e-Sword Platform Poll (set one)

I just constructed a set of polls, to find out what operating system people currently use e-Sword on. I've been doing this roughly every two years, for the last several years.

400: Which of the following operating systems do you primarily use e-Sword on?


 o 64 bit windows 7
 o 32 bit windows 7
 o 64 bit windows vista
 o 32 bit windows vist
 o 64 bit windows xp
 o 32 bit windows xp
 o 64 bit windows 2000
 o 32  bit windows 2000
 o Windows ME
 o Windows 98
 o Windows 95
 o 32 bit Linux
 o 64 bit Linux
 o 32 bit BSD
 o 64 bit BSD
 o Solaris or OpenSolaris
 o Mac OS X
 o 32 bit other *nix
 o 64 bit other *nix
 o React OS
 o 32 bit Windows NT
 o 64 bit Windows NT
 o OS/2  | OS/2 Warp | eCom Station
 o BeOS / Haiku
 o Other operating system (Please post it to the list.)

401: Which of the following versions of 64 bit Windows 7 do you use?

 o Windows 7 Home Basic
 o Windows 7 Home Premium
 o Windows 7 Professional
 o Windows 7 Enterprise
 o Windows 7 Ultimate
 o Windows 7 Home Basic K
 o Windows 7 Home Premium K
 o Windows 7 Professional K
 o Windows 7 Enterprise K
 o Windows 7 Ultimate K
 o Windows 7 Home Basic KN
 o Windows 7 Home Premium KN
 o Windows 7 Professional KN
 o Windows 7 Ultimate KN
 o Windows 7 Enterprise KN
 o Windows 7 Home Basic N
 o Windows 7 Home Premium N
 o Windows 7 Professional N
 o Windows 7 Enterprise N
 o Windows 7 Ultimate N

402:  Which of the following versions of 32 bit Windows 7 do you use?

 o Windows 7 Starter
 o Windows 7 Home Basic
 o Windows 7 Home Premium
 o Windows 7 Professional
 o Windows 7 Enterprise
 o Windows 7 Ultimate
 o Windows 7 Starter K
 o Windows 7 Home Basic K
 o Windows 7 Home Premium K
 o Windows 7 Professional K
 o Windows 7 Enterprise K
 o Windows 7 Ultimate K
 o Windows 7 Starter KN
 o Windows 7 Home Basic KN
 o Windows 7 Home Premium KN
 o Windows 7 Professional KN
 o Windows 7 Enterprise KN
 o Windows 7 Ultimate KN
 o Windows 7 Starter N
 o Windows 7 Home Basic N
 o Windows 7 Home Premium N
 o Windows 7 Professional N
 o Windows 7 Enterprise N
 o Windows 7 Ultimate N

403: Which of the following versions of 64 bit Windows Vista do you use?

 o Windows Vista Home Basic
 o Windows Vista Home Premium
 o Windows Vista Business
 o Windows Vista Enterprise
 o Windows Vista Ultimate
 o Windows Vista Home Basic K
 o Windows Vista Home Premium K
 o Windows Vista Business K
 o Windows Vista Enterprise K
 o Windows Vista Ultimate K
 o Windows Vista Home Basic KN
 o Windows Vista Home Premium KN
 o Windows Vista Business KN
 o Windows Vista Enterprise KN
 o Windows Vista Ultimate KN
 o Windows Vista Home Basic N
 o Windows Vista Home Premium N
 o Windows Vista Business N
 o Windows Vista Enterprise N
 o Windows Vista Ultimate N

404: Which of the following versions of 32 bit Windows Vista do you use?

 o Windows Vista Starter 
 o Windows Vista Home Basic
 o Windows Vista Home Premium
 o Windows Vista Business
 o Windows Vista Enterprise
 o Windows Vista Ultimate
 o Windows Vista Starter K
 o Windows Vista Home Basic K
 o Windows Vista Home Premium K
 o Windows Vista Business K
 o Windows Vista Enterprise K
 o Windows Vista Ultimate K
 o Windows Vista Starter KN
 o Windows Vista Home Basic KN
 o Windows Vista Home Premium KN
 o Windows Vista Business KN
 o Windows Vista Enterprise KN
 o Windows Vista Ultimate KN
 o Windows Vista Starter N
 o Windows Vista Home Basic N
 o Windows Vista Home Premium N
 o Windows Vista Business N
 o Windows Vista Enterprise N
 o Windows Vista Ultimate N

