Thanks again Luke. I appreciate your thought process for sourcing parts.
I hope that I can make Parabola work; I will think about whether to choose Parabola or Debian (if Debian, I will install the RMS program on my own). I will need Microsoft and Adobe for work, and will use a different computer when I need their programs.
I hope that the developers of programs like Parabola (and Trisquel) gather enough of a following to run successful businesses on their work. The volunteer aspect is cool, but like you said our community can only count on that so much.
