> I have "acquired" software (Photoshop CS4, Dreamweaver, music, film editing stuff etc etc etc) for Windows with relative ease. There are, even, ways to get books for Kindle (I BOUGHT books from them! I support most writers and artists) but given the "lockdown" that Apple insist upon, and the fact that one has to purchase sooo much through itunes, can Apple users on these lists tell me how easy/difficult it ease to swap books or software among friends and acquired elsewhere?
I can't speak to the iPad or licensed software minus the license, but I'm pretty sure most of what runs on various flavors of Linux will run on OS X. How accessible this is to the non-technical is a different question.
I'm not sure what you mean about iTunes -- mp3s are fully portable, what I've gotten from iTunes comes as mp3s, but I've never paid for anything from iTunes.
-- Andy