405: Which of the following versions of 64 bit Windows XP do you use?

 o Windows XP 64-Bit Edition for Itanium systems: 2002
 o Windows XP 64-Bit Edition for Itanium systems:  2003
 o Windows XP Professional x64 Edition

406: Which of the following versions of 32 bit Windows XP do you use e-Sword on?

 o Windows XP Starter
 o Windows XP Home Edition ULCPC
 o Windows XP Home
 o Windows XP Professional
 o Windows XP Media Center Edition
 o Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004
 o Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005
 o Windows XP Tablet PC Edition
 o Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005
 o Windows XP Home Edition prepaid
 o Windows XP Home Edition Subscription

407:Which of the following versions of 64 bit Windows 2000 do you use e-Sword on?

 o Windows 2000 Datacenter Server
 o Windows 2000 Advanced Server

408:Which of the following versions of 32 bit Windows 2000 do you use e-Sword on?

 o Windows 2000 Professional
 o Windows 2000 Server
 o Windows 2000 Advanced Server
 o Windows 2000 Datacenter Server

409: Which of the following Windows systems do you use e-Sword on?

 o Windows Me
 o Windows 98 Second Edition
 o Windows 98
 o Windows NT 4 Workstation
 o Windows NT 4 Server
 o Windows NT 4 Enterprise Edition
 o Windows NT 4 Terminal Server
 o Windows 95  
 o Windows 95-B OEM Service Release 2 
 o Windows 95-B (USB) OEM Service Release 2.1
 o Windows 95-C OEM Service Release 2.5 
 o Windows 95 Retail
 o Windows 95 Retail SP 1 
 o Windows 95-A OEM Service Release 1 
 o Windows NT 3.1 
 o Windows NT 3.1 Advanced Server
 o Windows NT 3.5 Workstation
 o Windows NT 3.5 Server
 o Windows NT 3.5.1 Workstation
 o Windows NT 3.5.1 Server

410: Which of the following 32 bit Linux distros do you use e-Sword on?
(For choices 10 through 24 consult the wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_distributions )

 o Ubuntu Christian Edition
 o Ubuntu
 o Kubuntu
 o Ichthux
 o Other Ubuntu based
 o Church Pup
 o ShepardPup
 o Puppy
 o Other Puppy based
 o Debian based
 o Koppix based
 o Gentoo based
 o Pacman based
 o Arch Linux based
 o Federo based
 o Red hat Enterprise Linux based
 o Mandrivia based
 o PCLinux OS based
 o OpenSuse based
 o RPM based
 o SLAX based
 o Zenwalk based
 o Slackware based
 o Other


411: Which of the following 64 bit Linux distros do you use e-Sword on?

 o Ubuntu Christian Edition
 o Ubuntu
 o Kubuntu
 o Ichthux
 o Other Ubuntu based
 o Puppy based
 o Debian based
 o Koppix based
 o Gentoo based
 o Pacman based
 o Arch Linux based
 o Fedora based
 o Red Hat Enterprise based
 o Mandrivia based
 o PCLinux OS based
 o OpenSuse based
 o RPM based
 o SLAX based
 o Zenwalk based
 o Slackware based
 o Other

412: This is a list of the 25 most popular linux distros at Distrowatch.
Which of them do you run e-Sword on?

 o Ubuntu
 o Fedora
 o Mint
 o OpenSuse
 o Mandrivia
 o Debian
 o Sabayon
 o Arch
 o Puppy
 o PCLinux OS
 o Slackware
 o FreeBSD
 o Mepis
 o CentOS
 o Tiny Core
 o Gentoo
 o Ultimate
 o Kubuntu
 o Zenwalk
 o Vector
 o Koppix
 o PC-BSD
 o DreamLinux
 o Sidux
 o Crunchbang

413: Which of the following BSD distros do you use e-Sword on?

