the ability to save as pdf already.
Hope that's useful.

The portable apps suite you mentioned is worthwhile.

The price of usb sticks make them very attractive - I've bought a 4gb one for about £8. At that price, they make great storage/backup and even allow you to set up a portable office.

Hope that helps.

I love the idea of this forum. I'm setting up a business that's trying to promote ethical computing, so I'd love to share ideas on that subject. My site is at http://ethicalpc.com . If you're interested, the site has a blog where I'll be putting up ideas about open-source and ethical computing, aime...