Avery Bowron, a computer-savvy 19-year-old, readily acknowledges that he learned something valuable about technology from senior citizens: Good software can be obtained at no cost.

He learned that lesson two years ago in Olympia, Wash., when he volunteered to refurbish old computers for low-income elderly people.

With no money to buy software licenses, Bowron took some advice from an elderly volunteer and used OpenOffice.org, a free software package that mimics the widely used Microsoft Office, just not in price.

"It was free, and it worked well," Bowron says.

Today, the freshman at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., is a big fan of OpenOffice.org. He has installed it on his laptop and his parents' computer and founded a group of about 1,900 open-source software supporters on the popular networking site Facebook.com.

Many new computers no longer come bundled with essential programs like Microsoft Word, so open-source software has become the generic drug for computer users with ailing wallets.

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