 o FreeBSD
 o OpenBSD
 o NetBSD
 o Dragonfly BSD
 o 386BSD
 o Tru64 UNIX
 o PC-BSD
 o Desktop BSD
 o Closed BSD
 o FreeSBIE
 o Frenzy
 o MirOS BSD
 o ekko BSD
 o MicroBSD
 o OliveBSD
 o Gentoo/FreeBSD  | Gentoo OpenBSD | Gentoo NetBSD
 o Debian GNU/kFreeBSD | Debian Gnu/NetBSD | 
 o Midnight BSD
 o pfsense
 o Paxym-FreeBSD for Octeon/Mips
 o Macintosh OS X
 o DarWin
 o Other

414:  Which version of Mac OS X do you use e-Sword on?

 o Mac OS X Public Beta "Kodiak"
 o Mac OS X v10.0 "Cheetah"
 o Mac OS X v10.1 "Puma"
 o Mac OS X v10.2 "Jaguar"
 o Mac OS X v10.3 "Panther"
 o Mac OS X v10.4 "Tiger"
 o Mac OS X v10.5 "Leopard"
 o Mac OS X v10.6 "Snow Leopard"
 o Macintosh OS X 10.4.1 Developer Edition (AKA Macintosh for Intel)
 o Macintosh OS X Server Standard 10.5 Leopard 
 o Macintosh OS X Server Workgroup 10.5 Leopard 
 o Macintosh OS X Server Advanced 10.5 Leopard 
 o Macintosh OS X Server 10.4 Tiger 
 o Macintosh OS X 1 Server 0.3 Panther
 o Macintosh OS X Server 10.2 Jaguar 
 o Macintosh OS X Server 10.1 Puma 
 o Macintosh OS X Server 10.0 Cheetah 
 o Rhapsody DR-1 (Mac 5.0) 
 o Rhapsody DR 2 (Mac 5.1) 
 o Macintosh OS X Server 1.0 (Mac 5.3) 
 o Macintosh OS X Server 1.2 (Mac 5.6) 
 o Mac OS X v10.6 Server Snow Leopard
 o Mac OS 9
 o Mac OS 8
 o Other version of Macintosh Operating System


415: Which version of OS/2 do you use e-Sword on

 o OS/2 Warp 2.0
 o OS/2 Warp 2.1
 o OS/2 Warp 3.0
 o OS/2 Warp 4.0
 o OS/2 Warp 4.5
 o OS/2 Warp 5.0
 o eComStation 1.0
 o eComStation 1.1
 o eComStation 1.2
 o eComStation 1.2R
 o eComStation 2.0 RC5
 o eComStation 2.0 RC6
 o eComStation 2.0 RC7

416: Which version of Ubuntu do you use with e-Sword?

 o Ubuntu 9.10
 o Ubuntu 9.04
 o Ubuntu 8.10
 o Ubuntu 8.04
 o Ubuntu 7.10
 o Ubuntu 7.04
 o Ubuntu 6.10
 o Ubuntu Christian edition 6.0 (beta)
 o Ubuntu Christian edition 5.0 server
 o Ubuntu Christian edition 5.0
 o Ubuntu Christian edition 4.0
 o Kubuntu 9.10
 o Kubuntu 9.04
 o Kubuntu 8.10
 o Kubuntu 8.04
 o Kubuntu 7.10
 o Kubuntu 7.04
 o Kubuntu 6.10
 o Ichthux 9.10
 o Ichthux 8.10
 o Xubuntu 9.10
 o Xubuntu 9.04
 o Xubuntu 8.10
 o Other Ubuntu version
 o Other Ubuntu Variant

417: Do use a 32 bit or 64 bit operating system for e-Sword?

 o 16 bit operating system
 o 32 bit operating system
 o 64 bit operating system

418: Which version of Windows 2008 do you use e-Sword on?

