I like free stuff.
Trainers, cheats, etc. are historically free, so I guess I just sort of got used to that.
Open Office is free, and darn decent too. The world needs more free stuff.
As for only 512 mb, I can sympathize. I found that BFME 2 ran MUCH better with 2 gig of RAM instead of 1 gig of RAM on my 2 systems, especially during long battles. It would shut down much faster too, as it did not have to clear out the cache and swap memory contents when I exited the game.
Both my main machines have 2 gig now, and I'm happier for it. I wish everyone could upgrade cheaply to 2 gig on their XP machines. I'm not into Vista - runs too slow on the same hardware - so for now, I hope 2 gig will suffice.