 o 32 bit Windows Server 2008 Standard 
 o 32 bit Windows Server 2008 Enterprise
 o 32 bit Windows Server 2008 Datacenter
 o 32 bit Windows Web Server 2008
 o 32 bit Windows Storage Server 2008
 o 64 bit Windows Server 2008 Standard 
 o 64 bit Windows Server 2008 Enterprise
 o 64 bit Windows Server 2008 Datacenter
 o 64 bit Windows Web Server 2008
 o 64 bit Windows Storage Server 2008
 o 64 bit Windows Small Business Server 2008 
 o Itanium 2 Windows Server 2008 R2
 o Windows Server 2008 for Itanium-based Systems
 o 64 bit Windows Server 2008 Foundation 
 o 64 bit Windows Server 2008 R2
 o 64 bit Windows Essential Business Server 2008 Premium Edition
 o 64 bit Windows Essential Business Server 2008 Standard Edition

419: Which version of Windows Server 2003 do you use e-Sword on?

 o 32 bit Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition 
 o 32 bit Windows Server 2003 R2 
 o 32 bit Windows 2003 Small Business Server Standard Edition
 o 32 bit Windows 2003 Small Business Server Enterprise Edition
 o 32 bit Windows 2003 Web Server
 o 32 bit Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition
 o 32 bit Windows Home Server
 o 32 bit Windows Storage Server 2003
 o 32 bit Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 Express Edition
 o 32 bit Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 Workgroup Edition
 o 32 bit Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 Standard Edition
 o 32 bit Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition
 o 64 bit Windows Home Server
 o 64 bit Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition 
 o 64 bit Windows Server 2003 R2 
 o 64 bit Windows 2003 Small Business Server Standard Edition
 o 64 bit Windows 2003 Web Server
 o 64 bit Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition
 o 64 bit Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003
 o 64 bit Windows Storage Server 2003
 o 64 bit Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 Express Edition
 o 64 bit Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 Workgroup Edition
 o 64 bit Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 Standard Edition
 o 64 bit Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition


All polls have a closing date of 21 march 2010.
All polls allow one item only to be selected.

Currently, there are 7318 subscribers to the eSword@yahoogroups list.
Hopefully, at least 1% will vote in at least question # 400.

If I had a million dollars (to grow Logos Bible Software)...

Quoting Bob Pritchard:

• Keyboarding the entire Patrologia Graeca
• Hiring 10 more software developers for one year
• Hiring 15 new sales representatives for one year
• Mailing $50 to every seminary student in North America (20,000) to entice them to watch our introductory video
• Building Logos compatible editions of 300 public domain books and giving them away to get people on our platform
• Mailing $2 to every pastor in North America (500,000) to entice them to watch our introductory video

Paying people to view a video is a waste of money.

Spend some of the money to create a video, and let the fans of the program distribute it. (108 fans on Facebook --- Students using Logos Libronix Bible Software. 70 fans at Logos Libronix Digital Library System Free PBB Books - personal book builder. 4,998 fans at Logos Bible Software. Remember Guy Kawasaki's message, when he worked for Apple.){Those were the numbers when I wrote my original draft. Some of them have increased significantly.}

Discounts tend to imply that the product is not worth the MSRP. When Sears switched to "everyday low prices", their revenue plummeted, because people were waiting for the non-existent sales. The virtue of discounts, is that people can think that they are getting a bargain. A not uncommon sales strategy is to determine the break even price, double that, then offer the product at a 25% discount. { The group discount that Logos offers is akin to the discount that a wholesaler would receive. That groups don't charge the individual members MSRP is a matter between the group and the individual, not Logos and the individual. As far as the gratis distribution of Logos goes, that is akin to the practice of virtually every retailer, wholesalers, and manufacturer --- some product is given away gratis to build goodwill, market share, or just sommor. }

The strength of Logos is in its resources. Specifically, Academic resources. Nobody is going to buy Logos just because it is the only Bible Study Program that offers Patrologia Graeca.
What the potential user will do, is add that resource to the list of other resources, when deciding between Libronix, Accordance, and BibleWorks. (For seminary, those are the only serious choices. The SBL Bible Software Shootout --- http://mobileministrymagazine.com/2009/11/report-on-bible-software-shootout-via.html --- provided a pretty convincing example of why those are the only suitable choices. )

On the face of it, adding 300 public domain resources sounds like a good idea. More to the point, adding one or two programmers to do nothing but convert content from Project Gutenburg, CCEL, The Internet Sacred Text Archive, etc sounds like a very good idea. Alternatively, adding the ability to integrate ePub, Mobi, or other common eBook format to Libronix would also add some useful functionality.

It probably would be far more useful to create tools that could be provided to publishers, that would automatically, and correctly convert their ePub, Mobi, PDF, or other e-Book reader formatted material into a format the Libronix reads. Tools whose quality output was such, that they would have no objections to commercially selling it. (Take a look at the results of the generic multi-output e-book generators and the results that they produce.)

However, the big question is: "What does this do for your core user --- the Seminary student and the Academic Professional?"

At this point in time: "Very Little".

Matt W's suggestion on lobbying Seminary professors and the like to submit a list the books on their required list, reading list, and supplementary lists, and converting that content to Libronix format focuses on the core strength of Libronix.

That enhances the value of Libronix for your core user.

Adding sales reps always sounds like an easy way to increase revenue --- especially if they a re paid straight commission. The eternal question is what functionality do sales reps add to your core products that five thousand fans on Facebook don't have? And don't forget that there are at least that many, if not more followers on Twitter. Go to any of the social networking sites, and you will find Libronix users. That is the real sales force. Not the individual that is hired to pitch the product at every church, seminary, and Bible Study group in the city.

If you know what you'll use those programmers for, hiring ten of them might be a good idea.
* Logos 4 for Mac to be functionally equal to Logos 4 for Windows;
* Logos 4 for Android;
* Logos 4 for Windows to run on *Nix using CrossOver or WINE. Obviously, it would be far better to have Logos 4 for Windows, but I realize that even at the current fifteen to twenty five percent market share, Linux does not appear to have the commercial software viability that is required for that big of an investment.

>To the best of my knowledge, e-Sword is one guy, Rick Meyers, who works at home.

Phil Stoner runs eStudySource, which is the commercial distribution point for e-Sword.
There are a couple of others who are periodically contracted to do specific things. That, essentially, is the core of those who are paid for e-Sword support, research, and development.

Everything else is run by volunteers, who are also users.

There probably are closer to 1.5 million users of e-Sword, than 9 million users. (There were 2.5 million downloads of e-Sword in 2009, but a number of them were people downloading it two, or more times. ) e-Sword-users.org currently (20100902 ) has 13 168 registered members. The eSword list currently (20100902 ) has 7 364 subscribers.

>Of course, nine million users sounds great. So we do keep experimenting with free low end stuff. http://bible.logos.com is free, and the Logos iPhone app offers 31 books simply for registering. In three months our iPhone app has had a number of downloads equal to three years of new customers for our desktop software. And some of those people have bought Logos 4. But the total sales volume of new users found via the free iPhone app hasn't yet covered our iPhone development costs.

The issue that Libronix is facing here is that good enough is the mortal enemy of perfect. For most people, e-Sword is good enough. But it goes deeper than that. Gratis undermines non-gratis. By focusing on the low-end market, you end up in a race to the bottom, if the competition is "good enough", and gratis. Furthermore, gratis does not pay the bills.

Giving the iPhone Logos app away makes sense, as a defensive measure. People with Mac OS X or Windows systems will be more likely to use Libronix on their desktop, than one of the other programs. (The ability to synchronize between desktop and mobile device is increasingly critical, even though people are not doing so. )

Peter Li suggested using the money to produce a technical solution for Bible Study Software developers to be able to "come up with a business and technical solution for the various major Bible software to work more seamlessly, and lessen the need for users to invest in overlapping resources from different Bible software vendors?"

That was tried with STEP: Standard Template for Electronic Publishing. AFAIK, Libronix didn't participate in that project. At BibleTech2008, Craig Reardon outlined some of the problems that STEP had.

There are three major issues that need to be considered here:
* What presentation markup language is to be used;
* Flat file, database, or a combination of the two;
* How cross platform are the resulting specifications?

The Crosswire Bible Society uses a flat file for its resources.
e-Sword and Libronix use a database for its resources.

Olive Tree uses their own presentation markup language in their resources;
e-Sword uses either RTF or no presentation markup language in its resources;
In the Beginning was the Word uses HTML for its presentation markup language.
If I understood the talk correctly, Bible Navigator X on the X-Box does not use a markup language.

OSIS and ThML are two proposed file formats/presentation markup specifications that could be used. The essay What a Biblical Scholar should know, at ( http://bibleandtech.blogspot.com/2007/12/html-xml-osis-xsem-thml-usfm-what.html ), covers it partially. Do we need an Open Publishing Standard or What at ( http://www.bsreview.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=71 ) is a slightly different take on the subject. Michael Johnson's essay Bible File Encoding at http://ebible.org/usfx/Bible-encoding.htm and remains that only comprehensive general purpose essay. The wiki page File Formats ( http://www.crosswire.org/wiki/File_Formats ) covers file formats from the perspective of The Crosswire Bible Society.

I'll won't rant about database engines here, other than to say I'm extremely glad the e-Sword switched to SQLite.

From the POV of the other Bible Software Developers, why should they switch to LLS, or some variant thereof? From the POV of Libronix, why should they have to share the details of the LLS structure to their competitors? [For all practical purposes, there is only one organization whose software has a chance of taking over, and dominating Libronix --- if it sets its mind to doing so. It is not Oak Tree Software. Nor is it e-Sword.]

Peter Li's suggestion about going to the cloud sounds nice. Just explain how you do Bible study on your desktop when there is no cloud? The Crosswire Bible Society solution is for that problem is for user to setup their own Bible Study Software cloud, if they don't want to use a front end with the content locally installed.

Bible Study Tools

In reading about operation Bare Your Bookshelf, I was reminded of Percy Marongo. His only "aid" for sermon preparation was a well used Bible, that had no textual apparatus, cross-references, or anything similar.

I have conflicting thoughts about additional resources. Yes, they help in understanding the text. On the flip side, they can get in the way of reading the texts, and studying it deeply.

Nave's Topical Bible, Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge, and the like greatly aid in locating passages that are related to a specific topic --- if the indexer has included them.

Concordances are useful in knowing where a specific word is used.

At what point do additional resources become more of a hindrance, than a help?

Does Logos 4 Portfolio Edition increase your understanding of the Bible, and help you produce sermons that are ten times better than if one uses Libronox4 Original Languages Edition?

The concept behind Operation Bare Your Bookshelf is a good one. If you bought any of the US$300, or more Bible Study Software programs, you probably have a digital library that greater in size than that found in a typical third world seminary fifty years ago.


My concern is that the preaching won't be from the heart, but from the latest or second latest craze to run through churches in the United States. The Prayer of Jezebel, instead of The Gospel.

Pocket e-Sword 3.2

Pocket e-Sword 3.2 was officially released a couple of days ago.

Along with its release came two announcements:

• Development of Pocket e-Sword has ceased;
• Official support of Pocket e-Sword has ended;

The good news is that Pocket e-Sword will remain available for users to download, for the foreseeable future.

The commercially distributed resources for Pocket e-Sword will also be available. The caveat is that one might have to specifically ask for them. (All known commercially distributed resources will be listed at http://e-sword-users.org/users/node/884. If/when necessary, instructions on who to contact, to purchase the resource, will also be provided in the resource description.

e-Sword-users.org will continue to provide/distribute Pocket e-Sword resources.

The Pocket e-Sword list ( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pocket_esword/ ) will continue to provide support for Pocket e-Sword.

The Pocket e-Sword forum at e-Sword-users.org will continue to provide support for Pocket e-Sword.

FTC mandated disclosure

ack on 1 December 2009, the new FTC _Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising_ went into effect. I've read the regulations, and the FTC examples. You can read the regulations at http://www.ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005endorsementguidesfnnotice.pdf Whilst I don't think that I fall into them, the rules have so many nooks and crannies in them, that I suspect that even if one purchased everything by oneself, and rejected all gifts of any and all kind, one would fall afoul of the rules. Read http://overlawyered.com/2009/10/required-ftc-blogger-disclosure/ for one lawyer's opinion of the regulations. Read http://www.edrants.com/interview-with-the-ftcs-richard-cleland/ for an explanation by the FTC of why the rules are overreaching and unreasonable. Read http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10368064-36.html for the FTC explaining why they are patently absurd in their enforcement of their rules. Since 1 January 2009, no organization has provided me with any financial compensation Since I am an administrator here, I have access to most (all?) resources uploaded to e-sword-users, for redistribution from e-sword-users, prior to their release to the general public. (I don't have a list of those resources, nor a list of what I have downloaded.) I received a copy of RSVA.bblx, from Rick Meyers, several months prior to the release of e-Sword 9.0.1. In June 2009, I received a copy of BibleStudy 2009, for beta testing. [This requires .NET, which doesn't run on *Nix, I wasn't able to do much beta testing of it. :( I did do some testing on a Win XP system. Ben Kruger has given me a copy of most (all?) premium editions of BeST, for the last couple of years. In January 2009, I was anonymously given a computer and printer to create e-Sword resources with. (Compaq Deskpro pentium. 96 MB RAM. Win 95 for the OS. CD drive.)(HP LaserJet 6L) I wiped the drive, with the intent of reinstalling Win95. I haven't been able to reinstall Win95, or any other OS on that system. :( At BibleTech 2009, I was given a T Shirt and a copy of _Bible Study_ magazine. This is a quarterly publication from Logos.(I don't remember if they gave out any other freebies.) I don't have a list of books I've checked out of the public library since 1 January 2009. (Seriously, the FTC guidelines are so badly written, that failure to do so can be construed as a breach of them. Only until fifty or so court cases have been ruled on,can a reasonable idea of how overarching and unreasonable the FTC intends to be.) I currently have checked out: * Jennifer Roberson: _Deepwood_ ISBN 13:978-0-7564-0482-6 [I checked out _Karavans_, which is the first volume of the series, earlier this year.] * Michael Dubruiel: _The Power of the Cross_ ISBN: 1-59276-100-3 Earlier this year an individual, whose name I've forgotten, gave me: * Willa Cather: _Death Comes for the Archbishop_ ISBN 0-679-72889-9 * Raymond E Brown: _The Community of the Beloved Disciple_ ISBN 0-8091-2174-3 * Ben Patterson: _Waiting: Finding Hope When GOD Seems Silent_ ISBN0-8308-1727-1 * Raymond E Brown: _The Churches The Apostles Left Behind_ ISBN0-8091-2611-7 (2 copies!) * Madeleine L Engle _Glimpses of Grace: Daily Thoughts and Reflections_ ISBN 0-06-065281-0 * Thomas Merton _No Man Is An Island_ ISBN 0-15-665962-X * Lazarus & Lazarus: _The 60 Second Shrink_ ISBN0-7607-1623-4 * Thomas P McDonnell (editor): _A Thomas Merton Reader_ ISBN 0-385-03292-7 * C K Barrett: _Paul: An Introduction to His Thought_ ISBN 0-664-25541-8 * John Domininic Crossan: _Jesus: A Revolutionary_ ISBN 0-06-061661-X * Gerald L Sittser: _A Grace Disguised_ ISBN 0-310-21931-0 * Erich Fromm: _The Revolution of Hope_ Bantam Books 1968. No ISBN * Marilynne Robinson: _Gilead_ ISBN 0-374-15389-2 * Thomas Merton _The Ascent to Truth_ ISBN 0-15-608682-4 * Fisher &Ury: _Getting to YES: Negotiating Agreement without giving in. ISBN 0-14-006534-2 * St Anselm: _Proslogium, Monologium, Cur Deus Homo, Gaunilo's In Behalf of the Fool._ ISBN 0-87548-109-4 * Marcus J Borg: _Jesus in Concemporary Scholarship_ ISBN 1-56338-094-3 * Marcus J Borg: _Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time_ ISBN 0-06-060917-6 From Pastor Jonathon Micheel: * Jonathon A Micheel & Joel Cordes: _Grace By Grace: A Bible Information Class_ No ISBN. Prince of Peace Evangelical Lutheran Church and School: 2008 * I'm not sure, but I might have also obtained a copy of _The Small Catechism of Martin Luther_ from him. From Google Books: * So many public domain works, that I can no longer download anything from there. From Living Stream Ministry: * _The New Testament: Recovery Version_. * I think I also received one or two other pamphlets from them, but I don't have either them, or the titles handy.